Stella was born in 1920 in an old house built at least 30 years earlier. At Stella’s birth her name was different. A bible was used to select her name and when Cynthia found her on the doorstep of the house just a few days after her birth there was copy of the bible with the book mark and the word Glory underlined and the name written underneath in pencil ‘Gloria May.’ A letter of introduction with a confession that Gloria was conceived out of wedlock, something that was frowned upon – although no fault of the child. She was a bonny baby.
Cynthia was not going to place this find with the authorities, but would bring up the baby herself. It would be no life for the little one in the poor house. The letter also explained that the doorstep of the house would be her home and must be kept in good order until Gloria came of age. In the basket where Gloria was nestled was another envelope marked “KEYS” with an address. Included were baby clothes of different sizes and colours. Whoever had given up on facing the stigma of being chastised had not fallen short on lavishing the baby with the best that one could buy, although some of the clothing was unfamiliar with Mrs. Spring whose husband had been killed in the war that ended two years earlier.
Mrs Spring was able to hide the fact that she had a foundling as she told neighbours and friends that the baby was an orphan of her fictional sister and her husband who had received a direct hit from one those newfangled bombs. She never went into a lot of detail about it as she might trip herself up on the facts that had been printed on a card about what people should avoid touching if they came across something that was a peculiar shape or had a funny colour.
What to do about the house that came with Gloria was a bit difficult for Mrs Spring, she couldn’t send a neighbour to investigate and it would be funny to carry a baby to this other property. It would have to wait. Eventually she had managed with the authorities to get the baby registered with her as the sole parent, but being disorganised because of the war, it was agreed and she had a piece of paper which she had to sign, to say that the baby was hers.
Gloria’s new name was Stella Spring. It was a cheerful name and it was about three months later that Cynthia Spring was able to find one of her neighbours who was willing to look after the baby while she went to the old house where Gloria was born.
Mrs Spring approached the house with a dreadful premonition that somewhere hidden in the house would be Gloria’s parents in a suicide pact, not wanting to face the future. It wouldn’t have been an easy thing to do to give up something that you treasured more than life and then take your own. She shuddered she couldn’t bear the thought of doing that herself.
Cynthia stood outside the door for a few minutes just staring and she was aware that other eyes were watching her. At last she inserted the large key into the lock and turned it anticlockwise and heard two clicks. She pushed open the door and walked into a large vestibule where a grandfather clock stood soundless waiting for someone to wind it up. The most noticeable thing was the musty smell of no-one living in the house. As no housework had been done there was a layer of thick dust on every shelf and ledge.
The fireplaces were large and made up and Cynthia was wondering whether to light a fire as she shivered from the damp air that pervaded each room as she passed through them. It was a large house with twenty one rooms. The kitchen was more puzzling to look at than anything as she discovered an oven built into a cupboard and what she thought as a small flat surface to work on turned out to be a hinged glass lid with funny looking burners on it. She hadn’t seen anything like it in the shops.
Cynthia came to the twenty first room, it was locked. She had two other keys with her but she was afraid to unlock the door because she might discover something quite horrible. She decided to look through the keyhole and couldn’t understand what she saw. There was a very bright light and it blinded her. She ran away, crying as she went past each room, stumbling down the stairs and just managing to grip a newel post to stop her from falling down. It would be no good to be dead if she was going to look after a baby. She sat on the bottom stair wondering what she should do next. She managed to compose herself for the outside world beyond the front door as there would be prying eyes watching every step she made.
She decided that one fine summers day she would come back and dust and clean one room as best as could, perhaps she might even have enough time to do two rooms. But what to do about the room with the bright light? Was there a monster she would have to come to some sort of understanding with. ‘Oh what the hell?’ She yelled out loud and went back to the room and inserted one key and nothing happened and the other one and still nothing. She was furious with the keys for not opening the door she feared to open. On the door was a circular disc and inset were a further eight round smaller discs and each had a letter on them. They didn’t read any word that Cynthia knew of, it was utter gibberish. “I S A D R A P E”. It could be a sentence “Is a drape!” It didn’t make any sense to her.
Having got back to her house, she thanked her neighbour for looking after the baby and gave her two eggs as payment. The neighbour thanked her as rationing was still present and she and her husband could have bacon and egg together in the morning.
Cynthia decided to look through the nest of clothing that the baby had been wrapped in. She had taken it out of the basket in one piece. She shook each layer separately and in between the folds of the last bit of clothing fluttered down another envelope with the name Gloria written on the front. With nervous fingers she opened the envelope, there was no key. Just rhymes of words that must mean something and Cynthia read the first one:
Room One : When standing in this room, you must walk to the middle,
Stand on a chair, look North and South and you’ll find a clue to this riddle?
Cynthia was wondering if the rooms were numbered, she hadn’t noticed any numbers on the doors, there must be a map somewhere or was the answer to where room one was from the first clue.