Buttermilk Pancakes and Sweet Tea

Before Kai could say much of anything, she had already answered several questions he'd not even asked yet. He was silent on the other end of the phone for several seconds as he took all of that in. Pizza, bad horror movies, and Ben and Jerry's. "His nose wrinkled when she spoke to him what that tone about weither he could wait that long. "Yes, I can." And even though Emma Jean hadn't answered his question, he could wait. She wanted to tell him face to face, but basically it was like a horcrux. Fine. He wasn't a child.

He took in a deep breath and then let it out slowly, the sound making an almost static-y transition between the receiver and to Emma's cell. He could not say how much it sucked that Emma Jean was grounded. If he had to admit it, he hadn't actually liked Emma Jean all that much the first time he had met her. But now the two of them, with his Nana, were all wrapped up in this huge thing, and he had really started to like her. Besides that, he knew absolutely no one else here, and now because of this key business did not WISH to know anyone else here. Which meant he'd be spending his days with Nana. He might have to spend his days with Nana anyway because he wasn't sure that he was allowed to leave the house anymore. He hoped maybe he was just overreacting about that, though.
She was saying goodbye then, and Kai couldn't help but to feel a bit disappointed. "Goodnight. Call if you need to." He said. He hung up then after she did. Having nothing much else to do in the house, Kai went upstairs where Jude was lying on his bed. He lied down with the dog and read until he fell asleep, glasses still on his face and Nook on his chest.



He woke up and instantly felt the slightly painful pressure of glasses still on his head. He sat up and took them off, relieving the pressure only for a few moments. He couldn't take them off now since he needed them to see, so he just bent them back into shape and put them back on his face. He was prone to getting headaches when he slept with his glasses on, but he'd just have to deal with it. He slipped into a tshirt and shorts and then went downstairs.

"Good morning." Kai answered, sitting down at the table. Nana seemed to be in good spirits, which was nice considering yesterday morning. He rubbed at his temples a bit as he continued to wake up.
 
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"Bad night?" Edith asked, patting his shoulder as she stood up. She filled a mug of coffee for him, and went about fixing his breakfast. She sat down a moment later with the eggs and toast and some homemade strawberry jam she took from the fridge, and pushed the plate over to him. "Once you are awake there are some things I would like to show you, with the Key. But for now...a history lesson."

She pulled a thick photo album from where she'd stashed it at the table, flipping open the cover. The photos were old, black and white, held to the greyish pages with corner frames. Most were slightly faded or otherwise damaged. "This is Annabelle Guthrie, my grandmother." She said, pointing to a photograph of a woman with curled blond hair in the attire of the early 1920s. There was something around her neck on a short cord, hidden under her clothes. She was looking at the camera with a sad smile, while two other children who were perhaps about six or seven, stood beside her. There was an older boy, holding the hand of a blond girl with a familiar bright smile.

"The oldest...that is my father Edward. He was born in 1920, so this picture had to be about...1926, 27. Uncle Kent, the baby...and that is Emilie." She flipped a few pages, smiling a little. "This is Edward and Emilie, in 1938, just before Emilie died. She was seventeen, he was eighteen." She said, pointing to a picture of Edward as a young man in a suit, with his jacket over an arm. A lovely blond held his other arm, gazing up at him.

