The last suitcase was shut, but Jessica still hadn’t found the key. Defeated, she sat down and stared at the dusty chest in hopes that the lock might magically fall open. Perhaps if she focused her mind hard enough. She looked around the attic at her day’s work. The paper bag filled with dusty paper towels that she had used to wipe off the suitcases sat silently next to them. An empty cardboard roll peeked out the top. The dust had been so thick she needed a second roll to complete the job, and the remainder thereof stood half full next to a bottle of cleaner inviting her into action. No, she wouldn’t touch it just yet. Not without the key. The chest would remain in its current state, dusty and unmoved until she found it.

Closing her eyes, she imagined holding it in her hand. A sturdy silver key with rounded bow. Shaped like a three leaf clover, she turned it in her mind and the lockclicked open. She pulled the case down, then unthreaded the shackle, her mind swimming. Lifting the latch, then the dark green lid, she gazed longingly inside. Nothing. It wasn’t empty or full, just a blur of undefined nothingness. Her mind couldn’t imagine a thing there, and yet, it couldn’t imagine emptiness either. Just a haze where the contents remained a complete mystery.

“Jessica! Dinner!”

Her eyes opened with a start and she looked around helplessly before standing up. The lock silently taunting her.   “Coming, Mom!”

After the normal “how was your work” conversation around the table, which Jessica had no interest in whatsoever, her father addressed her.

“So Mom says you’ve been up in the attic all day again. How’d it go up there?” he asked.

“Good,” she said. “I found a dusty old chest behind the suitcases.” Her mother shot a sidelong glance at her father, but he was unmoved.

“That’s nice,” he replied. “Did you find anything interesting in them?”

“I don’t know. It’s locked.”

“No, I mean the suitcases,” he corrected. “I think one of them had old documents of ours which you probably don’t care much about. Another one was filled with photos. The others probably had clothes, but I don’t remember exactly. Did you look through them?”

“A little, Dad. The clothes were kind of musty, though.” Her mood brightening, “I can’t believe Mom used to wear that stuff!”

“They weren’t musty when I wore them, dear.”

“Yeah, but they’re hideous. I can’t believe anyone used to wear that stuff.” Jessica was going to go on but her mind drifted back to the chest. “Dad, do you have the key?”

“The key to what?”

“The big green chest!”

“Don’t worry about the chest, dear,” Mom injected.

“Why not? I want to know what’s in there.”

Mom replied, “Look, it’s just some…”

“I haven’t seen the key in years, Jess,” Dad interrupted. “I don’t have a clue where it is. It wasn’t in any of the suitcases?”

“Not that I found.”

“Hmm, that seems surprising. Well, hopefully it isn’t lost.” Jessica was about to reply when but her father beat her to the punch. “Pass the salt, would you?” And that was the end of that. Jessica knew that any conversation in which Dad asked for the salt when it was right in front of him was over. So she left it at that.

Later that night, after Jessica had gone to bed, her parents sat in the living room with a cup of tea. Dad was happily reading The Economist when Mom looked up. “I told you letting her go through the attic this summer was a mistake,” she began.

“What’s to worry about?” he asked without looking up.

“I’m worried about what she’ll find in that trunk.”

Dad looked up at his wife. “Why, what’s in there?”

“I don’t really know,” she replied. “It just looked like junk to me but I didn’t go through it in detail. I couldn’t. I mean… how could I?”

“No, of course you couldn’t. I wouldn’t expect you to and I don’t hold that against you. Jess is different, though. She’ll be 16 in two months. She’s not a little kid anymore, and she doesn’t have the baggage that you’ve got. I’ve held up my promise for 15 years, but Jess is different. Anything she finds will be completely new to her. Plus, think of all the other things she could be into instead. Letting their kid snoop around at home in the attic all summer is most high school parents’ dream.”

Mom was unconvinced. “Which suitcase is the key in?”

“Why? Are you gonna go find it and throw it away?”

“Maybe.”

“That’s not really fair is it?”

“Which suitcase is it in?”

“I told Jess I didn’t know.”

Mom stood up, “I’m going up there to start looking.”

“It’s much too late to do that now, Hon.”

“I don’t care, I’m going up there.”

Dad followed Mom into the hallway. “Hon, stop.” Mom reached up and pulled the cord to lower the pull down stair. “It’s too late to look for it tonight!” Mom began folding down the stair. “You’ve got to get some sleep!” She put her first foot on the step when he grabbed her arm as she turned to stare at him. Her eyes blazing.

“It’s not in the suitcases,” Dad said quietly, still holding her arm. “You’ll waste your time.”

“Where is it then?” her accusation was barely more than with a whisper.

“I told you I didn’t know.”

“No, you told Jess that, and then you told her to look in the suitcases.”

“Not at all.”

“Maybe not in so many words, but that’s what she heard.”

“I suppose that’s possible. But it’s not in them.”

“You’ve been wanting to open that chest for years, haven’t you? You promised to never open it”

“And I’ve kept that promise!” Now Dad was starting to get angry, too.

“You know exactly where the key is!”

“Even if I do, I haven’t touched it! I have kept my promise. You’re afraid. You’re afraid. That’s really all it is. Irrational fear. There’s probably nothing there. Maybe we’ll have to explain a thing or two, but in the end, it’s just irrational. That’s all it’s ever been.” Mom’s anger softened as she realized he was right, her eyes red. Dad went on. “I just think that if Jess does find the key, she has a right to it. She’s removed from all this.”

“She’ll be hurt.”

“We can’t hide it forever.”

“Why not?”

“Because what’s hidden will always be revealed. I told you that a long time ago.” Mom wasn’t making any effort to climb the stairs anymore, just quietly letting the tears roll down her cheek. Dad embraced her. “C’mon, Hon. Let’s go to bed. It’ll be ok.”