The Locket of Truth

I was a bookworm and a history buff, so reading about the past made me wish to live then. “I was born too late,” I used to tell my mom. Reading also allowed me to escape the present day mess our world was in socially, politically, technologically. In books masks were for parties or thieves; sickness was cured; wars brought about peace. For me the present was a nightmare.

When we moved to an old house, I decided to explore it. I was in the process of exploring the second-floor when I found that one of the rooms had a door which had been sealed shut. I went downstairs to ask my mother if she had a key to the locks on the door. “No,” she said, “I checked all the keys, and none will fit that door.” I asked her if I could try prying the hinges, and she gave me permission.

As I removed the door, I saw an empty room except for a small vanity. I tried the drawers of the vanity, but none would open. I could not see any keyholes to unlock them. I realized there must be a secret way to open the drawers. I began feeling the edges of the vanity, the mirror, and the drawer fronts. A small depression on the side allowed me to pullout a slender wood pin. I then viewed the drawers again and saw a tiny hole in one. The pin fit into the hole and released a locking mechanism which opened all the drawers. All but one were empty, and the one contained a carved, wooden box. Inside the box was a wooden locket shaped like a heart. Letters were carved on the front, P. P. F. I tried to open the locket, but it was locked or sealed with an invisible lock. I looked back at the vanity and saw a tiny scrap of paper lying in the drawer where the locket had been. I picked it up and read, “To unlock the truth of the Past, Present, and Future, you must break my heart.” I really did not want to break the simple, beautiful heart, but I did as the note said. I took the hammer I had used to open the door and brought it down with some force.

The locket shattered or exploded. I am not sure which, but when I opened my eyes, The room was completely different. I found myself in a lavish boudoir. The only thing familiar was the vanity by the window. I stood dumbfounded for a moment then slowly walked to the vanity where my reflection revealed I was dressed in period clothes from a hundred plus years ago. As I stood before the mirror, an older gentlemen entered through the door which I now realized was open. “I have brought you a gift,” he said. I expected to see him smiling as he spoke the words, but instead, his face showed sadness. In his hands he held the small wooden box which he placed in my hands. I opened the box, and of course found the wooden locket inside. This time however, it was not sealed shut. I opened it easily. The old gentleman looked me square in the eye and said, “The keys to the future are the past and the present. We must learn from history, or we will repeat it. If we disregard the truth of the past, we will be in bondage to all the evil we have defeated. One day, in order to know the truth, you will have to break my heart.“

I looked into the locket I had opened, and I found a tiny scroll of The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Ten Laws. The old gentleman looked at me again and spoke. “These documents do not give us liberty, but they explain our liberty and its True origins. Even the Ten Laws are necessary to prevent evil, or no one would have liberty. The heart is a reminder to love truth even when it is called a lie.”

The old gentleman then took the locket from my hands. I watched as he set a seal upon the edges of the heart then closed it. then placed the locket around my neck. “Someday, someone will open this when truth is unwanted but needed. It should only be broken in a time when truth is denied.”

The old gentleman turned to leave, and I called out to him, “Who are you?”

“I Am the Truth of the Past.” He closed the door.

I gazed into the mirror for a moment when I suddenly realized that I was seeing images flash before my eyes. I saw Marx, Stalin, Hitler, Mao. I saw their atrocities to people. I wondered how millions could follow these men, praise them for their evil acts, and believe the evil would bring freedom. I saw the World Wars, and the wars fought to give freedom to other nations so we could protect our freedom.

After the wars, there was peace, but there was something much more frightening than a war of blood and guns. There was a war for the minds and hearts of the children to turn them toward the very things their fathers and grandfathers for generations had fought against.

I saw how the world had forgotten the truths of the past. We were beginning to repeat history. Truth was being denied. Good was being called evil. People were again being enslaved to false ideologies which caused them to hate and fear each other.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and I found myself in a vastly different world. I was still in the same room, but the house had fallen down around me. The locket was lying on the floor. It was cracked as though someone had crushed it at some point, and inside, in my own handwriting, I found small scrolls of paper with The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Emancipation Proclamation, and the Ten Laws. Why had I written these down and placed them in the locket which I had obviously smashed and put back together?