Edith flipped another few pages, filled with people even she didn't know. She stopped at a picture of a woman who looked like Edith, if Edith were a young woman. "A few months later my father married my mother Ingrid." She pointed to the picture, and turned the page again to Edward in a Navy "cracker jack" uniform. "He went to the war a year after that, but was discharged for an injury to his hip, and walked with a cane from that day on. They always said it was the war that changed him into a cold man. He never showed affection to us kids...or to Mama. But I caught him once at the graveyard beside the church in town, crouching at a tombstone, weeping as I had never seen him weep before. I asked Mama, and she said he was sad over the loss of one of his friends from the war, and I accepted it. I went back to the graveyard a few days later to see who it was, because I was curious who this person was that made my father feel so intensely. It was her grave, Emilie's. I asked my mother who Emilie was, but she refused to speak of her. So I asked Annabelle. And she gave me this Key." Edith pulled it out, taking it off her neck and placed it beside Kai's breakfast plate. "And then told me all about Emilie. Emilie was seven when she told Annabelle that Edward looked just like his grandfather. Annabelle was shocked, since her father had been gone for many years at that time. She questioned the girl, and learned that Emilie knew things...things she wasn't supposed to know, that she could not have possibly been alive for. She told Annabelle all about Emma, Annabelle's childhood friend who died. And all about the Key that Annabelle had hidden under her clothes. She knew that Annabelle could make doors and escape through them. The other adults all laughed it off as childhood fantasy, but Annabelle knew that Emilie knew the truth."
 
"Fell asleep with my glasses on." He answered, which he supposed meant it was a bad night. He pulled the cup of coffee over towards him. He didn't often drink coffee, and when he did it was usually from Starbucks and usually whatever fancy drink was the special for that season. He put some sugar and milk into it and then took a sip. "Thank you." He said as his Nana sat down again. He was interested, about the key and figuring out what it did. He tilted his head to one side, however, when she decided a history lesson was in order first. He ate his breakfast but paid attention to this little class of Nana's.

He wondered how long this book of pictures had been in the family. It was ancient just based on the pictures she was showing him. He paid attention, and didn't have to ask to know who Emilie was. He was really only half eating his breakfast now, more interested in the pictures and the story about them. Kai pushed his glasses up his nose even though he just wanted to take them off, but he couldn't see without them. His Nana had had the key for a very long time then. He glanced up at the old woman and then back to the pictures. "Then what?" he asked.

Kai had basically finished his breakfast by then. He got up to put the plate in the sink but didn't wash it, mostly because he wanted to know the rest of the story.
 
"And then... she told me the truth about Althea, who had lived next door to us all my life. I remember that she was beautiful, with long curly brown hair and olive skin and spoke with an accent that I could not quite understand all the time. She was kind and would come and play with my brothers and I even though she was so much older and more mature. I looked up to her. I envied her. Anyway, Annabelle told me to watch how Althea looked at my father, when he wasn't paying attention; how sad she was. Daddy came home once in one of his moods...he'd been drinking again. Althea was staying with us while my mother was at the store. And Daddy was so angry that Mama wasn't there. Until he saw Althea smile at one of us, something my brother did...he saw her smile, and then she smiled at him just the same, and welcomed him home. He got quiet. Real quiet. And I swear I saw him crying."

Edith sighed, smiling sadly, and traced her fingers over the photo of Edward in his Navy uniform. "Pah...I began to understand then. Somehow, this girl was Emilie, that girl that made my father so sad. I was in awe; I'd never heard of such things before. But I wanted to know more." Edith closed the photo album, settling her hands on top of it. "So Annabelle showed me more. She said it had to stay a secret especially from Daddy, so I kept it secret. She told me that she was called a Gatekeeper, and Althea called herself the Guardian. Told me about the Gate to Ianusia that the Key was originally intended to open, told me all about Emilie and the other Guardians. She taught me how to use the Key, and said the rest would come to me the longer I had possession of it. The first thing she showed me was how to make doors, though I didn't quite get it until two years later." She motioned to the Key. "I showed you how, and now, you can try it for yourself."

She held up a finger as a warning. "But...there is a certain responsibility in becoming a Gatekeeper, one that I didn't realize until two years after taking the Key. I became attached to Althea. I loved her dearly. She was my friend, my confidant, because she and I knew something the rest of the world did not. When she died...when she died I realized that becoming attached was a terrible thing. My father...he was the Gatekeeper when Emilie died. He loved her like he loved no one else. And it drove him to a very dark place."

