you always have home

By Eric Helmstetter

Chapter One

The Key

The July sun had barely climbed above the maple trees when Mason Keller carried the last box to his SUV.

The back of the vehicle was packed with everything he believed he owned. Clothes. Books. A guitar. Kitchen supplies. Family photographs. Everything needed to begin a new life in San Francisco.

His mother, Elaine, stood quietly on the porch, holding two travel mugs of coffee. His father, Grant, made one final walk around the SUV, checking the tires even though he'd checked them twice already.

"I don't think you could fit another thing in there," Grant said with a smile.

"I tried," Mason replied. "Trust me."

Elaine handed Mason a cup of coffee.

"You remembered your winter coat?" she asked.

Mason laughed.

"Dad asked me that yesterday."

"And?"

"I packed it."

Grant nodded with satisfaction.

"Good."

For a moment, no one spoke.

The house looked exactly as it always had, but somehow it already felt different.

"I still can't believe I'm leaving," Mason said quietly.

Elaine reached for his hand.

"You're leaving this house," she said. "You're not leaving us."

Grant reached into his pocket and pulled out an old brass key.

"I've been carrying this all morning," he said.

Mason looked surprised.

"The house key?"

Grant placed it in his son's hand.

"I want you to keep it."

Mason turned it over in his fingers.

"I'll probably never need this."

"I hope not," Grant replied.

Mason slipped it into his pocket.

"So why give it to me?"

Elaine smiled.

"Because that key isn't really for the house."

Mason looked puzzled.

"It isn't?"

Grant shook his head.

"No."

He rested a hand on his son's shoulder.

"You think everything you own is packed in that SUV."

"It is."

Grant smiled.

"No, son."

"You can't pack honesty."

Elaine nodded.

"You can't pack kindness."

"You can't pack integrity," Grant continued.

"Or compassion," Elaine added.

"Or responsibility," Grant said.

"Those things don't fit inside cardboard boxes."

Mason looked from one parent to the other.

"So where are they?"

Elaine gently tapped him on the chest.

"Right there."

Grant smiled.

"Your mother and I spent twenty-four years trying to build something far more important than a house."

"What?"

"A man."

The words settled into the quiet morning.

Grant pointed toward the road leading west.

"You'll have opportunities we've never had."

Elaine smiled.

"You'll meet people we'll never know."

Grant continued.

"You'll have to make decisions when no one is standing beside you."

"And when that happens," Elaine said, "remember who you are."

Grant nodded.

"Because wherever life takes you..."

Elaine finished the sentence.

"You'll always have home."

Mason wrapped both of his parents in one long embrace.

"I'll make you proud," he whispered.

Grant smiled.

"We already are."

As the SUV disappeared down the road, Grant noticed the brass key was no longer in his own pocket.

Exactly where it belonged.

CHAPTER TWO

The Doors

Three years later, Mason had built a life in San Francisco.

He loved his work as an architect. He had married a wonderful woman named Claire. Together they rented a small apartment overlooking the city. It wasn't large, but it was theirs.

Life was moving exactly as he'd hoped.

Until the day it wasn't.

His firm was competing for the largest project in its history.

Late one evening his supervisor closed the office door.

"If we leave out part of the environmental report," his supervisor said, "the city will never notice."

Mason stared across the desk.

"But we know."

His supervisor shrugged.

"Everyone does it."

Mason drove home in silence.

At a stoplight, his hand slipped into his coat pocket.

His fingers touched the old brass key.

He smiled.

Not because he suddenly knew what to do.

Because he already knew.

He could almost hear his father.

"Your character is who you are when no one is keeping score."

Then his mother's voice.

"Never trade your integrity for convenience."

The next morning Mason walked into the office.

His supervisor looked up.

"So..."

Mason placed the report on the desk.

"I can't sign it," he said.

His supervisor frowned.

"You understand what this means?"

"Yes," Mason replied.

"You'll probably never become partner."

Mason smiled.

"Maybe not."

"But I'll still recognize the man in the mirror."

Three months later another firm heard why Mason had left.

They offered him a position.

