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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is Chapter 4 of a 12-part fictional Christmas tale. Parents are encouraged to read aloud with their children.
By MEGAN SMITH
and HOLLY NITTOLI
Correspondents
Mr. Hinkly crossed his arms and frowned at them.
"So I see you found the door," he said. Anna and Tyler looked at each other, wide-eyed. Anna whirled around to look at the doorway, but only saw a tiny storage closet filled with a mop, bucket and cleaning chemicals.
"You know about it? What is it? How does it exist?" Questions fired out of Anna, and Mr. Hinkly held up a hand to silence her before waving at them to follow him.
"I think we should have a chat," he said, leading them out to the bakery where they sat on the soft, cozy chairs by the window.
"To answer your first question, yes, I know about the door," Mr. Hinkly said, settling back into the chair. "I discovered it when I was a few years older than you, when I first started working here."
"As for the rest … I'm afraid I don't know," he continued. "The 'hows' and 'whys' of something like that existing aren't anything I can explain. Tell me," he said, leaning forward, "what did you see?"
"My neighbor. Mrs. Campbell," Anna said. "She was sad about accidentally giving something away. But .. she couldn't see us. And there were things that shouldn't have been there. Like the cast on her arm, and a mirror we threw away."
Mr. Hinkly nodded. "So it's still the same," he said, almost to himself. "That door seems to take you to a time and place that doesn't exactly exist, not anymore. It's more like … a memory, a slice of time that you're able to see but not interact with."
Anna and Tyler looked at each other. "But … how?" he asked, and Mr. Hinkly smiled.
"Like I said, that's an answer I've never had. When I realized what that door led to, it was like a light bulb went off in my mind. I could help people, you see. The scenes that doorway showed me had already happened, and I couldn't affect them, but I could change the future. I could help."
When Anna and Tyler frowned in confusion, he smiled again. "The very first room that the doorway had me walk into was a tiny apartment -- my older brother's, to be exact. He'd been married for a few years, and they'd struggled with money for a long time. I saw his wife flipping through a catalog with the saddest look on her face, looking at all the things she longed to have but couldn't afford. I didn't know how, and I didn't know why, but what I did know was that I had the ability to bring her a spark of joy. That afternoon, I bought a card and a gift certificate for the catalog's store and mailed it to them. I signed it from a Secret Santa."
"And I tell you," he said, "my sister-in-law talked about that for months, about how kind and generous someone was to help them that way."
"That was really nice of you to do that," Anna said.
Mr. Hinkly smiled. "I went through the doorway many more times, using what I learned from scenes of the past to bring joy to the people I saw. I questioned it, of course. And the owner of The Book Secret at the time had almost the same chat with me that I'm having with you now."
He smiled at their shock. "The doorway only seems to show itself to people who have a strong desire to help others. It's a way to help change people's lives for the better in small, meaningful ways."
"But…if it helps people, why'd you tell us to stay away from there?" Tyler asked, and Mr. Hinkly's smile turned rueful.
"I suppose that was silly of me," he said. "I was older than you when I found the door -- I worried that maybe you weren't quite ready. I should have known better, though."
He gave them a meaningful look. "Now that you've seen what's behind it, it's up to you to decide what to do with that knowledge. You're welcome to come back and go through the doorway again, but it's a big responsibility. Can you promise me you're ready for it?"
Anna's mind was a whirling mess. This whole thing seemed to make even less sense after talking to Mr. Hinkly. But she nodded at him. "Of course, I promise."
"Me too," Tyler said solemnly.
Mr. Hinkly gave a brisk nod, getting to his feet. "Good. Now, I need to get back to work. And I realize you had a good distraction, but could you two bring up those mugs?"
"Oh," Anna said with a giggle. "I forgot. Of course, we'll grab them."
When they got to the storage room, the closet was still just a closet. They both stared at the totally normal wooden door for a moment before grabbing the boxes of mugs to carry to the front.
She could tell Tyler's mind was whirling just as fast as hers, and she stayed quiet, giving him -- and herself -- time to process everything as they arranged the mugs on the display shelf.
Read Chapter 5 in Sunday's newspaper.