I don't want to be crass about it, but Emma Jean will die, Kai. It might not be very soon. She might live until she is twenty. But she will die, and that is something that you will have to live with if you take the Key. If you don't want that responsibility, then don't take it. I won't teach you a thing about it. You can be bored to death in the rampant heat, and go back to school and complain all about your horrible summer with your old Nana." She sighed a little. "I won't force the Key on you, and both Emma Jean and I will understand you refuse it. Think about it, will you? When you've decided, come and find me." She patted his shoulder again, standing up from the table and headed into the living room.
 
Kai was silent as the story twisted to reveal what his Nana was trying to tell him. At first he thought she was just going to let him try the key out. She had said he could, but then she gave him the real warning. The thing she hadn't known about but was telling him about. And then Nana left him, and he felt helpless. A part of him... he wished she hadn't warned him. He knew in the long run, it would be better but... it wasn't now. Now, when he was already worried about Nana having a heart attack and keeling over. Now Emma Jean too, and even Jude likely wasn't going to make it another year.

And then what was he going to do? No one in the entire world would know about it. Not anyone that was on his side, anyway. His parents were out, his father had made sure of that. He'd never utter a word of it to them, lest they use all that money of theirs to send him to an institute. Kai wasn't really sure that they would do that, but it certainly crossed his mind. Everyone was going to die, then. And apparently he was just supposed to accept that. Take the key, feel that incredible hurt, and then deal with it.

Kai brought his fingers up to pull at his bottom lip. If he didn't take the key though... who was Nana going to give it to? What would happen to it? The Company getting the key would be bad. Really bad. How was he supposed to decide this? He rubbed at his eyes and then his entire face after he was done pulling at his lip. He already didn't want Emma Jean to die though. That was already going to hurt. This attachment his Nana spoke of.. before she died he'd have to leave anyway, and pretty much all of this sucked. He didn't belong here. He reached out to pick up one of the pencils on the table. He didn't do anything but fiddle with it though. He already knew what he was going to do then. He had to take it, but he didn't want to. And he was going to sit right there and fiddle with the pencil until he had enough time being him without the key.
 
Edith paced the living room for a few moments. And then she sat down in her chair. And then she got up again, resuming her pacing. She sat down once more, plucking a Harriet Carter catalog from the magazine rack by her chair and tried to be interested in the same stuff they'd hocked since 1958. She got a few pages in before she tossed the catalog back on the stack of other magazines that were three years past their issue date. Her legs were twitching, and she bounced one, before getting back up, and resuming her pacing.

She should not have said anything. She should not have said a word. He would have figured it out on his own anyway, soon enough. One day when the Company got too close and Emma Jean had to give it all up, he would find out. No. She could not pretend that she was wrong. It was better that he knew, better that he wouldn't be blindsided like she had been. But she wasn't precisely making a strong case for him to become the next Gatekeeper. In fact, she was all but actively telling him not to take it. But he had to, didn't he? It was either him or those imbecilic children that Victor had spawned.

She shuddered, and then glanced to the phone. She could call Emma. She should tell her everything she told Kai so far. She should, but she knew Emma would be at work. She could go. She could go into town and find Emma and beg her to tell her what to do next. Edith put her head into her hands, sighing heavily. She was seventy-two, for god's sake, and she was thinking like a child. Like that little twelve year old Edith who'd wept into her grandmother's arms for days. She touched the place where the Key had always been, and realized at last that she wasn't wearing it. In fact, not wearing it wasn't the soul-sucking void she had thought it was going to be.

Finally she stopped, and opened a curtain to let the bright sunlight stream inside. She could hear the birds singing, oblivious to the heat. She could see the deep blue sky and the red dirt road and the yellow corn in the field across the road. Everything outside was...peaceful. Nothing like the stormy grey of inside the house right now. Edith flung open the curtains in the living room. Every one. The room warmed considerably, and the poor air conditioning hummed on trying its damnedest to cool the room again. She stood in a pool of sunlight, and waited.

She had left Kai the Key, after all. It was right there, on the kitchen table, waiting for him to decide. Whatever he decided.
 
