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Searching for Tristen

The Heart Shaped Locket

By Gray Beard NerdPublished 3 years ago 23 min read
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Tabitha woke early to her father gently shaking her and calling her name. It was still dark, but he always roused her and her brothers early before the sun rose to work. As he lit the candle by her bedside she rolled to her side and sat up in the darkness. As her vision cleared, she stood and walked to the corner of her room. There sat a broken mirror and a basin of water and a clean towel. Every morning her father rose early to draw water for the family from the well just outside the farmhouse. She washed her face with the still cool water smelling the familiar fragrance of minerals before drying her face with the towel. Soon she was on the porch soaking in the humid morning air watching the sun come up between the towers on the horizon. Her father had also made breakfast, nothing special, just some old bread and butter to start the day. She nibbled on the bread as she scanned the settlement. About twenty families lived and worked the land here raising animals and growing wheat for everyone to share. She could see some of the other families lighting candles and getting ready to start their day of work.

Before the fall her great grandfather owned the farm but as families would come starving, he would share willingly what he had as long as they were willing to work. Now the farm belonged to all of them since by this time through careful matching and arranged marriages pretty much every family group had a familial claim to the land. Each family had a voice in a council that met monthly to discuss matters of the farm and the needs of the community and to arrange pairings, when necessary, of the next generation. Years ago, Tabitha had been paired with Jeb but the two were not considered of age to marry and had barely spent any time together growing up. All her brothers were similarly matched by the community and her oldest brother Jessie was set to be married later that year after his and his fiancé’s twentieth birthdays. Of course, that’s if everything went as planned.

The reality of the settlement was that the land grew poorer and poorer each year making resources more and more scarce with every passing season. This had led to some tension in the community as everyone worked to the breaking point to keep up with the demand. Every family needed resources to grow food for everyone, but the resources were getting more and more difficult to come by. They had explored beyond the farm looking for a solution, but most of the land was dry and barren and other parts were impassable. They were an island of plenty, but for some reason that plenty was slowly fading. She sat in her mother’s rocking chair on the porch surveying the wheat in front of her. Even in the years of her own life she could see the wheat was not what it once was. It did not seem to matter what her father tried, year after year there was less harvest and last year, they barely had enough to fill the store houses for winter. Tabitha nibbled on the stale bread as her father Teadore came out of the house to stand at her side.

Her father talked very little these days. Since their mother died a few years back and the farm steadily grew less productive he felt the weight of the world pressing on him. When the settlement sent out people to explore the surrounding landscape the lot had fallen on her mother and several others to go forth and explore. Of them all only her mother returned but she died soon after. They had pushed out further and further, looking for anything that could help them make the difference for the community. But they came upon a large crater close to the towers on the horizon, miles from the farm, and they all became terribly ill. They tried to return to the settlement but in the end none of them survived. She looked out to the horizon to the specific spot she first saw her mother returning. A thin frame and a shadow of the woman she remembered she had found when her and her father reached her. As she looked out with her father once again, she thought that maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. But it was not, there on the horizon, coming in from the same direction was another tall figure slowly approaching.

In the large barn they had all gathered to listen to the stranger. Tabitha sat in the loft of the barn with the other children trying to listen in on the adult’s conversation. Her father stood with the man who was dressed in a long threadbare coat and had a long greying beard. He said that he came from the other side of the towers. No one in the last four generations, since the fall, had come into the settlement from beyond the towers. Indeed no one had come, period, since her great grandfather's generation. It was unimaginable that someone could cross the vast wilderness, much less traveled beyond the range of the towers. Her father stood quietly behind the man while he addressed the heads of the other families. Her and her father ran out to meet the stranger once she pointed him out to her father. Panting they came to him walking carrying a large pack and an old walking stick. He also wore a large, brimmed hat but most surprising of all too Tabitha, around his neck he wore a heart shaped locket.

Tabitha felt drawn to the shiny polished object, it was incredibly beautiful and ornate, hanging by a small silver chain low under his beard. It still shone in front of the crowd, and he jovially explained himself to the others. I have come to this land looking for someone, hoping to find them well and give them something. The group murmured slightly to each other looking around the room. My name is Simon, he continued and the person I seek is named Tristin. He took the locket holding it in front of himself. I was tasked by another, a promise made to a dying friend, to deliver this locket to Tristen. Her father stepped forward, there is no one by that name among us and as I explained before to you none have come here or left here in many generations. The man Simon looked out at the crowd scanning the group as each family head in turn nodded in agreement with her father.