Not because of his résumé.

Because of his reputation.

That evening he called home.

Grant answered.

"Everything okay?" his father asked.

Mason smiled.

"Better than okay."

"What happened?"

"I finally understood why you gave me that key."

Grant looked toward Elaine across the room.

"I wondered when you'd figure it out."

CHAPTER THREE

Passing It On

Twenty-five years passed.

The brass key had grown smooth around the edges.

It no longer opened any lock.

The old house had been sold years earlier after Grant and Elaine moved into a smaller place near the ocean.

Still...

Mason carried it every day.

One Saturday afternoon, Noah, the oldest of his 2 sons, loaded the most important of his things into the family SUV.

He had just been accepted to a university across the country.

Claire smiled as she watched.

"He looks just like you."

"He does."

Noah looked up.

"What?"

"Nothing," Mason said.

"I was just remembering."

Before they left for dinner, Mason asked Noah to wait.

"I have something for you."

He reached into his pocket and placed the worn brass key into his son's hand.

Noah laughed.

"A key?"

"It used to unlock your grandparents' front door."

"So why do you still have it?"

Mason smiled.

"Because it unlocked something much bigger than that."

Noah looked confused.

"I don't understand."

Mason sat beside him.

"When I left home, I thought your grandparents were giving me a way back."

"They weren't."

"They were reminding me that wherever I went, I carried everything that mattered."

Noah looked down at the old key.

"So...it's not about the house."

"No."

"It's about the life they taught me to build."

He pointed toward his son's heart.

"And someday..."

"...it'll remind you of the same thing."

Noah closed his fingers around the key.

"What if I make mistakes?"

Mason smiled.

"You will."

"What if life gets hard?"

"It will."

"What if I don't know what to do?"

Mason nodded.

"Then stop."

"Take a breath."

"And ask yourself one question."

"What question?"

"What kind of man do I want to be?"

Noah was quiet for a long moment.

"Grandpa taught you that?"

Mason smiled.

"He lived it."

"And Grandma?"

"She reminded me every day that kindness is never weakness."

Claire walked over and slipped her arm around Mason.

"They gave you a wonderful home."

Mason looked at the key resting in his son's hand.

"They gave me something even better."

Noah looked up.

"What?"

"They made sure I would always carry it with me."

As Noah slipped the key into his pocket, Mason realized something his parents had understood decades earlier.

Houses grow old.

Addresses change.

Children leave.

But values, once planted deeply enough, travel farther than any moving truck ever could.

That was the real inheritance.

Not a house.

Not a key.

A way to live.

And wherever that life would take Noah...

He would always have home.

LYRICS

You Always Have Home

you drove up the cost to San Francisco

Your car is filled with everything that you own

Said goodbye to some friends but this isn’t the end

It’s a new day a new life a new town to paint red

You’ll always have home

Now that you’ve gone

You’ll always have home

Now that you’re grown

Build a life of your own

You build a life of your own

And you’ll always home

You drove away you said you’d never look back

You’d find your way on the other side of the tracks

Please know if you stumble and fall along your road

There’s always there’s always always a place that you know

You’ll always have home

Now that you’ve gone

You’ll always have home

Now that you’re grown

Build a life of your own

You build a life of your own

And you’ll always home

You’ll always have home

Now that you’ve gone

You’ll always have home

Now that you’re grown

Build a life of your own

Just build a life of your own

And you’ll always home

We so proud of the man you’ve become

Living your life with your wife and your son

Try to call when you can don’t forget the things you’ve learned

Remember your place and the people you’ve earned

You’ll always have home

Now that you’ve gone

You’ll always have home

Now that you’re grown

Build a life of your own

You build a life of your own

And you’ll always home

You’ll always have home

Now that you’ve gone

You’ll always have home

Now that you’re grown

Build a life of your own

Just build a life of your own

And you’ll always home

You’ll always have home

You’ll always have home

Build a life of your own

And you’ll always have home

Yeah Yeah

You’ll always have home

Yeah you’ll always have home

You’ll always have home

Yeah you’ll always have home

yeah yeah