Kai had been avoiding it the entire time he had been thinking about it, but now his eyes looked down from the kitchen window and onto the key. "I will take it, I will take the ring to Mordor." He said quietly enough that Nana wouldn't hear, saying it in that high pitched voice everyone seemed to use to mimic someone else when they weren't actually trying to mimic someone. This was going to bring trouble. He already knew that. He reached out to gently press the worn down eraser on the pencil in his hand to poke at the key.

"I'm not really sure you're worth taking, key." He was still keeping his voice low, not wanting Nana to think he was talking to her. "Doesn't seem like you'll bring anything but heart ache if I do." He went on. "So you can make doors to other places, big deal." Kai stared at the key then, as if he expected it to talk back to him. Honestly, for all he knew, it might. He prodded the key with the eraser end of his pencil again and then put the pencil away into the cup with the rest of the writing things.

Standing up, Kai gave in with a sigh and then promptly picked up the key with one hand. He went into the living room where Nana was standing and then held it out to her. "Show me?"
 
Edith turned slowly from the window, smiling just a little. She looked at him for a long measure, wondering if this was truly the right thing to do. But it was too late to take it back. She nodded, stepping away from the light where she stood. She stopped somewhere between the stairs and the sofa and the entry to the kitchen, where the space was the largest. Not that they need too much room. But she didn't know for sure.

"Doors can be small or large, nearly any shape you can think of. You don't have to be a Michelangelo to draw one, but it does have to resemble an actual door in some way or another. And you should be able to fit into it, or else what would be the point?" She chuckled a little. "First, think of a place. It doesn't have to be someplace you have been, necessarily, but it does have to be very specific. Say I wanted to go to Paris. I couldn't just think of Paris as a whole. That's too broad. The Key would consider it as indecision and would take me where it wanted to. I could end up in the middle of the Seine. Or in China. Or sitting on one of Saturn's rings." She laughed again, shaking her head. "Well perhaps not that, but you get my point. If I wanted to go to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, right in front of the elevator, I could draw a door there, and the Key would take me right there." She held up a hand. "But use discretion! Don't go drawing doors into the girls' locker rooms, or in the middle of a busy shopping mall or into a bank vault. People tend not to appreciate people appearing out of thin air, especially if it looks like they are about to commit heinous crimes."

When you have the place you want to go, hold on it that very spot. Then draw the door."

She waited for him to do so. Or at least attempt to do so. If he was anything like her, it would take him several tries to fix a place and draw a successful doorway to it. Her mind was always wandering, flitting from one thought to the next, and it took some months of practice for her to concentrate hard enough to draw a door that would not fizzle when she tried to open it. Or that would actually allow her to pass through. Tthat didn't take her to the middle of a sandstorm in the Gobi. She hadn't forgotten that error. She swore the Key was doing it on purpose.

Perhaps he would get it, first try. It would certainly make teaching him easier.
 
So he had to think of both what the door looked like and where he wanted to go. He listened to her quietly as he tried to grapple all of that in his head. He would not ever draw them into the girl's locker rooms or something greasy like that. He had questions about it though, but decided that instead of asking he would just try it. And then if he still had questions he could ask them then.

Kai did not draw it right away. He gave some thought to what he was doing and where he wanted to go. He decided then, that instead of going some place he wanted to go, he'd just think of the place he knew best. Which was home. His room, specifically. He closed his eyes a moment, picturing it. Four walls in pale, dark green paint. A few posters were on the walls, mostly book covers. His bed with black bedding spotted with white and a book shelf and tv stand. Easy. That was the place he chose to go, so he raised his arm to mimic how he had seen his Nana draw the door earlier.

The first time nothing very exciting happened, but he tried again almost instantly when it was clear that his first try did not succeed. Kai was nothing if not disciplined with himself. The second time a door appeared. It was round and green, with one round door knob in the center. Not his bedroom door, just the one he wanted. He was following his Lord of the Rings theme, apparently, and once it appeared Kai put his arm down, still clutching onto the key and then looking at Nana. "How long does this last?" he asked. Once he was on the other side, did he have to make a new door to get back here, or would it stay long enough to come back through?
 
