The Golden Key
June, 2019:
London, our six-year-old daughter, already loves to write. One day this past school year, she was given a writing exercise in her classroom where the kids were told to write a short, one-page story without any assistance or provided ideas.
That day, after school, she didn’t say anything about it to me or her mom. But at the end of the school year, when we got the stack of in-class work sent home for us to keep, we came across this little story she’d written—and were just blown away! Later, she built on the story and made it into a book that we submitted to the “Young Writers” competition for the school—and made runner up!
Part 1: The Woodcutter
Once upon a time, I was sitting on a log. I heard the birds chirping. And I felt the soft breeze. And then, I heard nature….
But when I was about to sing, I heard a ting in the woods. It was like a key hitting something! I went into the woods to investigate, but I didn't see anything.
The next day, I heard the sound again. I found a track leading to a bridge. I went over the bridge.
Then, in front of me, there was a lot of big, giant grass. I picked up a stick, and cut through the grass.
When I got through the grass, I saw a human cutting wood.
"Why are you cutting wood?" I asked him.
"I am trying to find my magic key,” he said. “I heard a ‘ting' when I was on a log."
"Me too!" I said.
I went over another bridge, and there was a track of X’s. Then, I followed a track of cookies. And then jellybeans.
And then…I found the magic key!
Part 2: The Key
I went back to the woodcutter, but I did not tell him I found the magic key. Instead, I went back home.
When I got back home, I still had the key. But the woodcutter came to my house, and I gave the magic key to him—because I realized that it was his key, not mine.
The woodcutter said to me, “This key is very magical. My mother never told me the magic, and never explained to me anything about it—but that it was very magical.”
“Well let’s go find the magic and learn about the key! It will be an adventure!” I told him.
“Yes! I’ve wanted to learn about the magic key since I was little, but my mother never told me the story,” the woodcutter replied. “So let’s go!”
Part 3: Remembering
“Let’s go eat some oatmeal,” I said. “And pack our things, too, before our adventure.”
The woodcutter ate his oatmeal.
As he was leaving to go pack, I told him, “See you tomorrow, woodcutter, at my house!”
But then I remembered something. “Hey, woodcutter, what’s your name?” I asked him.
“Wes,” he replied.
And he went home.
The next day, Wes came to my house again, just like I’d asked. Then, Wes and I went out the door as we said goodbye to my mommy.
Wes had the key in his backpack. He pulled it out. “Hey London, I remember my mom telling me something now,” he said. “If you tap on this key three times, it will take you to a magical place!”
“That’s cool!” I said. “Is that the only thing that your mom told you about the magic?”
“Yes,” Wes said.
“Let’s do it!”
Part 4: The Portal
As we began walking in the woods, Wes said, “I’m very hungry, do you want to eat some of my chocolate chip cookies? I baked them all by myself.”
“Yes…I love chocolate chip cookies!” I said. “Are you allergic to chocolate?”
“No,” said Wes. “So I’ll have one too!”
While we were eating our cookies, we actually forgot about the magic key!
After I remembered, I asked, “Do you wanna tap on the key three times and see what magical place it takes us to?”
“Yes, I would love to!” said Wes.
So we tapped on the key three times.
And then, there was a portal that was pink and blue….
We stepped into the portal, and it took us to…COOKIE LAND!!
(I knew that—because there was a sign that said, “Cookie Land.” And there were lots of cookies, too.)
Not everything in Cookie Land was made out of cookies. Some things were made out of candy. But, most of all, there were cookies. So that’s why they called it “Cookie Land.”
Part 5: Cookie Land
Me and Wes just stood there and looked out at the beautiful view.
There were birds made out of gumdrops. The sky was purple, pink, and blue. There were marshmallow clouds and cotton candy clouds. There were bugs made out of skittles. The grass was made out of green tea ice cream, and there was a waterfall too. The waterfall was fruit punch.
It was amazing there!
Wes said, “This place is amazing! Should we go see more?”
“Yes!” I said.
There was a roller coaster made out of gumdrops and whoppers, and it took us around Cookie Land to see more.
There were cotton candy and marshmallow people on top of the clouds. Wes was surprised that he was in Cookie Land. “I’ve never done this before!” he hollered out to me.
There were tigers and vampires made out of Reeses peanut butter and dark chocolate. But they were friendly.
We kept riding the roller coaster, and I drank my water for a little while because I was so thirsty. I asked the Reeses peanut butter tiger who was driving the roller coaster, “Are there any bathrooms here?”
“Yes, there is one after the roller coaster, just on the left.”
“OK,” I said.
Part 6: Adventures
Wes and I got off the roller coaster and went to the bathroom together. The bathrooms were made out of candy, too. When we were done, me and Wes looked around Cookie Land. “So what should we do?” I asked Wes.
“I don’t know,” Wes said.
“Cookie Land is a big place!” I said.
“What did we find out here about the key?” Wes asked me.
