The Heirloom

1996

Marty held the small locket in his stiff fingers, watching the way the light reflected on the colorful enamel. He opened the clasp, his eyes watering as he saw the photo still inside – it seemed a lifetime ago, that young, eager looking man in his air force uniform smiling up at him. She’d kept it all this time – tucked in her drawer alongside the letters he’d sent her. Their whole wartime romance reduced to a small bundle tied up in blue ribbon. It was too sad.

“What’re you doing, Gramps?” Suzie asked, running into the room to give him a big hug.

“Careful sweetie, you’ll crumple my suit” he warned her, but hugged her back just the same. “It’s your Mimi’s pendant – isn’t it pretty? I picked it out for when I was stationed in Italy, back in ’45… look, it has a forget-me-not on it!”

Suzie smiled “Mimi always loved purple flowers the best. Will we pick her some today, Gramps?”

He bent down to fasten the gold chain around her neck. “Here, Mimi would want you to have it. Maybe one day you’ll pass it down to your own granddaughter.”

“Gee, thanks Gramps! I’ll never take it off!” She danced out of the room and down to the garden, where he watched her skipping about, picking pansies and irises for her Mimi’s grave.

“God damn, but I miss you, Emily” he said out loud to the empty room they’d shared for half a century.

2020

“She’s fading fast,” the nurse said, muffled through her protective clothing. “If you have anything you want to say, I can hold the phone up for her. I’m so sorry you can’t come into visit. I know this must be incredibly hard.”

“I just don’t believe it. She’s barely 40 years old – how can she be dying? I thought this was just the ‘flu? What am I going to tell our girls?” He broke down, his sobs echoing around the hospital room, audible even over the beeping life support machines.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Lawson. I don’t know what to tell you – this disease is so new, so strange – it seems to pick and choose its victims at random.”

“What… what do I say to her?” He asked, his voice cracking.

“Tell her you love her. Tell her you’ll look after her babies, that you’ll all be okay. Tell her it’s okay to go now, that you don’t want her to suffer. And just know that when she passes I’ll be here by her side, holding her hand.”

“Do you have her possessions, nurse?”

“No, they’re kept in a locker by the nursing station. Why?”

“Can you fetch her necklace? The heart shaped one with the purple flower on it?”

“I’m not sure… I’m not supposed to…”

“Please? It would mean so much to her. She never took it off, you know, not since she was a little girl. I know she’d want it with her now. Please!”

He sounded so broken and desperate, the nurse felt herself tearing up. “Ok, Mr. Lawson. I’ll see what I can do.”

2069

Candice held her big sister’s hands, shocked at how bony they felt. In just a few weeks she had lost 30 lbs, her cheeks hollowed out. She had always been the pretty one, with her dark curls she’d inherited from Mimi Emily, but those were long gone now, her head wrapped in a colorful headscarf that only emphasized the sallowness of her skin.

“Oh Ruthie,” she said, kissing her sister and noticing the faintly sweet odor about her. “I thought you were in remission?”

Ruthie tried to smile. “I was, for a while there. But you know what cancer’s like – a sneaky son of a bitch, that’s what.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Not unless you have a spare colon lying about,” her sister joked weakly, but her large eyes told the true story. Ruthie Had fought long and hard, radiation after radiation, operation after operation. She was too tired to fight anymore.

“Fresh out of those I’m afraid, best I can do is a slightly dodgy kidney.”

They sat in silence for a bit, Ruthie drifting off to sleep for a while, then waking with a grimace as her morphine wore off.

“I’ll fetch the nurse,” Candice said, standing up.

“No! Don’t go, not yet. I wanted to give you something, while I’m still clear enough.” Ruthie fumbled in her dressing gown pocket for a moment, The IV on the back of her hand catching against the fleece. She pulled out a gold chain.

“Remember this?” She held up the locket, it’s purple flower glinting in the bright hospital lights.

“Mom’s necklace! I didn’t know you still had that old thing. Man, I was so jealous when Dad gave it to you.”

“I know, you wouldn’t talk to me for a week! But you were too little, no way you’d have looked after it properly.”

“Would too!”

“Would not!”

“Would too!” Candice found herself laughing and crying at the same time. “What am I going to do without you, Ruthie? Who’s going to call me a brat and make me birthday cakes now?”

Ruthie pressed the locket into her sisters hands. “Not me, thank goodness. Let somebody else deal with your troublesome butt from now on.” She was crying too, now. “Candy – promise me you won’t lose this now, won’t you? I think you’re finally old enough to have it after all.”

2108

Tobias rummaged through the estate sale, looking for a gift for his wife. There was slim pickings, the family must have kept most of the good stuff. He looked through a casket of old costume jewelry, hoping to find something that said ‘Happy First Anniversary’ without saying ‘from your cheapskate husband’. He pulled out a gold chain, untangling it from the other beads. There was a pendant attached to the end – no, not a pendant, a locket. He tried to open it, but the clasp was dented, it wouldn’t budge.