Edith smiled, crossing her arms over her chest and walked around the door, inspecting it. "Very good. That door won't last long unless you unlock it. And don't forget to think of your place as you unlock it, or else the Key will act on its own whims. If you put the Key into the lock, but don't turn it, it's a place-saver, in a manner of speaking. It will last longer than without the Key, and you can possibly change where you are going. Say you were thinking of Cairo when you made the door, the foot of the Great Pyramid, but as you unlock it, you change your mind, and think of the pyramids in Mexico instead. The Key will take you to Mexico, not Egypt. If you are...stressed, or in danger when you make the door, it will last seconds. If you are relaxed, as you are now, you may have an hour or more to place the Key in. The Key will know. It always knows." She bobbed her head at the door. "Unlock it. Once it is unlocked, you can go through. If you close the door on the other side, you'll have to draw a new one. If not, it will stay open as long as you'd like. Or, as long as the Key would like, I suppose I should say."

She glanced to the Key in Kai's hand that now pulsed with blue light, as if it anticipated unlocking the door. She kept her gaze there as she finished speaking. "I never understood it, how it could glow without heat...how it seemed to know things and learn things on its own. Just a piece of iron right?" She mused with a smile, shaking her head a little. Of course it wasn't. She knew that by now. When Althea had explained it to her, it didn't make sense to her at ten years old. How could metal contain a piece of someone's soul? Althea had said it was magic, and all thoughts of looking at the Key rationally, fled. Magic. Of course, magic explained everything away.
 
Kai watched the old woman as she inspected his first work. He felt like he was back in school, and he wanted to please his teacher. Honestly, he was surprised it had worked at all. A small part of him, despite everything he had seen, still felt like this wasn't quite real. But now that he had done it himself, there wasn't really any going back. He nodded in understanding. For a moment, he thought about picking some place else to go to. His Nana was talking about all of these exciting places, and his room certainly was not so exciting, but... no. He would not change his mind. He wanted this to work, and he figured his best bet was some place he could think about easily because he had been there a lot.

So he thought only of his room again, and only that, he put the key into the lock. He reached out to open the door, pushing it inwards. He felt compelled to go forwards through it, but waited once more. "Can you come too?" It was a round about way of knowing if other people could follow him through the door. If he was running from someone that would be good to know, and if he was running WITH someone, it would be even better to know.
 
Edith nodded. "I could, if I were so inclined." She looked through the door he had made, thoroughly impressed. "I I don't think I will this time, however. Your room at home?" She asked with a smile. "Once the Key is officially yours perhaps you can keep a door open to it. It might be more comfortable to sleep in your own bed once and a while, hmm? So long as you leave the Key in the lock."

She shifted her stance a little, going her chair in front of the television. She had been standing far too long, and her bones ached. "If you do not shut the door once you are through, it acts like any other doorway. It can and will allow others into it." She said, groaning a little. "It's terrible to get old." She mumbled before continuing. "So remember if you make a door as an escape, shut it after you are safe on the other side. It will lock itself and disappear again." Edith shut her eyes, leaning her head back against the chair. "Also as a matter of warning...the Key's protection goes with it. If I were to make a door from my house to...say the Church. The Church would be protected from the scarecrows and what not. The house would not be protected any longer. That was how that scarecrow got inside before, because the Key was with me. If the door was kept open with the Key the protection could spread to both places, in theory. Just something to consider." Edith yawned. "Practice some more, if you'd like, darling."
 
Kai nodded when she asked if it was his room. He, at first, didn't think it would be wise to leave a door open to his room after he had the key. Mostly because he didn't want someone coming through it without his knowledge, but he didn't say so. He watched her as she moved away and sat down to complain about her age. He didn't really blame her, though. It probably was terrible to get old, but not as terrible as the alternative. He nodded again at the rest of what his Nana told him. He would remember to shut it if he was running, and he would also remember about the protection.

