On the day we moved into our new home, my parents gave everyone a key, except for me.
I asked my mother for it, and she patted the back of my hand:
"Just ring the doorbell and we'll open it for you."
I smiled and said yes, thinking that if I were more obedient and sensible, I would be seen.
Later, I got the only place in the city for government-sponsored study abroad, and my ID card was left in the drawer of my bedroom.
The submission deadline was two o'clock that afternoon. I rushed home at twelve o'clock. The door was locked and no one was there.
I called my mother, who was in the mall with her sister to pick out costumes.
"Wait a minute, your sister has a piano competition next week and she hasn't chosen a dress yet."
I called my father, who was taking his younger brother to practice driving at a driving school.
"Can you borrow a stool from your neighbor to try climbing through the window?"
I sat in the corridor waiting, and the neighbors looked at me several times as they came in and out.
They finally came back at 8:30 in the evening, and my sister was jumping around with four shopping bags.
The younger brother took apart the new headphones without raising his head.
Dad entered the door carrying large and small bags, passed by me and said:
"Why are you sitting on the ground? Come here and help get the things."
No one asked me how long I had been waiting, no one remembered that I said I wanted to get something.
That night, I dragged out the dusty suitcase from under the bed.
They have four keys, just enough to lock up an entire home.
And it's time for me to find a door that's willing to open for me.