She was surprised as Simon smiled, my journey continues then, he exclaimed. But before it does, I must replenish my supplies. She could feel the tension in the group increase; they had very little to share with strangers. Sensing their hesitation, he set his large pack on the ground and opened it. I have something to offer in return of course he said, producing a sack from the pack and placing it on the ground in front of the group. He untied the sack and pulled from it a handful of some sort of seed.

Sitting at the dinner table that night with Simon, her father, and the boys she listened as their guest explained nitrogen deficiency in the soil was the reason the wheat crop was growing less and less. Nitrogen plays an important part in the process of growing plants and by growing the same plant year after year in the soil began to fail. Her father countered that they used the animal dung to fertilize the soil, but Simon shook his head. It is not enough and at best you have delayed the problem. The sack of soybeans lay in the corner and Tabitha’s father pointed to them. But this will cure the soil? He asked in an unconvinced tone. Simon nodded, after the fall I am guessing that your family had access to very few seeds, probably only what was available when the fall occurred. The soil was rich at first, Simon continued to explain, but over time it has slowly grown depleted. This time Simon pointed out the sack. Long before the fall our people used a method known as crop rotation to protect the soil before artificial methods were developed. Soybeans was one of the crops they used, he finished. Can you eat it though? Her eldest brother Jessie asked. Simon smiled; it is not as tasty as wheat he replied but it is very nutritious. How do you know all this? Tabatha asked, unable to contain her curiosity. I read it Simon responded pointing in the direction of the towers. In the old city they have a building full of books filled with stories and information from before the fall, he explained. I spent some time there reading all the books that are still there, learning what I could before I continued my journey. To find Tristen. Tabatha asked. Simon gripped the locket tightly, yes, he responded at length.

Tabatha’s father shot her a look that told her she was not allowed to ask more questions that night. Later in the evening she stared again at the towers in the fading light. Since she had been little, she had dreamed of what could be there. To her and her family it might as well be the other side of the world, but Simon had been there, even further. Her father had given the stranger her room for the night, and she was staying with her father. She hoped that in the coming days she would get to ask him much more about his travels. This would prove difficult; Simon was in high demand among the people in the settlement over the next few days. His knowledge improved almost every aspect of the group's quality of living and others in the community invited him over constantly to help them solve their problems, whatever they may be. But of course, all of them had their own duties in the settlement as well and the work did not go away just because Simon was there. But it did get noticeably easier as time went on and the morale of the group seemed to be improving, with only one exception.

Tabitha’s father grew more and more impatient with Simon as his popularity grew. Everything he was doing was working and the people prospered but for some reason it was not enough for her father. This also made seeing Simon difficult as Her father had not yet invited him again to their home and only tolerated him in the field at the insistence of the other elders. The soybeans grew well and as Simon’s one year with them turned to two, it was true the wheat grew better where the soybeans had been planted before. The new food also added some variety to their diets and Simon taught them lots of new ways to prepare both crops as well as the animals they tended. Still despite her father’s distaste for him she occasionally did get time to ask him more questions about his travels and adventures, which seemed to delight him as he remarked few in the settlement asked him about such things.

At first, he told her stories of his own adventure. Coming south through the towers made of stone built before the fall. All empty and stripped bare, they stood as imposing monuments of the world that was slowly crumbling to dust the same as all the rest of the old world's accomplishments. He told her about the books he had read. Some were based on history, some on fantasy and some a mixture of both. She loved these stories the most, tales of eccentric figures and glorious battles of old. Stories of a wondrous world filled with miraculous discoveries. Her father did not approve of all these stories and often would criticize her for following Simon around with her head in the clouds. You need to be in the here and now he would yell. But the here and now was so laborious to her. She longed to escape and see more of the world and Simon was the closest she may ever come to realizing that dream. But her father insisted that all the old tales of the world before the fall were untrue. How could they he would say, if they had everything that you say how come things are the way they are now? He would ask. She would ask Simon what he believed. He mused that the sheer volume of stories was proof that the old world was full of comforts. They had the time to create that we do not, he explained. This made her sad, but Simon tried to cheer her up by saying that if their world had been perfect then it would have never fallen. Tabatha pondered this thinking ironically that Simon and her father at least agreed on that one point seemingly.

After some time living in the settlement Simon built a small home and she would go visit when she could, sitting on his porch till he came home from whatever work he had given himself for the day. He worked as hard if not harder than any other in the settlement, save maybe Tabitha’s own father, but always seemed to make time for her. He admired her thirst for knowledge he said to her once as he was teaching her how to read. Almost no one in the settlement could read and they had few books to read anyway. But in Simon’s bag were several books and as the months went on, she read them as she gained in ability. She read history, philosophy, holy books and works of fiction absorbing all she could. Once as they sat on the porch in the evening, she finally asked him the question that she had wanted to ask since he arrived.

