The Locket

A quick flash of light catches my eye. Finding any metal, besides a discarded food wrapping, is rare. I try not to draw attention as I don’t want the other scavengers to notice my sudden excitement. My dirty hands sift through the trash heap. I pull out a plastic cup and put it in my knapsack, which was once a bright red, and now is more of a dingy brown. I adjust the sack so that it is in front of me so I can swiftly conceal the unknown treasure to examine later. Quickly, I grab the small object. I place it inside the cup and add a plastic bag inside so that it won’t chance making any noise while I walk. I also cannot risk it falling through a hole in the knitting of the old bag.

“Lorlyn!” my little sister, Hollyn calls for me, “Look!” she holds up a naked doll with wild hair, “Can I keep this?”

Mom told me they are called “American Girl” dolls and now only the Elite gets such luxuries. She tells us that America used to be a great country. Now however, the country is simply called, The States.

“Of course! We can sew some clothes for it. Let’s see if we can find some fabric.”

I help her search through the trash the Elite tossed out while the weight of the small object weighs heavily in my bag. A while later we are making our way back to our home - a spacious house that I believe was once quite grand. Though, now its paint is peeling and many windows are cracked. What was once beautiful greenery along the perimeter, is now tall, overgrown weeds that we try our best to keep maintained. However with the lack of rain and more hot days than cool, not much else grows.

My mom’s boyfriend, Holden greets us as we come down the path. I believe the path was once used for vehicles, as it leads into a separate building that is part of our main home. We now use it to store canned goods and Holden hangs meat to dry for jerky in it. Hollyn is quick to show him her doll from the trash heap. She scampers off and I watch her until Holden interrupts my thoughts.

“Find anything decent today?” he asks, spreading some seed out for our chickens.

“Nah.” I lie. “Found Hollyn that doll. Those American dolls mom talks about sometimes.”

Holden lets out a grunt of a laugh. “Your mom had one when we were young. Things sure are different now.”

I watch as a gloss covers his aging eyes. Some days when we find things that remind our elders of the past, the memories are too much for them. Life hasn’t always been like this. While my mom was pregnant with me, things changed. Not only was there a deadly virus spreading quickly among the people. The quicker the virus spread, the movement that grew just as fast was the division between social classes. It didn’t matter your race, or who you loved. What mattered was how much money you had that could buy you protection.

Our family stayed healthy. Mom knew how to properly sanitize and keep socially distant. The virus ended up wiping out entire communities. It didn’t matter how you contracted the virus-having it was a death sentence. The one good thing that came out of the Elite was a vaccine for all. It is the only decent thing our government has done for us as it provided the vaccine to all people. The only memory of the virus that remains today are the empty streets and the walls that separate the poor from the wealthy.

My dad was a hard worker, so I’ve been told. He worked building houses and made a decent amount of money. Mom refers to them as being “middle-class” on the social-economic hierarchy. However, that combined with her income of being a teacher wasn’t enough to save them from the future that was quickly closing in on them. Taxes and surcharges were increased on everything. Quickly, they fell behind on payments and lost a vehicle. Then they had to sell their other vehicle to pay the hospital to deliver me safely. Dad took a job a few states away to help build a new elite community of homes. Only, he never returned.

Mom and Holden have tried to track him down or find out if he is even still alive, except we cannot access any records of who was sent to work on these new communities. Once they were built, the Elite left the smaller towns and cities, which took away the infrastructure needed for the towns to thrive. The great divide of social classes was complete. The Elite had their own world, separate from the unwealthy.

Mom and my dad grew up with Holden, whom we now share our home with and together they had Hollyn. He works in maintenance for our community. He helps replace or fix broken things such as doors, or a leaky water faucet. Mom still teaches, however the government funding is minimal, which she says is the one thing that hasn’t changed much. Each family receives a monthly stipend to help with bills. But many choose to go without electricity or gasoline and use the money to feed and clothe their families the best that they can.

I always wonder what it must be like to have the clothing I admire in the discarded magazines from the trash heap. Sewing clothing for Elite is all I want to do. It would break my family out of the community we are stuck in. Every four months the Elite allow applicants to come in and apply for open jobs, and there are some open for seamstresses. The only requirement is that the person must be 18 years-old, which I will be in just three weeks.

