Key To The Cornerstone Short Story

Key to the Cornerstone Gusty winds snaked across the sandy African landscape, bursting drafts of gritty heat upon the cracked ground below. Draughts weaved through the clay houses barren and lifeless with not a soul to be seen. The village had been deserted. Piling in small heaps against the rugged walls of the shacks, the sandstorm collected its silt within crooks and nicks wherever it could find them. Tousled door flaps snapped and wagged in the perturbation. Death rented the air. Although the abandoned town appeared utterly hollow, one flame still burned amidst the impending shadow. A young adolescent girl sat upon the baked doorstep of a dusky house, motionless, dismal, like a withered bush pelted by the onslaught. Even so, she remained alive, grim, silent, and still. Her brown …show more content…
She was breathing fast. It was dark in the baked clay room of Adisa’s family hut. The moon could be seen hovering high in the sky with stars joining in around it with their pale light. She scrunched her face, confused. The mysterious dream still echoed throughout her thoughts . . . the key to the cornerstone . . . She drew from about her neck the same key that had unlocked those great cathedral doors in her dream. Studying it she saw for the first time a phrase, scraped into the metal by careful hands. Shifting so the moonbeams reflected off the key, the girl stared down at the cold gray of the key. She shook her head, confused. Although she had never been taught to read, the message in the church had been quite clear; the carving on the wall had been clearer still, and clearest of all was the thunderous voice that proved it. Likewise, the lettering on the key held no difference. She could read it with fluency, Hope, you are Hope, the key to the cornerstone. Looking up, the girl’s eyes glistened with moonlight. She had survived, so she should conquer; had seen and should not hide; had hope and had found the key . . . the key to the