Almost instantly, he thought about opening a door to Emma Jean's house, but kept that thought hidden. He was antsy about her being on her own without protection. Once his Nana suggested that he could practice some more he agreed, but first he stepped through the doorway. It was weird, being in his room so suddenly from his Nana's living room. He glanced back at the door and then went over to the window to inspect the view. Same view he always had. It was both very weird and very interesting, and it made Kai more than a little excited. He walked around the door, making sure to leave it open, and then opened his actual, real door out towards the living room and the rest of the apartment. It was all there. He shut it again, grabbed a couple more shorts and t-shirts that were thinner than the ones he had brought, and then stepped back into Nana's house with them and closed the door, taking the key back.

Normally he'd take the clothes right upstairs, but he was way too enthralled with what he was doing to stop now. He put the clothes down on the couch next to his Nana and was about to try a different door with a different destination when he stopped. "Can this transport through time, too?" he asked her, arm poised to draw another door. "Or is it just space? What if its somewhere I've only read about or saw in pictures?"
 
"Time? No. It's a key, not a blue police box." Edith grinned. "Though that would be something, wouldn't it?" She opened her eyes, swiveling her head to him. "You don't have to have been to the place you are going in order to draw a door there. I suppose it would suffice to have seen or read about it." She shrugged noncommittally. "I'm not an expert on making doors, darling. It seems you've already surpassed me in skill." She chuckled. "I've had the key for over sixty years, and I made doors...oh about ten times. And the first took me weeks to make one that would not fizzle in an instant. I only ever used them when I was in trouble. Not because I had to, and I don't expect you to behave the same. I just figured, even as a kid, that having the power to go where ever I wanted would be rather boring if I had to do it alone. And since Althea and Annabelle told me to keep the Key a secret..."

Edith finally rose from the couch, holding herself up with one hand to the back of it. "You wouldn't mind if I went and laid down?" She asked, grimacing a little. "I'm finding myself rather tired all of a sudden. Just the heat and old age and too much activity as of late, I suppose."
 
Kai was incredibly surprised to hear that. That his Nana had really only made a few doors in her whole life time. Kai was ready to go pretty much anywhere, and he didn't care if he went alone or not. He never had to have people with him to have a good time, although it WAS a good idea in the city. He was also surprised to hear her reference to Doctor Who. He supposed the show was catching up to Nana in years aired, but still. He felt a large disconnect between the things he enjoyed and the ones she did, but perhaps they had that in common.

"Uhm... yeah, okay." Kai said about her lying down. He hesitated, trying very, very hard not to be anxious about things suddenly. "Do you need help up the stairs?" Hopefully she wouldn't find that insulting. He didn't mean it as such, and it wasn't like anyone but him would know if he did help her up the stairs. He would also make sure that if he did make and go through another door, that wherever he put it would have to have the key left in the lock. Protection of this house was important while Nana was in it, and since leaving the key in the lock for pretty much anyone to discover made Kai even more uneasy he had a limited amount of places to try to go to. But that was alright. Just practicing was fine, even if he didn't go through them.
 
Edith smiled. "I'll be fine darling. Just need a little rest. Hold on to the Key for me will you?" She had made her way already to the stairs, slowly, but finally turned back, and went to him. She patted his shoulder gently. "You're just like your father, you know. I see him in you often. But I am glad to see that you are so different from him as well." She gave Kai a quick squeeze and then turned to go upstairs.

Once she was safe in her room, she closed the door behind her, leaning against it before crossing the room to where the phone hung on the wall. She quickly punched in a number.

Emma Jean answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"I did it."

"Edy? I thought you were Kai. Did what?" Emma waited for an answer for a whole two seconds before she said, "You did tell him you were giving it to him, didn't you?"

