The Key

"I was told that if you asked, to ask you what you felt it was worth to you," she said curiously.

"I'll pay whatever price you're asking for it," Miranda responded seriously.

The young girl grinned. "In that case, take it. Dotti said it was priceless, and wasn't to be sold at any price. But...if it was important enough to you, I'd know it. And then I was just supposed to give it to you."

Miranda thanked the young woman, telling her that she still needed and wanted to speak with Dotti as soon as she was available. With that, she left the store with the intention of returning home. As she drove, she once again thought of Brad and the eeriness behind the near identical features of he and 'William'. On impulse, she dialed Brad's number. If anything, he might get a kick out of hearing he had a much older doppelganger that looked a lot like him. Miranda listened to the sound of the phone begin to ring, then suddenly what was obviously an intercept.

"We're sorry...but the number you have reached is no longer in service. If you feel you've reached this number in error, please hang up and dial again."

Miranda stared at her cell-phone rechecking the number, then did dial it. Once again she heard the same intercept, hanging up, rechecking the number, and for a third time dialing it again. Again, with the same result.

"What the fuck's going on here?" Now she was frightened. Whatever was happening made absolutely no sense to her. The weirdness of the entire situation seemed to be spiraling out of control. Shaking uncontrollably, she decided to return home. She knew that Bill would no doubt be already there waiting for her. But more than anything, she wanted to get a hold of Darlene, tell her everything, and see if she could figure anything out. Tonight was Darlene's gym night however, so she knew she wouldn't be there. That call would have to wait until later.

Miranda soon pulled into the driveway of her home. She was surprised to find that Bill's car wasn't there. She'd expected him to be there, but obviously something else had come up. Dashing into the house, she immediately spotted a note he'd left for her on the stationary by the phone.

"I'm home..." the note began. "But I received an urgent message from one of the firm's attorneys. Ray Johnson asked me to come in and see him the moment I got back in. Said that it was very, very important and I was to meet him back at the office as soon as possible. I'll call you later when I have time. Love, Bill."

"Oh great!" she thought, "Now what?"

Miranda actually jumped when the phone rang. For a moment she stood there staring at it.

"Hello?"

"Miranda?"

"Bill?"

"Yes, listen. There's something we need to discuss. Something I've just found out about, and I want you to meet me someplace."

His tone of voice seemed anxious, worried. It wasn't like her husband to sound like this. If anything, there was something bothering him that he obviously didn't wish to discuss with her over the phone.

"Ok," she said softly. "Where? When?"

"In about an hour. I'll give you directions on where to meet me, it shouldn't be that hard to find."

He didn't exactly sound angry, but Bill wasn't normally one to get angry either. Even so, he certainly didn't sound anything like himself.

"Are you ok?" she found herself asking.

There was a momentary pause. "I don't know Miranda, there's a lot I've just learned about, and like I said, some things we need to discuss."

She found herself shaking. "Ok," she said again. "Where is it you want me to meet you?"

She began writing down the addresses that Bill gave her. When he began giving her additional directions beyond that point, Miranda felt herself staring at the note pad, her hand shaking uncontrollably.

"Think you can find it from there?" he asked her.

"Ah sure, I think so yes." Truth was, she knew exactly where it was. The additional directions Bill had just given her where the exact same one's that would take her to the very spot where she'd spent the previous night with Brad!

She hung up the phone visibly shaken, wishing that Darlene was available to talk to. Glancing at her watch, she knew she'd just have enough time to make it up the canyon and meet her husband.

As she drove, she began to worry, talking to herself. She remembered that although Ray Johnson was the firm's corporate attorney, he had also handled one or two of the partner's divorces having specialized in family law years prior to his venturing off into corporate law. Panicked, Miranda wondered if he'd discovered something, which had now led him to this very spot where she had spent most of the night making love to Brad. Then she wondered if somehow Bill had found out that's where he might be, or in fact was. And had gone there to confront him. As images of the two men standing there together either arguing or worse, Miranda felt herself increasing her speed as though arriving there sooner might somehow prevent a disaster from happening.

She glanced into the mirror, the image of her face looking almost pale and ghostly. She caught the image of the tiny silver key still hanging about her neck. Reaching up, she grabbed the chain with her hand and yanked. She felt it give way, tossing it out the window of her car as she reached the canyon road and began the short, yet worried drive towards destiny.

