We discover a key in our deceased mother’s dresser drawer, a string tied through the tiny center hole with a tag attached, labeled in cursive: “Who Knows?” We pause from purging yellowing postcards, worn socks, and almost-empty lotion tubes. Was this a message from beyond suggesting that we’ll encounter metaphorical keys, but it’s up to us to discover profound answers, like life's meaning? My fingers fondle the key with its cryptic question written in our mother’s distinct handwriting. I wonder what she meant. Should I keep the key? Then I admit I’ll never know for sure and toss it out.
Liz deBeer's work has appeared in Fictive Dream, Bull, Brevity Blog, and other journals. Her debut chapbook Farewell to Emptiness is available at ThirtyWestPH.com.