Edith hesitated, whispering on the phone. "Not in so many words. I let him have it for practice with the doors. He's really good, Emma, better than I ever was."

"Why didn't you tell him?"

"I'm not ready to. I'm afraid passing it on means something...terminal for me, you know? By all rights, I should have died ten years ago, and I can't help but think that is was that Key keeping me alive until it could find a replacement."

"Edy..." Emma breath came out in a whisper.

"Just don't tell him that, alright? I don't want to worry him." They chatted for a moment more before Emma had to go, citing customers in the comic shop. She told Edith to take it easy, and hung up.


Monroe was glaring at her when she pushed the button on her phone, and slid it into her pocket of her jeans. "Boyfriend?" He asked dryly.

"Why does everyone...It was Miss Edith."

He raised his brows a little but didn't say anything, and thumbed back to a pack of drooling boys who were apparently waiting for her to attend them. Emma rolled her eyes, pulling her hair in a ponytail and put on her best fake smile.

Edith woke shortly before dinner, and made her way downstairs, still feeling rather groggy and slow. She made her way down to the kitchen, sliding into a chair at the table as she rubbed her eyes, still trying to wake up.
 
Kai nodded when she asked him to hold on to the key. He would. He wasn't sure what to make of her telling him he was like his father, and yet not, but something warmed a bit inside of him anyway so he figured he had taken it well. He watched the old woman go upstairs anyway just in case and then looked back and away. He figured he'd keep practicing anyway, even if he didn't actually go anywhere. It would be helpful to practice so if the need ever arose, he could get away fairly quickly.

Kai didn't bother Nana for the rest of the time she was upstairs. He just practiced making doors, Jude watching from his place on the floor where he was chewing on one of his toys or napping. He tried all sorts of different doors and locations. Some of them fizzled out, but others stayed pretty solid. He only went through them just to say he had and then stepped back, not doing anything more than that. He had paused to make himself some lunch - just a sandwich and lemonade - and then kept going back to work on the doors.

He didn't stop until Nana finally came down from upstairs. He had a shimmery gold leafed door in front of him but it did not take him where he wanted to go when he opened it, mostly because he had been distracted with Nana coming down the stairs. He was interested, in where the key wanted to go. There had to be a reason that it took them places. Nana had specifically said where the KEY wanted to go, and not just some place random. So there had to be a reason for that. Kai didn't explore that very thoroughly though since he was trying to get a grip on how to do this properly. He shut the door again and took the key away and then followed Nana to the kitchen. He put the key down on the table next to her where she was sitting. "Do you want me to make dinner?" He asked. "I can make sandwiches." Which was basically all he knew how to make. Or he could heat up some more leftovers in the microwave.
 
Edith looked to the Key. Part of her wanted to snatch it up, and loop it around her neck immediately. That was where it belonged, after all. But she didn't, instead looking to Kai with a smile. "That would be lovely, darling, thank you." She motioned to the fridge. "There's some lunch meat and cheese in that drawer there...or I have peanut butter and jam." She said, resting her head on her hand. She rubbed at her temples, and then her eyes, trying to wake herself up. "I think I've about had it with leftovers for now." Her nap had been...less than peaceful. She was wracked by dreams, one after the other, dreams that started out pleasant but then took very ugly turns and left her heart racing uncomfortably. She had woken twice in a cold sweat, her heart pounding, and it had taken some time to still it enough where she could sleep once more. Even with the nap, she still felt exhausted. But she had done enough sitting around. The only cure for being tired was to get the blood flowing again.

She pushed herself off the table, spinning in her chair to face Kai, with a little gleam in her eye. "Peanut butter and jam and chocolate milk." She laughed a little, standing up, and walked slowly to the pantry cabinet to retrieve the peanut butter. "Emma Jean asked for it all the time when she was little, and I'll admit to you, and no one else over the age of ten, that I have acquired a taste for it."

Dinner was put together in short order, with Kai doing most of the preparing with Edith supervising, and grabbing dishes from the cabinets and cleaning up. While they ate, Edithe asked Kai about his practice drawing doors, wondering where all he had gone.

