Searching for Matching Door with Brass Keys

Searching for Matching Door with Brass Keys

I was at my local public library trying to return some books, but every aisle I turned down seemed slightly longer and dimmer than the last. I ran into a woman working the counter who looked like my high school art teacher, but I somehow knew she was also my grandmother as a young woman. She handed me a heavy metal ring with about twenty identical brass keys and told me I had to find the matching door before closing time, otherwise the building would seal shut for the winter solstice. I spent what felt like hours wandering between familiar book stacks that were quietly shifting, looking for keyholes hidden in the wooden paneling. Every door I tried led to another quiet, carpeted reading room with no windows, just the sound of faint humming from the fluorescent lights. I woke up right as the overhead lights began clicking off one by one, feeling this intense, lingering urge to check if my front door was actually locked.