I turned to survey what was left of my home. I saw a huge city within a short walk of my house. I began walking towards it. Along the way, I noticed farm communities and neighborhoods, fenced and gated, with faceless guards checking all who entered.

I began to walk swiftly toward the city fascinated and fearful as to what I might find. At the city limits, a faceless guard asked if I had my personal documents. I did not answer, so he pointed to a small pouch which I never realized I had. I opened it, and out fell a food ration card, and a work card with my picture He then asked why I had no V card. I stared at him for a moment. He then said, “You must be from the outside. Go to the clinic just inside the limits, and they will give you what you need.”

I walked, I realized that not only did the guards have no face, but the people had no face. All I could see were their fear, sorrow, hate filled eyes. I came to the back of the clinic by mistake. I was shocked to see a pile of body bags out back. I slipped around the corner as two men came out carrying another. “Well, another guinea pig bites the dust. It’s a good thing we didn’t mind this kind of work, or we might have been in the heap too.”

I decided I would not enter the clinic. I slipped through the alleys looking for a kindly set of eyes who might explain all these horrors to me. I came upon a child in rags who was crying. I stopped to comfort her, and for the first time, I saw a smile in the eyes. Now I could see that what made the people appear faceless; it was a mask. The child looked up at me, and said, “Thank you.” She then glanced furtively about as though to make sure no one heard her. “Come she said.” We entered a tiny alley which led to a cottage.

Once inside, the girl closed the door, closed all the window shutters, and then spoke in a tiny whisper. ‘I want to make sure no one hears or sees, for you and I would have to answer the self-incrimination officers if they saw you without a mask.”

“The what?” I asked.

“The self-incrimination officers are the ones you have to tell when you say or do something the Powers do not like.”

“I have only just arrived here. Why is everyone masked? Why do you have to tell on yourself if you talk to me?”

“I think we should talk to the old gentleman.” The girl then pulled back a slat of wood, and we entered a tiny room. I was surprised to see the old gentleman from my visit to the past.

“I knew you would come.” He said quietly. “Is the locket and its secrets safe?”

“Yes," I said. “I have it here.”

“It is the time for the Truths to be brought to light again,” said the old gentleman.

“Please, explain to me all that has happened. I know of my time, the wars, the sicknesses, the laws removing truth, but how did we come this far?”

The Truth of the Past, for remember that was his name, sighed and then began to speak. “In the present, man’s knowledge grew. Technology gave man knowledge at his fingertips, but knowledge without wisdom is worth nothing. Man only looked at and believed the knowledge and truth accepted by the masses and the leaders. He ignored the warnings of history and began to repeat history. Artificial intelligence replaced much of the workforce. Scientists, medical personnel, and the Powers have the only positions which bring wealth. All electricity is used by the medical facilities, science labs, and the Powers. All work done by citizens is done manually with old fashioned tools. The masks keep us subservient to the Powers and fear.

The Truth of the Past took a large book out of a hiding place under the floor. He opened it. For a moment, I thought I was again seeing the atrocities of the past, then a blinding flash of light made me realize I was seeing all out nuclear war. Then the pictures changed. Thousands of people were standing in lines at clinics, sleeves rolled up, getting a shot and a mask. After this scene, a tattoo parlor was shown where the people were requesting a tattoo of an emblem which I had seen on the clinics and guards uniforms.

“This is the time we are in now, but the time is growing short. The Great Book which reveals all Truth speaks of the days of the end of the world. Wars, pestilence, famine, natural disasters, fear, hate, a wish for death, but death will not come. Your time, the present, is the time to reveal the truths of the locket. If you wait until the future, it will be too late.”

As the Truth of the Past closed the book, the darkness faded and I was back in my home. I retrieved glue, paper, a pen, and my satellite phone. I carefully copied the words of The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Ten Laws. I glued the locket; placed the scrolls inside, and put the locket in the box. I placed the scrap of paper, which read “To unlock the truth of the Past, Present, and Future, you must break my heart,” back into the drawer. I determined to speak the Truth in the present to hold back the events of the future.