Soon after she reached the turn off heading up the tree-covered road. It looked slightly different, though even now the sun was just beginning to set. Ahead, she saw the opening, and then beyond the clearing. Bill's car was in view, parked approximately where Brad's had been parked the evening before. She pulled along side it. Glancing quickly about, she could see neither man. Relieved to some degree that Brad's car wasn't there. Which either meant he'd already left, or that Bill was perhaps waiting for him just as he was now here waiting for her. Either thought leaving her even more apprehensive and worried.

"Bill?" she called out walking towards the edge of the hilltop where she and Brad had spent the night together. "Bill?" she called out again, this time considerably louder.

"Down here," she finally heard him reply just as she reached the edge, looking down and over towards a rock that appeared to be perched dangerously suspended over a sheer drop of some three hundred feet below him.

"Bill?" she questioned once again, feeling the fear rise within her throat threatening to choke her. "What are you doing down there anyway?" she asked, now concerned that Bill was perhaps contemplating something else. "Please Bill, would you come back up here? That doesn't look all that safe. I'd really feel better if you would!"

She watched as her husband stood, brushing himself off, still wearing a suit and tie that he for obvious reasons cared nothing about having gotten them dirty. For a brief moment, he teetered and Miranda thought him about to jump.

"Bill! For God's sakes Bill! Don't!"

"Don't what?" he said looking back up the hill towards her as he began to climb.

Miranda said nothing, watching his approach, now wondering as he did if Brad was in fact the one lying somewhere down in the canyon below.

"Why...why am I here?" she stuttered, her teeth suddenly beginning to chatter even though it was far from being cold.

Bill drew closer towards her, removing his jacket, throwing it around her shoulders. "I didn't think it was that cold up here," he commented, half-smiling as he spoke.

Miranda was now more confused than ever. "What exactly is going on here Bill? Why did you bring me up here for anyway?"

"Remember I told you that Ray Johnson called me with something important that he needed to talk to me about?"

"Yes."

"Well, as it turns out, apparently I was mentioned in someone's will. But not only that, I was given a sealed letter to read. The instructions very specific that I was to be given the sealed envelope in the presence of my attorney, which just happened to be Ray, which is why it was delivered to his office. Anyway, I read it. And I learned an awful lot about myself. Things you need to hear. Things I needed to hear, which I think has finally helped me come to understand more about myself."

"You're still not making any sense Bill," Miranda interrupted. "What's that got to do with being here? What is it you've learned?" she asked fearfully, assuming that Bill had been given some sort of dossier on her and Brad perhaps, amongst other things. By bringing her all the way up here, he could confront her, forcibly proving to her that he knew all about her romantic evening with Brad. Something she would be unable to deny by actually being here.

And now with Brad's seeming disappearance, she couldn't help but wonder if something hadn't in fact actually happened to him.

"Where's Brad?" she found the courage to ask.

"Brad who?"

Once again she simply stared at him. "Never mind, but...why are we here anyway?" she asked back avoiding his question.

Bill turned sweeping both arms out wide turning around in a complete circle. "You see all this?" he asked.

She looked, and didn't look, focusing her complete attention towards her husband. "Yes...why?"

"Because...we now own it!" he told her. "As far as the eye can see in every direction, it's mine...ours," he added sheepishly, grinning.

Now Miranda was stunned. "What do you mean...it's ours?" she asked.

"Apparently, I had a relative I wasn't even aware of. Until today that is. And she left all this to me, in her will."

"What will? Who left all this to you?"

"My mother."

"But your mother died years ago, just a couple of years after you were born!"

"She wasn't my mother."

"What do you mean she wasn't your mother?"

"Well, not my real mother anyway. You see Miranda, I also discovered that I was adopted."

"Adopted?"

"Yes, apparently so. Which also means, my father...or at least the man I thought was my father, really wasn't. Which explains why he didn't seem to care for me, or love me. Something I have always struggled with. I always wondered as a child why he seemed to feel like I was a burden to him. I figured that having to raise me alone for those first years until he remarried caused him to resent me. But even after he and my stepmother had children, I still felt excluded, alone, unloved. I've never really understood why, until now."

Miranda was speechless, feeling dizzy, light-headed finally sitting down nearly on top of the spot where she and Brad had made love together, though even those thoughts seemed more like a bad dream at the moment.