The day passes agonizingly slow. I spend my time sifting through fashion magazines. We eat our typical dinner of noodles and vegetables, with side of bread. Meat is something we eat only on Saturday, when Holden and mom drink beer. It is the one day they relax a little. I feel like those evenings are little peeks at what life used to look like for them. Mom and Hollyn settle in and begin stitching together some scrap fabric for her doll and I sneak away to my bedroom.

I lock the door quietly, as though the small clicking sound will scream to the world that I have something I shouldn’t. Carefully, I extract the cup from my knapsack. I settle into my mattress and pull the plastic bag from the cup. My plan had worked-the trinket is lying at the bottom of the cup, waiting for me. I pull out the small metal and realize it is a piece of jewelry. It is about an inch across and fairly thick.

The trinket is in the shape of a heart. There is a loop at the top where a chain must once have held it around someone’s neck. I absent-mindedly run my fingers on my clavicle, imagining what the weight of the heart must have felt like and how exquisite the owner must have felt wearing it. I roll it around in my hand, admiring the intricate design etched into the metal. I find a cloth and I try my best to polish the small object while wondering why this was tossed out. Surely, someone didn’t mean to lose something this lovely.

My mom told me that jewelry was worn by all people. No matter how poor or wealthy; everyone would wear beautiful embellishments on their fingers, around their necks, and even their wrists! As I polish the heart carefully, it suddenly breaks in half. At first I am horrified that I have broken it. But then I realize it was meant to do such a thing! I carefully examine the inside of the heart. I maneuver the object around to catch the light just right-but then I see it. Inside is etched with numbers and letters.

I rummage through my bookshelves to find what I am looking for-an old dictionary. After a bit of research I discover this is a locket and inside there could be things such as a small picture or a personal inscription. Nothing inside of this heart makes any sense to me. After tiredness sets in, I carefully hide the locket in my bedside table within a hollowed out book that I keep my most prized possessions in.

The days pass the same as they always have, yet my days are now filled with me trying to figure out what is inside the locket. The night of my eighteenth birthday, after we eat pound cake and strawberries, I decide to show it to mom and Holden. Perhaps we can sell it. Mom examines it carefully, as though it might break just by looking at it.

“Where did you find this, Lorlyn?” she asks, her eyes never leaving the locket.

“The trash heap. The day we found Hollyn’s doll.”

“Amazing. I haven’t seen something like that in years. Almost two decades now.” Holden chimes in.

“What’s written inside?” I ask, begging silently that they must know.

After they each take turns examining it carefully, they both nod and decide that it is coordinates. Latitude and longitude. What I thought was a letter, was a degree symbol. Geography isn’t something taught, since we have no place to go. They explain it to me and Holden gets out a book full of maps of what America used be.

“Here.” he points after a long twenty minutes. “In the Elite community next to us. That’s where it leads.”

Mom and I meet our gazes immediately.

We spoke no more of it, but I hid the locket on me the day I crossed the barrier into the Elite community. There was no time for me to admire my surroundings, I was too busy examining street signs and landmarks that Holden told me I might see. I found a street he had mentioned and wandered down its alley. Elite scurried out of my way.

I stopped suddenly when a statue, matching the locket appeared before me. I examined it closely. This must be it; the coordinates from the locket. But why would it bring me here? I spot an older gentlemen sweeping the street. He stops when he notices me. He comes close and motions toward the back of the statue. Without saying a word, he looks to a small spot at the base of the heart. There is a spot carved out of the stone and it looks to be the same size of the locket I am hiding.

The man eyes me eagerly. His eyes grow wide and he motions to the hollowed spot. I nod my head, finally understanding what he is telling me to do. I pull the locket out of my secret pocket sewn into my dress and place the locket in the spot.

The man’s face lights up with pure joy.

“You’ve done it, my child. You are the queen.” he takes my hand, grabs the locket, and quickly leads me to a small building. He presses a button and the wall slides open to reveal a secret chamber. A man sits quietly at a desk and when he notices us, immediately stands to greet me.

“Mr. Bolyn, your daughter, Lorlyn has done it. She has proven herself and is now here to reign as queen. Congratulations, madam.” with that, the older gentleman bows and slips away. Leaving me more confused than I have ever have been.

“What does he mean?” I finally sputter out.

“You have a lot to learn, my dear Lorlyn. But first, let’s get the family all here . It is time they see you as the queen that will save our country. And I do miss my wife.”