When I was a kid, I had quite an active imagination. I always had big dreams and fantasies that I was thinking about. There were always special powers I wanted or neat toys that I wished I could have. Some of them were quite fantastic, but quite a few of them were more down to earth. One of my favorite fantasies, for example, was to have a skeleton key that would unlock every door.
I didn’t imagine having skeleton keys because of any nefarious intentions. I think I actually got the idea from some old western movie or pirate flick I was watching. I don’t remember much of the movie now, but I remember the big cast iron lock on the prison cell. The prisoner was the hero of course, and he was trying to escape from a fate worse than death ? or maybe equal to death ? I don’t remember. Anyway, I remember that his survival depended on him being able to wrestle the skeleton key out of the guards hand ? something he did with bluster and ingenuity long since forgotten. Back then, the prison used skeleton locks. As a result, he was able to use that one key to let out every single prisoner.
When I thought about skeleton keys, I used to imagine having to make daring escapes from dark dungeons in impenetrable fortresses. The skeleton key would be the only way that I could possibly escape. Sometimes I would have to rescue other people, but other times I would just imagine being alone, facing against impossible odds. It was really quite thrilling.
You can imagine how disappointed I was when, at the age of 10, my father told me that there was no such thing as a true skeleton key. One of his best friends was a locksmith, and that man explained to me that there was just too much difference between different types locks to make one key that could work for everything. For a while, I dreamed of learning lock picking, but eventually I got over my fantasy and started thinking of other things.
Than one day just a couple of years ago, my father made a surprise visit at my house. He brought a heavy iron key ring with him ? One modeled after the jailers keys in old movies. I thought it was hilarious, but I also found it touching. All these years later, he remembered what I used to think about as a child.
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