The Secret

In the midst of a dust storm of what was once known as America's heartland where rolling hills of green fresh growing things and noisy animals once called home I found myself lost. The world had changed around me from the time I was made and many things had come and gone much like the people who claimed me as their property.

I am a locket. A heart-shaped silver locket that is attached to a twenty inch long silver chain with a broken clasp, which is why I found myself there in the dust seeing some sort of light again after years of darkness. Somewhere along the way one of the people who wore me, Jenn was her name, lost me when the storms rose up and blocked out the red light of the sun much like the storm that had awakened me.

Jenn had been a good person. She was kind when she didn't need to be. When the sky fell she would still mend peoples' wounds, share what food and shelter she had, and even her own clothes and bed to select people. She never shared me though.

I was a gift to her from one of the coarse men who came through here trading for well water as she had the only well that wasn't contaminated for many miles around. People are water. Animals are water. The place I was bartered away to Jenn for water was vital to anyone's survival if they came through there. The place I ended up lost.

I was lost beside a fence post that was rotting old wood eaten away long ago by termites and time. It happened to be the fence post that held the gate to her property and the lock on that gate.

The wind was howling and the dust storm had turned the red sky to brownish-black as she ran to help secure the gate which holds out all the roaming human scavengers as well as the beasts looking for prey. My light chain was tugged out of her clothes and the wind caught me ripping me from her neck and breaking the clasp.

My only regret is that she never did manage to open me to see what I hold inside. She never got to experience my true worth because I was soldered shut.

All those years, lost, hiding my secret and no one knew, until he came. The hand that lifted me out of the dirt, digging and fighting to get me because I was seriously stuck down into the ground by that point.

He took me into their shelter which was once an old barn. The red and white paint long since sandblasted away from the worn wood leaving the wood looking smooth and polished. In the center of this shelter was a well. The well. The well of life as I found out they called it because for the organic beings it was the only thing keeping them alive.

People were huddled down with goats and sheep. A lone horse stood in a stall looking thin and sickly as there simply isn't enough grass to sustain them all. Not after the sky fell. Not after the blue turned to angry red and stayed that way.

I guess you could say I'm very old. Made by hand before things were able to be assembly line made. An artisan who made clocks made me for his beloved. He made me, put the secret in me, and sealed me tight. His beloved became his wife and she never looked inside. I changed hands from the clockmaker's wife to their daughter, then to her daughter, and so on until there was a spinster who fell on hard times and on her deathbed I was taken for partial repayment of her debts.

More hands, more people, always I was bought by or gifted to a beautiful woman. The clockmaker knew craftsmanship and I am quite beautiful. The delicate filigree hid my seam though and the years of wear only helped to disguise it further. No one has ever known I'm a locket or that my secret was still yet to be discovered.

The boy that held me inside that shelter was just barely old enough to get whiskers on his upper lip and as he rubbed my surface hard to take off the years of caked dirt I did my best to shine. The cool shimmering moonlit luster that is polished and well worn sterling silver becoming his reward as he freed me from my earthen confines.

His hands found the inscription on the back. It's always been something I treasured almost as much as what I hide inside. 'S., All of my love, J.'

After taking me to the well and getting a drink for himself, the boy used his own spit to polish me up to a higher shine than I would have thought possible without special jeweler's tools.

Into a pocket I went, darkness again and the rough scrape of denim against me, but since I'd been found and was clean again, I didn't mind.

Minutes, or what felt like minutes later, I found myself out of the pocket again in the boy's hands. My coldness warming at his touch as he shyly handed me over to a girl with long wild red hair. She was dirty and smelly, but she was the most beautiful girl to hold me since my creation. I went around her neck and they discovered the clasp was broken.

After a minute or two, the boy, blushingly improvised and decided to use a rivet that was coming off his jeans to make a jump ring for the clasp to catch onto. He fixed me with his unskilled hands and even his teeth! I was whole again. Or at least close enough for her.

She smiled at him, took me in her hands and smiled down at me. Then she let me hang down on her chest as I was smothered between them. That was a reaction I was used to when people gifted me.

It was what came next that I was not expecting. The boy lifted me up and showed the girl that I'm actually a locket.

“See the tiny hinges and this split. There could be old pictures in there,” excitedly he asked her then, “Do you want to break it open and see? It could ruin it but it might be something great.”

She seemed to think for a minute, looking at me the whole time. Meanwhile I was screaming as loud as silver can scream for her to open me! Find out my secret! Finally she nodded, “Lets open it.”

For 157 years I've remained closed. I've kept my secret never telling a soul. I could barely contain myself when she decided to open me. I felt like I was vibrating with the need to tell the whole world what I held inside.

The pair took me to an adult man who then used a great deal of heat on me which I didn't like one bit. The silver solder melting off my closure at last. The way was open for them to see. My purpose finally coming to pass and I felt so many different emotions that I couldn't settle on just one.

The boy handed me to the girl. “It's your locket. You should be the one to open it.”

She handed me back to the boy, “But you found it. It has to be you that opens it.”

“I just saw a little metal in the dirt and dug it out. I did it for you. You open it.” He smiled back. “Really. You do it.”

I wanted to scream in frustration! Someone, anyone, open me already!

The girl blushed and used her jagged fingernails to pry me open. As she did, my hinge, which hadn't been used since my very first day, broke and left me in two pieces.

Inside me however, is where her eyes went to an old yellowed piece of paper and a tiny key. I had at last served my purpose! I have revealed my secret! I thought to myself, but it wasn't until she carefully unfolded the paper that I knew what the importance of my contents actually were.

“S,

I have made you this locket to show you how much I love you. I'm not an exceptionally rich man, but I have saved my entire life for this one gift. The gift is not the locket but rather what the key it holds leads to.

On my parents' land, you'll find a root cellar that was dug many years ago. My parents have been preparing for a cataclysmic event that they feel sure is coming. I do not think such a thing will ever happen, but in that cellar are seeds from all of the plants we could ever find. They're tucked away in clay pots created by my own mother's hands.

I know how you love plants, darling, and I thought that you might like them for your greenhouse and garden.

All of my love,

J.”

She stood stunned. The boy was stunned as well. Even the man who had used the hot tool on me was in shock but quickly got over it. “Does it say where it is? Where the location is?”

She turned over the paper and there were odd numbers that she looked confused by. She handed it to the boy who then handed it to the man. “Coordinates. If this is true, with the water from our well and these seeds, we can start over. We can make greenhouses and grow food year round. We can thrive and survive.”

I sat forgotten on the workbench and thought to myself that this is a good end for me. I served my purpose. My body lying in two pieces like a heart that is broken but mine felt strangely full knowing that I would help keep these wonderful people alive. A good end for me I thought. A good time to wrap up this existence and call my job done.

The boy took her hand in his and they started to turn away from me, but she turned him back and looked down at my mangled silver body. “Can you solder a bit on the broken side?” she asked the man and he nodded but looked confused.

“Why would you want a broken heart-shaped locket? It's scrap.” The man clearly didn't see in me what she did.

“That's my birthday present and I will take this half here as mine. James can take the other half and when we're apart he'll always know I'm with him.” she looked up at the boy who must be named James because he smiled through happy tears as he looked into her own watery eyes.