The Four Charms -a fairy tale of inner wisdom

by Karem Barratt

The rain didn’t make it to the other side of the gate. There the blue sky seemed to be cut in half by a huge wall, which stretched as far as the eyes could see, pocked everywhere by doors. There were giant doors and little doors; square doors and round doors; tall doors and short doors; colourful doors and dull doors; hooded doors and plain doors. There were dozens – no, hundreds and hundreds of doors.

  ‘Oh boy,’ whispered Rebecca, her heart sinking at the sight. ’Wonderful, just wonderful.’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘I’m being sarcastic.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Wait a minute... who are you? And where are you? ‘

  ‘In your hand,’ answered the voice. ‘By the way, you can relax your grip now. I doubt the raven will come after us. He’s always been a bit lazy.’

  The princess opened her hand. The silver key stood still, as keys usually do.

  ‘Did you just speak to me?’ Princess Rebecca asked.

  ‘I did,’ answered the voice.

  It was coming from the key, Rebecca was sure of it, but there was no face or eyes or mouth to indicate that this key was alive. It was basically an ordinary looking silver key.

  ‘I think that’s unfair. I don’t believe I’m ordinary, quite the opposite’ the voice – or the key, or maybe both - said.

  Rebecca’s jaw dropped.

  ‘How did you know what I was thinking?’

  ‘Because I’m the key who opens from the inside.’

  ‘How can I know if I’m on the inside or outside of these doors?’ Princess Rebecca replied.

  ‘I have no idea. I don’t open that kind of door,’ answered back the key.

  Rebecca sighed.

  ‘So what is it that you do, then?’

  ‘I open from the inside.’

  ‘Inside of what?’

  ‘Inside of you.’

  ‘There is a door inside of me?

  ‘There are whole cities inside of you.’

  ‘Alright...do I have to swallow you?’

  ‘Uuugh, no! That’s so, so, so uncivilized!’

  ‘What should I do then?

  ‘You must read the message on my back.’

  ‘That’s all?’

  ‘Yep’

  ‘No fighting, running, tricking or escaping?’

  ‘Nope.’

  Rebecca pursed her lips. She turned the key around. At first she could see nothing; then she made out some very small letters running along the silver body.

  ‘The answers...’ read the princess out loud, ‘are in...you. Open your...eyes, mind...and... heart.’

  ‘That’s it,’ said the key, sounding as if it would be smiling if it had a mouth.

  ‘That’s silly!’ Princess Rebecca exclaimed, throwing the key to the ground. ‘I don’t have the answers! I don’t know how to open the door! I don’t even know which door to open!’

  ‘Open your eyes,’

  ‘Open my eyes? Look how I open my eyes!’ the girl answered, pulling up her eyelids with her fingers, ‘See? I have them wide open now and I still only see doors!’

  ‘Only doors?’

  ‘Yes! Only doors and tress, and bushes, and ivy and a hole on the wall and flowers and rabbits and birds...’

  The princess’s voice suddenly stopped. A hole! Rebecca got closer to it. The hole seemed to stretch out from one side of the wide wall to the other. It wasn’t very big – certainly no grown-ups would be able to get into it, nor most kids, unless...

  ‘Unless they were around eleven and had a slim frame, like a ballerina’s’ the key whispered.

  ‘I could wriggle through it.’

  ‘Yes you could. And you should. Look at the sky.’

  Princess Rebecca looked up. Pink and purple clouds sailed over the bright blue.

  ‘How can it be?’

  ‘Time on this side of the garden is different from your side. It runs faster.’

  ‘Let’s go then, we have no time to loose,’ Rebecca said as she put the key in her skirt pocket. She got on her knees and crawled through the hole. It was almost sunset when she got out. A few stars were visible in the purple part of the heavens, as the fiery, orange sun disappeared gently behind the horizon. Princess Rebecca saw the palace in the distance. She could make out the figure of the Wicked Witch on the balcony. Rebecca ran faster than she had ever run before, quicker than she did when she escaped from the raven and the storm and the tornado. Her heart beat so loudly that she could actually hear it, (Pum pum! Pum pum!) bouncing in her ears. The last rays of the sun were weaving in the sky as she reached the palace’s balcony.

  ***