“How much for this?” He asked the young man running the stall, who shrugged his shoulders. “$5?” He suggested, and Tobias considered haggling.

“What’s that?” A curly haired woman in tight jeans asked as she approached the table, kissing the young guy on the cheek.

“Just some necklace thingie, it was in the junk box” he replied.

She frowned. “That’s not meant to be there, that was Great Aunt Ruthie’s. Ma loved that thing, she wouldn’t even wear it because she was scared she’d lose it. Sorry sir, that one isn’t for sale.”

Tobias handed it back grudgingly. “Are you sure? My wife loves purple flowers. I’d give you $20 for it…”

She shook her head. “Sorry, like I said, it’s an heirloom. Some things just have to be kept in the family.”

It was 10pm by the time they’d packed up all the unsold items in the garage. Natalie stood by the bed, eager to get changed into her p.js. She slipped off her jeans, feeling a slight bulge in the right pocket. Reaching in, she found the necklace. It didn’t look like much, small and kind of worn out, some of the enamel wearing off on one of the sides. She found herself fastening the chain around her neck, looking in the bedroom mirror. People often said she reminded them of her great aunt when she was younger, but she couldn’t see it herself. Jonathon walked in, his hair wet from the shower.

“You’re really going to wear that old thing?” He asked.

“Why not? It’s been in my family forever. It can be a lucky talisman.” She climbed into bed and snuggled up against him. “I’m gonna sleep well tonight,” she murmured as she turned out the light.

2175

Sophie ran through the rubble, ducking behind a burnt-out bus as gunfire pierced the air behind her. The shelter was only 100 yards away, she could make it, just had to throw this biker gang of looters off her trail. Through the smog she thought she saw a movement ahead – the children!

‘I TOLD them to stay inside,’ she thought, fear coursing through her veins. Now she could no longer head for home, she couldn’t risk leading these bastards any nearer to the kids. She tossed the backpack of meds in a dumpster and zig-zagged back the way she had come. She’d just have to find another route back to them. Adrian would know to look there, it was a regular drop spot when they couldn’t return for a few days.

Shots brushed past her ear, burning a line across her cheek. They were getting closer! She picked up the pace, scrambling up a steep embankment littered with chunks of concrete. Without looking behind her, she threw a Molotov cocktail over her shoulder, hearing it explode and the angry expletives of the scavengers as they threw themselves on the ground to avoid the blast. It was her last bottle, she was unarmed now.

Scanning the rubble around her frantically, she looked for a place to hide, hoping they’d miss her. No such luck, the nearest half-standing building was too far away – she’d never make it in time. She panicked, torn between a mad dash for the ruins or a suicidal run along the top of the slope, away from the kids. It was no use, the building was just too far. She took a deep breath, and sprinted away from the shelter, away from Adrian and their girls, trying to focus on their faces as she waited for the bullets to hit.

Pain seared through her leg, toppling her to the ground where she rolled several feet down the embankment. It was over, then, no escaping this. The first of the bikers was revving his engine, she could see the dust as he swerved between the larger chunks of debris. He stopped just inches from her head.

“You gave us quite the run around, missy” he said with a nasty smirk. “Now why don’t you tell us where you’ve been holed up all this time, show us a bit of that ole Southern hospitality we’ve heard about, eh?”

She clutched her locket tightly, reminding herself that she came from a long line of strong, brave women and she could handle whatever was about to happen.

“Nothing to say, huh? That’s ok, you’ll be plenty talkative when the others get here. They all talk, eventually.” He climbed off the bike, standing over her, spittle in his beard. “In the mean time, how about we have a little fun?”

2108

“Natalie! Natalie! Wake up!” Jonathon’s concerned face loomed into focus as her eyes snapped open.

“Oh! Oh, oh, oh… the children!” She could hear the hysteria in her voice.

“It was just a dream! Sweetie! You had a nightmare, that’s all.” Jonathon stroked her hair, holding her against his chest while she tried to get her breathing under control.

“It seemed so real,” she said. “It was the future, and everything was… just, gone… and I was wearing this necklace, but… your name was Adrian… and I thought… oh god, get it off me!” She struggled with the clasp of Great Aunt Ruthie’s locket.

“Here, turn around, I’ll get it” Jonathon told her calmly, unfastening the lobster hook and handing it to her.

“Ugh! I never want to see that thing again,” Natalie said, throwing it in a shoe box at the back of the wardrobe.

“Come back to bed love, it’s four in the morning. We’ll get rid of it tomorrow, I promise.”

2159

“Look what I found in this old shoe box,” Jess called to her sister as they finished packing up their childhood home. At the bottom of the box was a dull pendant, heart shaped, a faded flower on the front. “I wonder why it’s in here?”

“Oh, I think that belonged to some old Aunt of Mom’s,” Sophie replied, fastening it around her neck. “Mind if I keep it?”