The Key To the Kingdom by Jeff Dixon

it.”
    She paused for a moment but Hawk knew better than to acknowledge the accuracy of her review. He didn’t have to wait long before she launched back into her dissertation.
    “Even though you aren’t sure what the key is for, you figured you needed to bring it to Walt Disney’s office because there was something inside that the key would open. The only way to get to Walt Disney’s office was to break intothe exhibit, inside a closed attraction, inside a closed theme park. But then I came wandering by leading a private tour and noticed a pair of feet attached to a man hiding in the corner of the office. As I was getting ready to alert security I was able to get a glimpse of the burglar and recognized him as the pastor of the Celebration Community Church, who I was supposed to have a date with tomorrow. Did I miss anything?”
    “The date is at seven o’clock.” Hawk mustered a crooked smile.
    “There is no date,” Kiran fired back. “Your story is the craziest one I’ve heard in a long time. I still haven’t heard a reason I shouldn’t call security.”
    “I know it’s unbelievable, but I don’t think it’s crazy,” Hawk countered. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t mess up anything in the office.”
    “So you were in the office long enough to search it?”
    “Yes, but my key didn’t fit anything. Walt’s desk doesn’t have a locked drawer; there is no drawer in the desk. Nothing else in the office has a lock that the key fits.”
    “You really rifled through the office of Walt Disney?” she repeated in disbelief.
    “I was trying to do what Farren told me to do.”
    “You aren’t sure what he intended for you to do! Somehow I don’t think it involved trespassing in a valuable exhibit.” Kiran dropped her head and looked down at the ground. She drew several deep breaths before she spoke again. “And what did you plan to do after you found whatever you were looking for?”
    “I don’t know,” Hawk said.
    “What did you say?”
    “I didn’t really know what I would do after I was done. The plan was just kind of unfolding as I went.”
    “Unbelievable.” Kiran shook her head.
    “See, I told you it was unbelievable. Not crazy, just unbelievable.”
    Kiran opened her mouth, then closed it. Her hesitation prompted him to fill the silence that hung between them.
    “I promise you I am not crazy. I guess after I was chased out of the Gamble Place and Farren disappeared without any word, I thought that if I figured out what the key meant . . .”
    “You might figure out what happened to your friend?”
    “I guess.” Hawk nodded. “So are you going to call security?”
    Kiran pressed her lips together. “Let me see the key.”
    Hawk produced the key from his pocket and unwrapped it. Kiran watched the care and reverence he used as he released it from its bindings. He held it out between them and she reached out and took it from his grasp. Frowning, she turned it over and studied it.
    “This key looks extremely old,” she stated. “I doubt there was ever anything in Walt’s office that this would have opened. The exhibit contains Walt’s office as it would have looked when he passed away in 1966. Most of what’s in there are recreations of the original pieces. Anything this key might have opened is something that the family would have kept.”
    “Like I told you, according to what Rales said, Walt went back to his studio and the memories of what he had seen at Gamble Place inspired him inamazing ways. After he gave me the key he told me to do the same. A little while ago it made sense to me that it would unlock something in Walt’s office.” Hawk knew his thinking had been more emotional than rational. “Kiran, if you’d been there when Farren gave me the key, you would have seen the look on his face and heard the intensity in his voice when he . . .”
    “When he what?” Kiran responded with less intensity than she had moments ago.
    “When he told me not just to treasure