2016 – Day 45

Start writing a story that...

Step 1: begins with this sentence: He found the key in his pocket

Step 2: include this sentence: When he arrived at his office...

-----

He found the key in his pocket while searching for a clean pair of pants. It had caught on the bottom of the front left pocket of his khakis—a silver key with six ridges and Kwikset written along the top. It was like any other key on his keychain, except Paul had no idea what it went to. He remembered going drinking at The Tempest Pub with some guys from work, then leaving in a cab. His next memory was of sitting in his apartment stairwell and realizing he was still a floor away from his door. By the time he crawled into bed, it was 3:15 in the morning. But where did he pick up a key?

When he arrived at his office, he went to see Jamal. With the door closed behind him, Paul showed his friend the key.

"Did I leave alone last night?" he asked.

"Yeah, you left just before me," Jamal said, turning the key over in his hand. "The guy at the valet stand flagged the cab down for you, then helped you give directions to the driver. You were busy singing Single Ladies."

"Was it around 3?"

"Nah, Ben and Raj got pissed off about the game, so we all bailed by 11:30. You don't remember?"

"No," Paul said, taking back the key.

He returned to his own office, but found himself distracted. He sent emails, went to meetings, and worked on his files, but his mind was on the three hours he couldn't remember. As he worked, he found himself putting his hand in his pocket and rolling the key around in his fingers, hoping it would trigger a memory, but nothing came.

At 5:30, as Paul began to close up his files, his cell phone rang. The number wasn't familiar, so he let it go to voicemail as he continued to shut down his computer. But no sooner had the phone stopped ringing and the voicemail alert gone off, than it began ringing again. Paul stared at the phone in his hand as the number of voicemails climbed. He sent the fifth and sixth calls directly to voicemail after the first ring, then logged in for his messages before the phone could ring for the seventh time.

"It's 5:00," said an unfamiliar woman's voice in the first message. "Please tell me you're on your way. And don't forget the key."

"It's 5:02," she said in the second message. "We agreed promptly at 5:00. Please hurry."

"It's 5:05," the third message began. "Are you trying to get me killed? Hurry!"

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with it! If anything happens to me, it will all be on you."

"They're here. I can hear them outside."

The sixth call lasted about 20 seconds, but there was nothing on the line but the slow drip of water.