The Monk,               
The Inscription,
          And The Key.

An adventure you will never forget!!

By: Chris T December 10, 1995
Table of Contents

1. The frame
2. The key
3. Surfing on the Internet
4. A friend in Sweden
5. The house on the hill
6. The monk
7. The tomb and the hidden cave
8. The treasure
1
The Frame

     I was sitting on the bench waiting for bus number# 7 to Chicago, when a man that works for the local newspaper came and sat down beside me. The man started talking about how he was going to get fired unless he came up with a story that was thrilling. He came to wait for a bus to go to a different city where there was a lot more action. Then I thought to myself and replied, "I have a good story that's also true." I turned to the reporter, "let me tell you a real story." It all began five years ago when I was walking over to a yard sale near my house. I searched around and the only thing I could come up with was a flowered painting with a beautiful frame. I went home to remove the painting. On my way, seven kids with nothing to do tried to steal my painting. They ran past kicking it and hitting it causing it to tear. The rest of the walk I was limping with the tattered painting in my right hand. I kept searching the roads in case those kids came after me again. When I got to my house, I found my mom sitting on the porch knitting a sweater for Christmas that was only two weeks away. Then she asked me about the painting. I told her that I liked the frame and I was going to use it for a present. I walked, stomping my feet as I went, causing the floor to shake. I went down to the dark basement and started taking the picture out of its frame when my mom called me to dinner.

     Supper was boring as usual. My parents were fighting over the mortgage and silly things like that. I just sat there alone spooning at all my food and scraping it on the floor for the dog. He never ate it but it was worth a try. All this time I was thinking about the painting and what I was going to do with the frame. I could not go back down to fix the painting after supper because I had to do the dishes and then go to bed. Tomorrow was not a school day and I was excited that I woke up at four in the morning to a bell that rings at the town hall for early birds like me. I ran down stairs to the kitchen and found a note on the door of the pantry that said:

Dear honey,
     Be back soon just went shopping. Here are a few dollars for breakfast if you can not find anything to eat for breakfast in the pantry.

     I opened the pantry door and looked inside but found nothing but useless things like noodles, flower, and sugar. Then I went to the refrigerator and looked inside that and found that there were some eggs. I cooked the eggs with cheese and bacon until they were perfect. I sat down at the table with a glass of fresh orange juice and started to eat. I was still hungry so I borrowed a few dollars to go to McDonalds. There I had a couple breakfast burrito, with five hash browns and three glasses to drink of pink lemon aid. I staggered home and I went directly down to the basement. I took the picture frame and started to cut out the picture. When I was done I found a very small box on the side of the frame. It was tiny, but put together well. I opened the box and was amazed at what I saw........

2
The Key

     In the box contained a key that was dulled around the edges and had a cross carved on it. The cross was all down the side of the key in the most creative form. I examined the key wondering about every door it could open. I sat for hours looking at the key. I did not know the secret of the key just then or the great wealth it was going to bring me. I said this to the man listening cautiously. He was tall, slightly thin, with a soup-bowl haircut. He had European skin that had few wrinkles but many freckles. He wrote down the high points of the story on a pad of paper as I spoke (I returned to the story). I was walking slowly up the stairs when my mom came home. I began to race up the stairs like I never did before. I crashed into my room making my mom call to me . She yelled, "Come down here I have a present." I ran to my sock drawer and hid the key in my only pair of black socks. I ran down to the kitchen brutally awaiting my present. She told me to wait for a minute so I just stood there. When she came back she had nothing in her hands so I asked her, "Where is my present"?

     "Follow me she said."

     I followed her from the foyer, to the living room that we never use. The room was decorated with a silver background and red and blue lightning bolts all over the walls. Then my mom told me to open the door up all the way, so I did not bother to look in until I had the door open all the way. I looked in and screamed because I was so excited. It was a brand new computer. The new computer was a Pentium 100 megacycle - 32 meg ram - 2gig hard drive and a - 28.8 modem computer. It was the best thing to me on the face of the Earth.

     "You can keep it and the room to yourself if you keep it clean!"

     I ran into the room at almost light speed, and then I asked my mom "what's on this computer?"

     She said "The Internet." so I turned on the computer and started on a homepage. Later at school, I learned that you could find many things on the World Wide Web. When I got home from school, I started using the computer and then got this a crazy idea!

