The Key to Everything Read Online Free PDF Page A

minute. I’m in the bathroom.” You dry off on the towel, check yourself out in the mirror one last time, take a deep breath, and head out to your wife. She’s sitting on the couch with the remote, flipping through the cable guide. 
    “What happened to you? We just got finished potty training Jeremy. Now I’ve got to worry about you?” She says as she looks down at a spreading wetness on the crotch of your pants.
    “Oh shit.” Turning around to head up to your room and change. “I’ll be right back.”
    As you run up the stairs the sneaking feeling that there are hands reaching out to grab you from behind creeps up your spine. You run faster. Haven’t felt that way since you were a kid when you thought monsters were real. 
    You close the bedroom door and take your pants off and throw them into the hamper. Your boxer shorts are stuck to your skin and you see something all over the inside of your jeans. You peel your shorts off and it’s all over your lower stomach, thighs and penis. You switch your focus from looking down at yourself to your reflection in the full-length mirror next to the closet. You can’t understand it. But you can see it, so it must be real. You reach down to put your finger into the thick, sticky substance. It holds onto your hand, not letting you pull away to take a closer look. It’s so cold. Your fingers lose their ability to bend. Twisting your arm, it finally comes away, pulling a long black strand behind. You lean forward to take a closer look, and that’s when you hear Emily scream.

-3-
    Auden: You Turn
     

    You are in the warm tub while Emily sits on the edge, cleaning you off with a wet washcloth. The water is murky brown mixed with swirls of red spinning around as she gently wipes you down. You lay your head back and close your eyes, finally able to slow your breathing down. Emily stops, and you look at her with her head down, shaking from side to side.
    “I don’t understand.” She drops the washcloth into the tub. “What the hell was that?”
    Your hands touch on the edge of the tub. “I don’t know, Em. But I’ll go see a doctor first thing tomorrow, okay?” 
    She takes your hand and kisses the palm. “Why were you yelling about a key?”
    “What?” 
    “When I was carrying Jeremy up the stairs, I thought I heard you yell something about a key.” Emily leans back and looks down at her hands. “You kinda freaked me out.”
    “Me too.” You sit up in the tub, ashamed that you’ve scared your wife, but just as confused as she is. 
    “And what was that stuff all over you?” She looks back into your eyes. “Did you come in your pants?” With a disgusted look on her face, she stands up to get you a towel. “I mean, I’m as kinky as the next gal, but that’s just gross, honey.”
    “I don’t know what happened.” You stand up and wrap the towel around your waist. “I don’t think so. Plus, there was something else. Like dirt…or mud.” Glancing at the mirror, you can sort of make out your reflection through the steam. Then quietly you say, “And all that blood.”
    Emily whispers and looks down at her feet. “Yeah.”
    After a few quiet uncomfortable seconds, she wraps her arms around you and squeezes, maybe more tightly than she ever has. “It must be the stress and the exertion from the move.”
    “Yeah.” You sound unconvinced. “That must be it.”

* * *
     

    Sitting in the exam room at St. Michael’s Hospital, you wait for the ER doctor to finally get back to you with the test results. You flip channels on the little black-and-white television, not finding anything that can take your mind off what happened last night. The stairs, the squirrel and the key...you haven’t thought about your dad’s old dirty magazines in years. 
    The curtain slides open and the doctor comes back in, looking down at your chart. “Mr. Quilton.” He scratches his barely visible beard he’s been trying to grow so he doesn’t look like a twelve year old.