Who is Tristen? He repeated the question, stroking his even longer grayer beard. He smiled; can you keep a secret? He asked her and she nodded smiling. He leaned in close and whispered, I don’t know. She leaned back puzzled, and he laughed amused, leaning back in his chair. I grew up in a settlement not too unlike this one, he continued, and she found herself trying to imagine the other farm as he described it. Smaller but just as organized and constantly busy as this one. One day a woman came into town holding this locket, she was dying so I took her home and tried to nurse her back to health. She could see his cheeks turn red and his eyes well with tears. She never fully recovered but we spent the next few years happily caring for each other. Simon looked at her holding up the locket, when she died, she asked me to keep searching for Tristen to give the locket to them. He looked at the towers far away from the porch where they both sat. I buried her and the next day honored her wish. He looked back at Tabatha, she taught me so much as she had wondered for a long time looking for Tristen before she met me. He laughed, I am not even sure she knew who Tristen was either as all she gave me was the locket and a name.

You have nothing else to go one, Tabatha asked, astounded by the story. The older man shook his head. I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl, he said, opening the locket looking inside. Tabatha got up to see but Simon closed it again. She looked puzzled but the man smiled. What is inside is for my love, myself, and Tristen to know or whoever takes over when I am done searching, he mused. Tabatha went home more confused that day than ever. Simon had traveled hundreds of miles over inhospitable land facing starvation and worse to finish what to her mind was an impossible task. Was Tristen even still alive? Did this person ever even exist at all? She looked at the towers on the way home in the distance, she had all her life wanted to know what was there but never had she imagined it worth the risk to see them. She thought of her mother and went to her grave behind their home.

To her surprise she found her father there. She went and stood beside him as the rain that had threatened all day slowly picked up. Her father, without turning, asked if she had been to see Simon again. She hesitated but answered truthfully. Her father sighed and she noticed he seemed older than even a few days before. You remind me of her, he said pointing at the grave, when the town began to worry about the future, she was not chosen to go search the surrounding land, she volunteered to go. Tabitha processed this, the thing that worries me he said as the rain fell harder. Is that he reminds me of her as well. Her father turned to her. When he leaves, would you go with him? Her father asked and, in his eyes, she could see fear like she had never seen before. As the rain drenched them, she stood resolute and shook her head no. Her father embraced her, and they went inside to escape the rain.

Days turned to months and then a year. Simon continued to stay which made the people of the settlement happy, but Tabitha could tell he was growing more anxious. He would often look south away from the towers, and she had no doubt he planned to cross the mountains that were there. The settlement had changed much, and Simon had even gotten some of the old machines from before the fall working and others were learning to read using his books. One year turned into two when Simon announced he would head south in the spring. The people begged him to stay, even Tabatha’s father who was growing more and more fond of the man along with everyone else. I promised myself I would stay until there was plenty to leave behind and I was not a burden to your sources of food. He replied to the group. It was true, things had improved a great deal in two years, but they were far from an abundance of plenty. But there was enough that if Simon took some for his journey none would go hungry. Everyone nervously counted the day till spring but before Simon’s day came more visitors came to call from the north.

They came early one morning, three men with several dogs. Once again, she had seen them in the distance, but this time Simon had intercepted her and her father and insisted Tabitha return home. Simon had a grave countenance and she feared what it all meant. That night they called a meeting and now eighteen she sat with the adults as Simon and her father broke the news. I know of these men, Simon exclaimed. They also come from north of the towers where they have taken from the settlements there for years. Why are they here voices asked, and Tabitha’s father explained, they say they wish to take a portion of our labor in exchange for our safety, And the crowd murmured, what did that mean? before Simon continued. They will take and take until you have nothing left and kill anyone who does not agree with them. I have seen it before he added, and the room's murmurs grew louder. How will we defend ourselves? A voice asked from the back and still others called for peace with the new men. Simon raised his hand, and everyone went quiet. It is too soon to make the correct decision tonight, he said. They have given us two days, he continued. But before he could finish Tabatha saw him raise a hand to her father. Her father had stepped forward to speak but stopped with Simon's signal. Go home and tomorrow we will be able to see a solution more clearly. Everyone nodded and returned home but Tabatha’s father told her to go home with her brother’s.

