Mina came home from work at six. It was a grey Tuesday evening. The wind was cold. Mina came to Auckland from Korea three months ago. A month ago, she moved into a little house on Tui Lane. Everything was still new to her.
The house was old, and it had a red front door. At the back, there was a lemon tree and an old shed. At the front, next to the gate, there was a letterbox. Mina checked the letterbox every day. Usually there were only bills and pizza ads in it.
But today was different. Mina opened the letterbox and put her hand in. She found a key. It was a big, heavy, old key. A small paper tag was on the key.
It wasn't hers. Mina's keys were in her bag. She took them out and looked at them. Her keys were small and new. This key was big and very old. It didn't belong to her.
She looked at the tag. It said: "Friday, 7 p.m." That was all. There was no name and no phone number.
Mina looked up and down the street. There was nobody on the street. Only Mr Walker was outside. He was her neighbour, an old man. He was in his garden with his roses.
"Kia ora, Mr Walker!" Mina said. "Did you see anyone at my letterbox today?" Mr Walker looked at the key in her hand. He didn't say anything for a long time. Then he said, "No. I didn't see anyone." He went into his house and closed the door.
Mina went into her house too. She put the key on the kitchen table. She made a cup of tea. Maybe the key belonged to the people before her. Maybe the postman made a mistake.
She wanted to call her sister in Seoul. But what could she say? "There's a strange key in my letterbox"? Her sister would worry. So Mina didn't call.
After her tea, Mina tried the key. It didn't fit the front door. It didn't fit the back door. "What am I doing?" she said, and she laughed.
But she kept thinking about the tag. What was on Friday at seven? Was it a party? Was it a meeting? Was somebody coming to her house?
That night, Mina couldn't sleep. At eleven o'clock, she got up. She went to the kitchen and picked up the key. Then she saw something new. There was more writing on the back of the tag.
She turned the tag over. The letters were very small. It was only one word. It was her name: MINA.