3
Surfing on the Internet

     My crazy idea was that I could go on the internet and find information on old keys. It was a shocking idea but it did not seem likely. But I tried to do it any way. First, I used a piece of software called Trumpet Winsock to dial into the Internet. When I finished that I went to use the NetscapeTM to my Browser homepage. I used a web search engine and started searching using keywords like old keys or lost keys. It brought up all kinds of things like Key West, key resorts, and instrument keys. At the very bottom there was a one line entry on keys that looked like this:

Metal keys-ancient keys press/click here to download picture
File:-)... estimated time 5 minutes

     That shocked me but I didn't care how much time I had to waste waiting for the picture to appear on the screen. It started to come into view and I waited in excitement for it to fully appear. But before it could finish the computer shut off, and my sister laughed and ran away. I ran after her yelling at her and trying to get to her and stop. When I caught up to her I tripped on a toy that she left on the floor of her room. I landed with a thud and got even angrier.

     When I got up she was already gone.

     "I bet she went right to mom so I won't hit her" I said to myself.

     When I actually felt like getting up, it was supper and I got called to eat. For supper, I had meatloaf with salad on the side. After supper, I went back to the computer and I got back + where I was when the computer shut down. I went to my room to get the key then I brought it to the computer and compared it to several different picture keys on the setup until one matched. Also, the one that matched had the cross carved on it too! Below the picture of the key, there was a box that supplied information about the key. The information said that the key was made of a unknown substance used only by god to send objects to the saints to prove that he was real. Also in that information it said that you could get more information if you go to the museum in Italy. I sat in my seat and sighed. I exited the program and then pulled up the screen for Italy and found that I could pen pal with another child living there. I decided not to do that because it would take to long so I found some information about the keys through another internet source that said:

     "The sacred box was moved to Sweden just days ago where it will be left alone until the person with the right key shows up and the reward will be what is in the box".

     For some reason the reward sounded pretty good the only problem was how would I get there. That question stalked me for a while......

4
A Friend in Sweden

     I started thinking about the pen pal system. What if I could pen pal a child in a Swedish town? The pal could go check out everything that needed to be done and we would split the treasure. I started typing the code in to get to the Swedish pen pal system. Two days later the kid I got set up with was really nice and liked all my favorite sports we spent a long time talking together. The next day I found out the kid was a girl and I decided it would do for my plan for now. Little did I know she would change my life forever!!!!!

She e-mailed her name and address with a message like this:

name: Christine Mahanoney
address: 645 hallway ST.. (028634) Sweden
message: dear friend,

     I got information on the key that you wanted. I traced the key back to the hill house. The house is supposed to be haunted, but that is what the tour says. I took a booklet from there and here is what it says: dear guests, the main story of this mansion is that a family moved to and rented the house years ago to keep from spending too much money. From that result they lost something that remained in the family for centuries without being lost except for now. Here is the story of what happened:

     The family that were living there was called the Lindens and they had two kids a five year old and a twelve year old boy. Two weeks later in the night the house was filled with screams and no one saw them after. Not alive anyway!!!! Also what was found out was that the key that was running in the family was gone along with a flowered painting worth twenty thousand dollars and the frame is worth thirty nine thousand. The reason to believe that the key and picture were stolen were that the painting was made by Michelangelo and the frame made by Leonardo. I looked up nodding my head with displeasure and excitement at the same time, it just was so stupid to cut that picture out. I got up and started out the room but in that instant I saw something amazing. It was hard to read so I looked at what it said. At that moment I fainted.............................

5
The House on the Hill

     I woke up at noon and remembered what I saw. The sentence stuck into my mind like it was actually something but it was not anything at all but the words saying that the house that was haunted was for sale. I got up and started to make a plan on how to get to the house. The thought of sneaking out was bad but and other idea sounded fine....

     The idea was that I might be able to get exchanged and sent to the Mahanoney family for some time for language lessons. I went to my mom and I asked for the permission she said that I did need to learn another language for the 8th grade so she called into the corp. For answers. One week later the plane was ready to take me to Sweden for the one month of pure Swedish language. I got on the plane and I went to the assigned seat and next to me was a young boy that looked like he just got impaled. He did not talk to me the whole way he just sat there on the seat staring out the window the whole ride and I mean it THE WHOLE TRIP!!!!!!!!!