Edith was wide awake after dinner. She invited Kai to sit and watch TV with her a while, and chatted, mostly about the old folks around town that she knew so well. She was still awake late into the night, even after Kai had gone to bed. She had told him that she wasn't tired, and indeed, she was not, even after that restless nap.

When Kai woke the next morning, he would find a note tented on the kitchen table, with his name written across it.

Good morning! The people at the old folks home called me late at night. I am the point of contact for Walter and Anna. Anna has taken ill, and they needed someone to come and get Walter to take him to the hospital. I'll be home by lunch. There is plenty of food. Don't leave the house without the Key. ​
 
Kai nodded when his Nana said sandwiches were acceptable. He was going to make the meat and cheese but then his Nana suddenly had some of her strength back and she had said she wanted peanut butter and jam instead. He laughed too. Did she even have chocolate milk? He didn't ask. "Nothing wrong with peanut butter and jam." He said. He usually said jelly, but jam was fine too. He didn't think there was any difference, after all. He made the sandwiches and then sat with her to eat. He told his Nana all about where all he had made doors to, but that he hadn't really gone to those places. There were lots of doors that had fizzled out but only two that went where he didn't mean for them to.

He watched tv afterwards even if it was pretty boring, and was surprised when Nana did not go to bed before he did this time. He went to sleep with Jude wrapped around him, and didn't get up until late morning. He took a shower and then went downstairs but was once more surprised to see not Nana, but a note. He read it and then wrinkled his nose a bit. Well. He kind of wished that Nana had taken the key but on the other hand he wouldn't have taken kindly to waking up to scarecrows. Hopefully, she'd be okay. He picked up the key though, keeping it with him even if he wasn't planning on leaving just then.

Not sure what else to do by himself and not awake enough to practice doors. He got himself some breakfast and then decided to call Emma Jean, since he didn't fancy just lazing about the house. Maybe he could visit her at work or something. Picking up the phone, he dialed her number and waited for her to pick up. "I'm saying hi first, as that is what you've said should be said in greeting when someone picks up the phone." He smirked.
 
When Emma Jean answered, her 'hello' sounded a little groggy as if she'd just woken up. Which she had. The phone ringing brought her out of a very, very heavy sleep. It took her another moment to rather her faculties so she could answer Kai. "If you want to get technical about it, you didn't say hi first. You talked about saying it instead. Still, I shall count this as a victory." She laughed quietly, saying in her best Robin Williams as Genie impersonation, "He can be taught!" She groaned as she rolled over. "What time is it anyway?" She asked and then saw. "Ah, crap." She sat up, her phone still pressed to her ears as she sprang up from where she'd been laying. "Crap, crap! Why is it so late already?"

There was a muffled, distinctly male voice somewhere behind her, groaning awake as well. Emma Jean colored a little, squeezing her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Hang on Kai." She said. She wasn't sure why she suddenly felt ashamed that she was with Greyson Petersen who had just woken up in the morning. There was really no reason to be ashamed. Especially because of the circumstances. She just hoped Kai would listen to said circumstances. She pushed the mute button, or at least thought that she did.

"Sorry I woke you. I'm late for work, Grey." She said, kissing his cheek quickly, as she gathered her things. "Thanks for last night." Greyson mumbled something. "It was very helpful." He mumbled something else. "But now I'm dead if I don't show up to work, and if my parents ask you where I was...tell them." He abandoned trying to communicate verbally and just threw a thumbs up. "Just embellish the whole sleeping together thing a little and you'll get both parents off our backs, eh?" Greyson muttered something intelligible, before plopping back down on his bed, face covered with a pillow.

She sprinted from the Petersen's house, stepping into her high heels, then abandoned that idea, and ran barefoot instead to the corner before she got back on the phone. "Alright, I'm sorry. Thank you for the morning phone call, or else I would be fired and in more trouble than I'm already in."
 
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