"Who, who was your mother?" Miranda found herself asking.

"As I found out, her name was Grace. Grace Richards. Apparently she never married, so she was the only one of five daughters who kept her maiden name."

"Do you know who your real father was then?"

Bill nodded his head. "Yes I do. I learned everything. Everything about myself, who I really am, and where I came from Miranda. My father, my real father was killed shortly after going overseas during the war. He never even knew my mother was pregnant. She was forced into giving me up for adoption by her family who refused to help her otherwise unless she did."

"What was his name?"

"William Bradly Edwards," Bill stated. "I guess, I was named after him. Though I always assumed the middle initial in my name 'B' was after my adopted father Robert, or Bob. My stepmother once told me that I'd been named after my father. I merely assumed that that's what the middle initial actually stood for...Bob, though I never really had a middle name. Just the initial. Apparently, they kept the secret of my real middle name away from me so that I wouldn't become suspicious and start asking questions."

Miranda felt sick. Her head was swimming in a sea of confusion and disbelief.

"So your real name is..."

"William Bradly Edwards-Richards-Jones I guess. Though under the circumstances, maybe I should change my last name to just Edwards, or perhaps Richards after my mother. I don't know. I still have a lot to think about and consider. So much has happened to me today. I'm still not sure of who I am, or what I am. But I do know this Miranda. I do love you. I know I haven't shown it to you very much, or been the kind of husband you've expected and hoped for me to be. I think that growing up the way I did had something to do with that. I've been afraid to be loved, to love back in return. I know that we've grown distant and a part from one another these past few years Miranda. And admittedly, it's been all my fault. I've been afraid to allow myself to let go, to let myself feel the emotions that have been so long bottled up inside me. But if you'll forgive me, give me...give us another chance. I promise you, you won't regret it either Miranda. I'll make you the happiest woman alive!"

#

Darlene and Silvia both sat mesmerized as they listened to Miranda's story. The past few days had been a whirlwind of activity. Papers had been finalized leaving nearly ten thousand acres in she and her husband's name. They'd already begun discussing the possibility of building a summer home soon.

"And Bradly? You're other Bradly? Just up and disappeared?" Darlene asked incredulously. "As though he didn't even exist?"

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I honestly don't know Darlene. What I had with him was real, very real. But no one, aside from myself even remembers seeing him. I even went so far as to return to the restaurant as well as the bar. But no one remembers either one of us. It's as though it never even happened, or as though neither of us was even really there. I know it sounds strange, but that's the truth. Even when I finally was able to confront Dotti, Mrs. Cravenstance about it, she only smiled at me. She never spoke another word about him to me beyond the fact that he was indeed Bill's true father. Something she had known about for years of course. But as far as there being another Brad, or Bradly...or even someone who looked a lot like him. Of that she has no knowledge. Only insinuating that he'd truly loved Grace, with all his heart, mind and soul."

"The woman who looks a lot like you," Silvia added once again lifting the old worn photograph that Miranda had brought along with her to show them. "And this then is Brad. Your Brad. The one you claim to have been meeting, and actually made love with up there on the mountain."

"Yes. I know it all sounds so strange. But it's true Silvia. Every word I've spoken to you is true."

"I believe you M.J.," Darlene spoke reaching over to clasp Miranda's hand in hers. "Whatever it was that you were meant to find, I think you finally found it. Even you said that Bill has changed, that he's suddenly far more loving and affectionate than he ever was before."

"We still have some problems and issues to work through. But yes, he has changed, is changing. And I honestly believe there is still hope for us yet."

"And all because of a simple little silver key!" Darlene added.

"And that's another thing!" Miranda exclaimed. "I was sure I had thrown it out the window, but apparently when I pulled the chain from around my neck, the key fell down inside my blouse. Later that evening when I was preparing to go to bed, I'd removed my brassier and found it literally stuck between my breasts. For a moment I wasn't even sure what it was and attempted to flick it off with my finger. And then as I stood in front of the mirror, there it was clinging to my skin directly over my heart!"

"Well then...there you have it! Just like the old woman said, the key truly was the way to unlocking the secrets and happiness of your heart Miranda. Maybe there really was a bit of magic in that place after all!"

"Who knows, maybe there really was," Miranda smiled back, fingering the tiny silver key that hung on a brand new chain about her neck.