Unlocked

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 airman'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.