She did but as soon as they were asleep, she crept from the house back to town, to Simon’s home. It was now raining again, even harder than on the day she promised her father she would not leave the village to follow Simon. That moment was first and foremost on her mind as she crept slowly to the porch window. She heard her father’s voice, you do not have to go alone, he said, and Tabitha crept underneath the window. You heard them; Simon responded. They followed me here, I am responsible, and I will not see you all suffer for it. You could not have known that they followed you and it's been two years Tabitha’s father argued that how could they have followed him. There was a long pause and then the door opened on the cabin. Tabatha ducked under the porch. I will return by morning Simon said walking into the darkness. And if you don’t? her father asked with desperation in his voice. Then it will be up to you to prepare everyone else for the worse. She watched under the porch as Simon extended his hand to her father. Teadore I know that you and I have not always seen eye to eye, but thank you for welcoming me to your home all those years ago. Her father took the outstretched hand. You have to come back and tell Tabatha goodbye he said, and Simon nodded. He turned to go but Tabatha crawled from under the porch calling for him but in the wet grime she slipped and fell hitting her head on the porch step. In the howling rain she saw her father rush to her side and then she felt heavy and went to sleep.

She woke in her bed and reached for the back of her head feeling a swollen knot. She rolled to her side and a wave a nausea swelled in her and she fought too not be sick. She stood slowly and walked to the porch. The elders stood just off the porch and her father was addressing them. Why did he go alone? one man asked, and Tabatha’s father shook his head. He noticed Tabatha and helped her to her mother’s porch chair. He then explained to the group that the bandits said they in fact had till noon that day to decide or they would turn the dogs loose on the town. Simon went to stop them in the night but told us to be ready in case he failed. She watched as her father organized the townspeople with farming tools and placed the young, old, and injured in the central barn where everyone met only the night before. Then they waited; the hours crept by slowly, but they all waited with bated breath. But the men never came.

Simon returned two days later. All the men gathered the first day of the week, a practice Simon started, to socialize over tea which Simon had taught them to grow and make. He was sitting on his porch where they all met, cup in hand a fresh pot behind him. He had been obviously mauled, and his legs were crippled. How he had drug himself back to his home no one could have imagined but in spite of the pain and growing infection he was in good spirits. Simon’s health steadily got worse, but the men were never seen again in the south although how Simon had managed this none knew. It quickly became apparent that Simon was not going to make it much longer. His fever rose and the whole town grieved as he continued to grow more and more sick. Finally, he asked Teodore if he could see Tabatha.

Tabatha walked into Simon’s room. There was an awful smell about the place, one she remembered from her mother being sick before. She took Simon’s hand and his eyes opened slowly. She looked behind but noticed her father had not come in with her. He nodded to her and closed the door. Elise? Simon asked and Tabatha realized he was calling for his lost love. No, it is me, Tabatha said, and Simon smiled. I am sorry, he said, gripping her hand. I am sorry that I have no one else to leave this to and I am sorry to leave you all now. She realized he had something in his hand and as he gripped hers, he dropped the item in her palm. It was the heart locket. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. You must go on, she pleaded. You have not found Tristen. My dear child, he said his breathing growing more labored. More important than finding Tristen was the journey, he brushed her cheek. And the people I met and helped on my way, he added. She put the locket around her neck and gripped his hand again. Until you find Tristen, he said don’t stop learning, he took a horse breath. Don’t stop helping he continued then took another deep breath. And never give up he said as his grip slowly faded and his eyes went blank. She stood slowly and after a moment looked at the locket. She took a deep breath and opened it. Inside was not a picture, just an inscription. “Not all who wander are lost,” it said.

Tabatha stood with her bag facing the mountains south beside her mothers and Simon’s grave. Her father had buried him in the family plot behind the house since Simon had no family here. No direct family, she corrected herself. Indeed, it would not have been difficult to convince any family on the settlement to bury him in their own family plots. In just two short years he had worked his way into every family's heart. She set a note on her mother’s grave for her father and then shouldered her pack and headed south. She did not know what lay ahead, it did not matter she would find Tristen and learn and help anyone who needed her on the way. “Not all who wander are lost,” she read on Simon’s tombstone one more time before it grew to faint. She turned to face the wilderness and was surprised to see her father waiting for her. She walked to him slowly steeling herself for what may come.

He stood with his hands in his pockets looking sadder than she had ever seen him since her mother’s passing. When she got closer, he simply stepped forward and embraced her one more time kissing her on top of the head. He handed her a bag of wheat to put in her pack. For the next settlement, he said and embraced her once more. He stood between the two headstones for a while but just before she lost sight of him, she saw him turn to go home. She once again faced south toward the mountains as the sun slowly climbed in the sky. She opened the locket once more around her neck. This was going to be quite an adventure.

Sci Fi
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About the Creator

Gray Beard Nerd

A nerd who is into cars, video games, movies, book and more. I love to write and hope to share what I have written with others. Please enjoy!!

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