This little girl was born in a quaint village to two, loving parents.
This little girl had the most beautiful long brown hair and blue eyes.
This little girl's name was Marilyn.
She was exactly what her parents had always wanted.
Her parents loved her very, very much.
When Marilyn turned five years old her parents gave her a very special gift for her birthday.
The gift was a long chain with a beautiful key on the end.
"Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
This was all that her father said to her on that day about the gift.
Marilyn was too young to truly understand, but she promised to guard the key.
As Marilyn grew up she became more and more beautiful.
Every day the key hung form the attractive chain around her neck.
No one ever said anything about the key to her, that is until her thirteenth birthday.
On her birthday the little girl, who wasn't quite so little anymore, was in the village square with her mother. While her mother was buying eggs, Marilyn wandered over to a nearby cart. As she gazed at all of the beautiful scarves hanging off of it the peddler's son, a dashing young man with dark brown eyes and blonde hair, came around the corner.
"Good day Mistress. Can I assist you with anything today?" Marilyn was astonished and captured by his incredible physique. She finally caught her breath and replied with a shy, "No, but thank you, i'm just looking."
"As am I, at that beautiful key about your neck. Is it a special key?"
"Yes, very special, my parents gave it to me."
"Would you be willing to sell this key?"
The girl stopped fingering the delicate scarves and looked right into the eyes of the young man. Mischief gleamed in them and she slowly began to back away from the cart. Her father's words rang in her head, "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
"No, I'm sorry." She said and she quickly fled from the cart and back to the safety of her mother's side.
What was it about this key that it had to be guarded so carefully? She shook the thoughts from her mind and grasped the key tightly in her hand as she followed her mother through the rest of the square and all the way home.
As Marilyn continued to grow up she noticed that more and more people would comment on the beautiful key that hung around her neck. It became a custom to simply say thank you and then try to move on to a different topic. On her fifteenth birthday she asked her father what the key was for. Was it really as meaningful as she had come to believe? Her father would simply smile and repeat the phrase that stayed ingrained in her mind, "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right." What the phrase truly meant, she was not sure if she would ever know.
As she grew into young adulthood more and more young men would come calling on her home asking for permission to court her. As she watched her father handle each different young man with much wisdom she came to discover that her father seemed to turn any one away who commented on the key. It seemed that there was an intense interest in it, and yet the interest didn't seem genuine to her.
One day while Marilyn was outside tending to her garden a young man came riding up on a handsome horse. As he came to a stop at the edge of the garden, she looked up and greeted him with a warm smile. The young man was tall and had dark brown hair. He smiled politely back at her and dismounted his horse. As he approached she noticed something shinning around his neck. Looking down she saw a key, much like hers, hanging off of a beautiful chain. She gasped, but kept her surprise to herself.
"Good day my lady, I was wondering if by any chance your father would be at home. I had heard he had some work that I could possibly do and was hoping to discuss it with him." She led the man inside and left him with her father. As she continued to tend the garden she pondered the key around his neck and suddenly it made a little more sense. None of the other men who had come calling to court her had keys around their neck. She had never really seen a lot of the girls from the village with keys around their necks either. Perhaps, they had given away their keys. Perhaps its significance was more that she had ever thought. Could it be a key to something?
The weeks went by and the young man who had met Marilyn in the garden that day worked tirelessly for her father. She would watch him with wonder from her bedroom window as he would chop wood, build troughs for her father's cattle, and tend to her father's fields. She saw in him something she had not seen much in the men around her village. What a strange young man he was.
Months went by and the two became good friends. They would go for long walks in the evenings through the village square and he would accompany her to the market. They would race down the road at the end of each day as they let the cattle out to graze for the night. Sometimes they would sit on the fence and talk about the stars and how beautiful they were. After a time Marilyn began to find that she was somewhat attracted to the man. He was good and kind, and he served her family well. There was something deep within her that would sing when he would smile at her, and she could not stop thinking about him. More than anything, though, she thought about the key that hung around his neck, and the matching one that hung around hers.
One evening as the two of them were sitting on the fence gazing up at the starry sky, their conversation went in a different direction than normal.
"Marilyn, I have come to notice the beautiful key that you have hanging around your neck."
Marilyn was surprised, but she didn't feel any hesitation, there was no urge to change the topic at all. "Yes, it was a gift from my parents many years ago. I have noticed that you have one as well."
"This key was a gift from my parents when I was a young boy. For years I have worn it around my neck, but I have never seemed to understand the meaning of it, that is until I met you." Marilyn was shocked! She had felt the same way for weeks now. Her head was suddenly spinning with thoughts. What could all of this mean for her?
"I know now that this key is the key to my heart." He continued, "I have guarded it for all these years, never knowing what for. I feel that you are the one who I have been guarding it for. I believe that you are the one I am supposed to give this key to."
Marilyn stopped and thought for a moment, the key was to her heart, it all made sense now. Her father's words ran through her head "Guard this key with all of your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right." All of the memories connected to her key filled her mind. It all suddenly became clear. The key was to her heart, her precious heart that she had to guard from the wrong people! The key had been to something so precious, she had been right! She smiled with joy! She felt the time was right. He was the one she would give her key to. He had become her best friend, and someone she could trust. Their keys belonged to one another. She could not have been happier. As she took the chain from around her neck and gently placed her key within his hand her father's words rang in her ears one last time,"Guard this key with all your might, do not give it to anyone until the time is right."
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