     When the plane landed he was gone and I went on with my business as a normal person. Outside on the side walk were my new family the mother the father and Christine. They brought me to their car and then took off. In about a half hour we were home and

     I was unpacking. We ate and then went to bed, but because they had no extra rooms, I had to sleep on Christine's floor. We stayed up telling different stories, and she taught me a scary story in Swedish. I told her one of mine, but we went to bed quickly afterwards.

6
The Monk

     I looked up at the door and saw a man that wore a robe and looked brown but in the dark of night I was not sure... Christine persisted to tug in my shirt but in my curiosity I approached the robed man carefully but then, Christine with all her might pulled me away. She then let me go and then I turned around and saw that the man was gone so I started running towards the opening of the house. When I got there I took a step inside and saw a fire place with a fire blazing. I walked into the warm room and saw that man at the door, the man appeared to be a monk I approached him slowly and carefully and he started to talk. The man said the following:

     I know why you are here and I have brought here the map and box you need to find your true life, I do this for you and for the family that once lived here. This box contains the password needed to break the code of the secret chamber. This map will lead you to the tomb or chamber of the family.

     Then the fire burnt out he was nowhere to be seen. Christine came running in and brought me back to the house and when I turned on the light I saw why she brought me back so soon. He face was cut and was in need of stitches. We got her to the hospital with the help of her parents. A few hours later we were back at home playing the game Chinese checkers, when my eye caught hold of a box and a map hidden under Christine's bed.

7
The Tomb and the Hidden Cave

     I reached out and got the box and map and then studied the details outlined on the box. The designs were made up of a beach and a cave. Inside was a dragon with a person next to it with a sword. Then I set the box down and took out the map it had also a beach and a cave carved on it but inside there was a picture of ME and in my hands was a key. I looked more towards the inside of the cave and I saw a picture of Christine with a skull in her hands. My heart was beating and racing very fast I felt fear sweep over me and a quick feeling of adventure! "So this is my future" I said out loud. Then I asked Christine if there were any beaches around here and she said yes so I planned to go to the cave and find out my true life! The next moment I was walking to the beach with the gear we brought to hillhouse. The walk was bumpy and there were no paved roads in that part of town. She led me down to a part of turf surrounded with fresh green grass and beautiful colors of limestone. I looked over at the edge of the turf where the land went down and the beach. Because it went straight down Christine had to bring me over to another spot where we could climb down to the beach. When I got to the bottom I searched around and then saw it, it was the cave and it was huge. I started to run over when I heard Christine call so I stopped. She came over to me and told me that she heard that people that went in never came out. I said that it can't be true but in the depths of my fear it was true to me. Then on I walked slowly toward the cave and I started in but there were bones all over the floor. I looked all around and there was seaweed and fish and there was a smell that was out of this world!

     The smell was like rotting bodies and seaweed, a dead skunk that got ran over. I took out the key from my pocket and looked at the bones. Standing there with a skull in her hands, was Christine. I remembered the picture on the box and I started running deeper into the cave until I hit a dead wall and saw a little hole in the side of the stone wall I also noticed that the wall was creased with a line meaning that the wall could be opened. Christine came up to me with a worried expression on her face I could see that she wanted "out" but I placed the key in the hole anyway the door slowly opened. The room inside was filled with a table and a person at each chair. As we approached, the bodies seemed to be coming filled with life again. When we were in, the people were alive and approaching us with glee. They came up to us and said that behide the door was our reward. They gave me a key to trade with the key I already had. The key that they gave me could open and close the door of our property. I went to the door and placed the key inside the hole and the door creaked open. Before I went in, I read the inscription on the door, and this is what it said:

     Your true life will be found in the future but if you wait you'll find out when you are ready. This is from the Monk you met before

     PS. The future lies behind this door...

     I opened the door and was blinded by the light for a second and when I could see I could see it clearly!!

8
The Treasure

     In the amazing room was tons of gems, gold, and fine jewelry. I was rich! I found my true life. This story happened around the age of twelve and now I am twenty. I told the man on the bench that my future was now certain and I was on my way to the church to marry Christine the girl that helped me on my exploration...........................................