Tooth-Grin Smile

A white-bearded man peers into a deep blue opening inside a large cave, using the light from the entrance a few meters away, and the cascading blue light from said opening in the wall.

He sits in a miniature excavator and guides the neck of the machine to pick inside the opening. While jostling his machine to dig deeper, a bead of water hits what looks to be a metal of some kind. The man’s eyes widen, and he lifts his goggles up onto his forehead.

“Eureka!”

He laughs to himself, almost falling out of his machine.

While chipping away at the muck and debris from the old world, he notices the object is a heart-shaped locket.

“I haven’t seen somethin' like that in years,” he muttered.

He steers his contraption to snatch at the locket, but it is clamped against what looks to be a black box embedded into the rock.

“For cryin’ out loud!” the man cried in disbelief. The locket is so close.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YA SHOUTING FOR ED?” A voice booms and echoes behind Ed.

A man appears from below, his silhouette covering the entrance to the cave. As he approaches, the man comes into focus. He has on a large black overcoat, over-sized black slacks with dirty rubber boots, and netting for a shirt. He has a light strapped to his head, with the light beam focused on Ed.

“Can you put that light down a peg? You’re blindin’ me!” exclaimed Ed.

The man turns off his light. “Did you find anything?”

Ed turns to the man with a grin. “We aren’t living on scraps anymore. Look what I found!”

Ed’s smile shows off some jagged and broken teeth. His front teeth are covered in a shiny, silver casing.

He points down into the bluish tinted opening of the cave.

The man walks over to the machine Ed sits in and peers into the wall. He sees that it is a light blue cavern, with some water droplets falling from the ceiling.

The man spots it though, the water glistening on the golden locket that is caught between the picking tool and a hard place.

“You found something alright.” The man leans forward, curious.

“Isn’t it excitin’ Dean?” Ed rubs his tattered, gloved hands together.

“It looks nice, but what is it?”

Ed stares at Dean, remembering that he is still young. He doesn’t know much of the old world.

“That there is a locket. It holds sentimental-type things, like pictures or charms,” Ed replied. Ed is wizened and beaten-up compared to the younger Dean.

Dean looks at Ed with a vapid expression.

“What do people have to be ‘Sentimental’ about?” said Dean, annoyed at the discovery.

He continues, “It’s just any other random thing.”

“We sell it. We eat. We survive.”

Dean looks up at the ceiling of the cave, hopeless. Angry. He wonders, what is the purpose of surviving?

“Listen Dean, life is a bit of a rumble-tumble, sure, but think of all the fun nights we had with the Orange Crew up north!” Ed is all smiles.

“Moments like those can be memorable, and some people like to hold onto them memories in other ways, like with photos,” Ed turns his attention to his excavator.

“Step aside Dean, I’ll show ya what I mean.”

Ed, filled with confidence, grips the handles of his machine. He puts his foot onto a pedal that lowers the neck of the excavator toward the box.

Dean steps aside, but still has an eye on the deep blue cavern.

He sees the tip of the machine hammer at the rock wall that is holding the locket hostage. The opening starts to shake a little, and small rocks fall from the ceiling.

A single beam of light appears from above, hitting the locket and shooting toward Dean.

“Ahh!” Dean cried out in pain.

He moves his gloved hands to his eyes, griping them tight. His light apparatus falls off his head and into the deep abyss.

“Dean, you alright?”

Ed glances over at Dean and sees him slump to the floor, writhing and kicking his feet into the dirt.

He screams in agony, with the walls starting to take notice.

“Quiet Dean!” Ed said in a hush. “This place will collapse if you keep that up!” Ed peers at the neck of the machine, hoping to finally release the black box.

“A-ha!” Ed exclaimed as the box is released from the wall’s captivity.

“Got it!”

Ed looks over at Dean, who has stopped agonizing; instead, sits against the cave wall that tried to silence him.

Ed presses a button in front of him and hoists the box and locket up to him. He steps out of his contraption, walks to the edge, and grabs the box. The locket has been embedded into the wood, like a stone that has been pressed into fresh concrete.

Ed grabs a knife from his jacket, and he starts to perform surgery, carefully holding his knife like a surgeon would a scalpel.

He pokes and prods, and finally lifts the locket off the box, leaving behind some gold residue and a heart-shaped imprint.

Ed mutters “It was only stuck in the wood,” and puts the box down on the ground, and his knife back into his faded yellow jacket.

“How are ya Dean?”

Dean, slumped against the rock with his head in his arms, lifts his head up to look at Ed.

“Could be worse,” said Dean, unamused.

“No kidding! The sun wasn’t always this harsh.” Ed rubs his chin pensively. “Did ya know you could walk about with no shirt on and feel the warm rays? It's wonderful!”

Dean snaps back.

“You really piss me off when you say things like that.” It was the second time the harsh rays reached Dean’s eyes.

Fucking Ed, always so happy, and yet he blinded me!