“I don’t know. All we know is this is a magical place,” I said, shrugging. “Maybe we should go further into Cookie Land and see what the key is all about?”
“OK.”
So we walked onto the green tea grass hills, and we went further into Cookie Land.
I sighed, “We can’t find anything more about the key…and it’s a long walk!”
Wes sighed too, “We can’t find any more magic here. And you’re right, it is a long walk.”
“Wait. We did find two magical things already—the pink and blue portal, and now Cookie Land.” Wes rolled his eyes and then wrote the two magical things down in his notebook so he could show it to his mom.
Then, something weird happened. The ground started shaking, and the sky got black. It was like a nightmare! All of the bugs and birds and all of the tigers and vampires went inside their candy houses. They started screaming….
It became a screaming land!
“What is going on!?” I yelled. I was bouncing up and down. I checked every door, putting my ear up to them.
At the last door, I heard someone say, “The earthquake monsters are back, and they’re destroying Cookie Land!”
I turned to Wes. “I just heard them say ‘the earthquake monsters are back’!”
“It’s starting to be an adventure!” said Wes.
“It is, but we have to put away the earthquake monsters now.”
I put my ear up to the same door again. I heard another person say, “The earthquake giants are REALLY big. So if someone goes after them, they’ll probably get squished by their gigantic feet.” Wes heard it too.
My heart started pounding. We went out further into the pitch black sky, and we saw two white eyeballs. “The earthquake giants are coming,” I whispered to Wes.
Wes was looking out into the pitch black sky with his binoculars. “This is cool!” he said.
“Stop playing around, Wes, and look at this!”
“Whoa!” he said.
I looked back at the earth giant, and suddenly everything turned back to normal. I could see the earth giants. They were made out of rocks instead of candy. They were like a hundred feet tall, almost! One was talking to another. I tilted my head to crack my neck, because it was tight.
I looked down at the grass. There were gumdrop rocks, and the earth giants had stepped over them. “Maybe, when the earth giants go over the gumdrop rocks, everything turns back to normal?” I said.
Wes agreed. He said, “Maybe we should go find a lot of gumdrop rocks and build a tower, so the earthquake giants don’t come to Cookie Land anymore.”
“We could build a castle, instead!” I said.
“Ya, so people can live in it and the earth giants can’t go over it!” Wes replied.
I went back to the door that I had put my ear up to. Wes was right behind me. I knocked on the door and a family of tigers opened it.
“Is there a gumdrop garden with lots of gumdrops?” I asked them.
“Yes,” said the daddy tiger. “There are one hundred gardens back behind my house.”
“Great!” I said. I shut the door and went behind their house. The trees were made out of green tea ice cream too, and they were so tiny I had to duck. When I saw all the gardens, I gasped and jumped at the same time. Wes also gasped, but didn’t jump.
There were tiny tiny tiny gumdrops, and big big big gumdrops! I knocked on the back door of the tiger family’s house again. “What do you need now?” the mommy asked.
“How many gumdrops are in each garden?”
“Oh, there are one hundred gumdrops in each one. Or…is it two hundred? Ya, it’s two hundred.”
Part 7: Home
I looked around, and my eyes got wide when I saw all the gardens. Then, I looked inside the tiger family’s window. They wouldn’t mind me picking all the gumdrops…they’re really nice.
I asked Wes, “Can you go get three hundred baskets, so we can put all the gumdrops in there?”
“Ya, but why three hundred?” he asked me.
“So we can take the other baskets home—because I have a farm and I need a basket for the chicken eggs so I don’t have to just use my hands,” I replied.
“OK,” said Wes. He went to another house. “I don’t know what I’ve been doing here, but I’ve been so quiet,” he said to himself. “Hmmm…maybe I should just talk to myself.”
As I was looking around at the gumdrops, I sighed and though, What if Wes takes a long time, and we don’t get enough gumdrops and we don’t build a castle in time?
Meanwhile, Wes walked back up. “Hey, you came back pretty early…why’s that?” I asked him.
“Oh, ummmmmm…” he started to say.
Then I saw a thousand basket at the house next door to us. “Oh, great!” I said. “Let’s pick all the gumdrops now, OK?”
Wes nodded and we finished gathering the gumdrops. Then we went to build the castle.
But as soon as we started building the castle—we were done! I raised my arms up, and we both looked at it .
We were so happy! Everything was back to normal in Cookie Land!
“Now, we need to find out how to get home…yeah…” I said.
“I remember another something that my mom told me!” Wes said excited. “Tap on the key three times again, and it will take you back to the woods! Then we will just have to walk home.”
We tapped on the key three times…and it took us back to the woods! We walked back home to my house.
“That was a great adventure!” I said. “And you know what? The key was the real magic all along.”
“Yeah, it was,” Wes agreed. Wes walked back to his house. We both went to sleep, because it was nighttime, and we dreamed about Cookie Land!
