The Keys... Part 3

One day, I found myself staring at a huge, unknown building. Not knowing how I got there, I was filled with awe. I could only say it looked like the biggest condominium I had ever seen. There was no fence of any sort and I easily got near to it. When I looked up, its tower reached the sky, as far as my eyes could see, or rather could not see, for the sky was so dazzling that I thought i was going blind. Although it was fenceless, I could not enter.

The ground floor was already several times my height and there were no stairs of lifts. Walking anxiously arund the building that now appeared like a great wall, I was about to panic when the wall curved slightly. After walking for hours, I found myself in front of the building. I realised that I had been at the back end of it earlier. There, in front of me was the grandest lobby I had ever seen. There were thousands and thousands of people, all walking briskly towards the building in silence. No one bothered to greet anyone. Suddenly I saw a strange sight. Thousands of doors were swinging randomly and simultaneously in fearsome silence.

When a door swung inwards, it opened and someone entered a room, upon which the door automatically swung outwards, closing it tight. I followed the orderly crowd, but to my dismay, none of the doors opened for me. But when others approached, doors automatically swung open to be entered and then shut tight. I decided to retreat to an open space and observe how I could enter. I was as if an unseen scanner was operating each time a person approached a door. Did they have special keys or implanted chips or what? I searched for something like that all over my body and pockets.

But now I was truly light-pocketed as I had always wished. The crowd gradually thinned and very soon only three persons were left in the lobby - me, a young man whom I did not know and Mrs. Lai. I looked down on the floor and slapped my own face, regretting that I never learnt how to recognise precious stones, for I could not tell whether the floor was made of diamond, ruby, sapphire, jasper, or emerald.

"What is the use of staring at those stones?" said Mrs. Lai. "You can't enter the room either?" "No," I said. "I don't have the key." "Silly, nobody needs any key here," she said. "Can't you see we are in trouble?"

... to be continued...