“You’ll be alright,” Ed lifts the locket to his face, “and who knows what’s in that box.” Ed motions to the black box, which Dean can make out in his haze. Everything is still a large blur, but the yellow and black that make up Ed’s attire is still visible to Dean.

“There could be a fortune in there! Maybe we can get ourselves some coolin’ units, and you’ll be able to fix up your eyes, maybe get some of those glasses you were wonderin’ about?” Ed tries to cheer Dean up. “Ever since the Blue Crew came across that tunnel that led to that mall, we’ve had luck. That mall was in ruins, but that box with the glasses have helped. Maybe there are more still waitin’ to be found!”

Dean ignores Ed.

“What was this ‘Locket’ you wanted to show me?”

Dean gets up shakily, using the rock wall as support. Ed gives him his hand for support. Dean waves it away as he approaches Ed.

“I’m fine. Just show me the damn thing.”

“Alright, here.”

Ed shows off the locket. It’s small, about the size of bottle cap. The gold glistens and shines as Ed wipes some dirt off it.

“Check this out,” said Ed with a grimace, flashing his silvery teeth.

Ed puts the end of his right glove to his mouth and peels it off his hand. He places his index finger and thumb together on the side of the locket and twists a latch to open it.

Inside lays a photo of an old man and a young girl. The girl has dark hair, and a big smile that overtakes her face. She looks to be 10 years old.

The man in the photo looks much older, with a head of white combed to one side. They would make an odd couple, thought Dean, his vision clearing up bit-by-bit.

The old man’s eyes look shut, with his mouth showing a large smile, like the girl’s.

“This man must be the girl’s granddaddy,” said Ed.

“Hmph,” Dean stands aloof. “Why is this important?”

Ed’s brows furrow.

“Maybe that girl loved her granddaddy, or maybe it was his and he happily wore it or held it. It ain’t always the case, but many families love each other.”

Ed looks down at the box.

“How about we open up the box and – “

Ed feels a sharp pain in his stomach. He winces.

Ed looks over at the source and sees a knife in him. He looks up to see Dean’s reddened eyes peering into him.

“Dean – I – why?”

Dean pushes the knife in. Ed grits his teeth, blood seeping out of his mouth.

“Why does this matter? You talk about the old days like it’s something to be proud of. That people back then are worth our respect."

Ed grabs Dean's shoulder, trying to hold himself up.

“This world we’re living in. This life we have. It’s all thanks to geezers like you that we ended up in this hellhole, waiting for our atmosphere to wither away. Waiting for the sun to consume us!”

Dean twists the knife.

Ed shouts in pain and falls to the ground.

“I don’t care about some picture. I don’t care about some granddaddy and little girl. All of it is moot in this world. Survival is all we got.”

Ed starts to back away from Dean, holding his wound while kicking his feet and inching closer to his contraption.

“I just need to survive, and I have that as my only option for living on this godforsaken planet!” said Dean raucously while walking toward Ed.

“You and your treasure hunts. All you do is waste time finding trinkets and other kinds of bullshit! How do you know this is valuable?”

“It’s gold!” Ed shouted wearily, blood spitting out of his mouth.

“Sure, like that necklace that was only plated.”

“Trust me Dean, I know!”

Dean grabs Ed’s jacket with both hands, “I’ll tell you what though, I’ll find out for you, and then get some grub. Nothing but surviving. Take care friend.”

“No! Wait –”

Dean hoists Ed to the edge of the cavern and throws him into the abyss.

As he falls, Ed’s head hits a rock, killing him instantly with a sickening crack, all before uttering, “- love -.”

Dean collects the box and the locket and makes his way to the entrance.

His eyes clear up as he approaches the bright opening of the cave. Dean puts his goggles on his head and grabs his gas mask from his overcoat pocket; however, curiosity overtakes him. He decides to look inside the box.

He grabs another knife from inside his jacket and attempts to pry the box open. Dean is less of a surgeon and more of a demolition worker, so when he pops the box open with a bang, he nearly spills its contents.

There are drawings of stick figures lined in a row on pieces of paper. One of these figures has white on its head, and a large, tooth-grin smile on its face.

There are pictures in colour of the same girl and her grandfather, but also of other people. Siblings, cousins, and parents. All of them smiling out in the sun, with the rays shining onto their faces.

Dean feels a tug in his chest, and he can’t help but let loose a stream of tears, putting his hands to his face and dropping the box.

A life he never knew, but always wanted.

One drawing flutters toward the entrance of the cavern he and Ed travelled to, and the paper starts to smoke.

Dean wrenches for it, grabbing it before it catches fire. The drawing has a dozen stick figures in front of a house and tree, all of them smiling with gaping white teeth, with the sun in the corner, also smiling.

Dean wipes his face, and laughs, letting the disheartened feeling consume him.

“Fuck you Ed.”

Dean walks out with the locket and the box and starts thinking of a way to pitch these for the next meal.