A key is... ...a talisman to access the promise of an unknown treasure inside a mysterious locked box....a code for technology with the potential to save a world that may be too controlling to let itself be saved....a winding mechanism for an antique clock that connects two restless and out-of-place lives across generations....a symbolic papier-mache gift of affection between young brothers who must weather a fierce parental storm....a long-lost sliver of rusted metal that carries more value in the conferred stories it holds than in its function....a nonsensical phrase that may be one woman's ticket off the soon-to-be abandoned red planet and its certain death....a weary soldier's reflection under a firework-lit sky on the author of America's beloved revolutionary anthem....a stolen instrument used by a young mother for the love of a son whose curse may be his way to freedom.A key is a major plot device or a minor mention in the language of storytelling, presented here in eight short stories by members of the Frederick Writers' Salon. Read Less