Blast from the Past
Aug. 16th, 2005 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolevalanSo...I won't go into what inspired this, but it's original fiction of mine. I've yet to decide if it's a drabble or a beginning, but it may actually be a beginning, surprisingly enough. I doubt it will make much sense to 99% of you, but that's all right.
I was looking for something new, actually. I had purchased a new pendant specifically for the wedding, and it would complete the rhyme: my dress was old, my bouquet was mostly blue, and the shoes were borrowed from Alex. The last thing on my mind was my childhood as I riffled through my jewelry box. But there it was.
The silver chain and setting were dulled with age – Lord knows how long this thing had been shoved in the box. I don’t wear much jewelry, normally, and usually the box is a catastrophe of tangled chains and single earrings. This chain, however, was still unknotted and complete, and the gem in the tarnished silver caught the light as if I’d been shining it lovingly for the past 15 years. A ruby, the pure crimson of blood.
My lips stretched into a thin line as I stared at it, holding the necklace up to the light. It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten. I hadn’t even fully convinced myself that it was a dream. But suddenly this one piece of jewelry made it all concrete in a way it had never been before. Nothing is fully concrete when you’re nine years old, not really. And now, standing in my bedroom, I knew with a deep certainty that the four of us had been there. That it wasn’t just a game – it was far more important, in fact, than we had been capable of realizing at the time. And I was also certain I would never tell Paul. Nor would I mention finding it to Alex or Mary (I had called her Mary Anne then, hadn’t I?).
I don’t know how long I stood there, staring into the ruby, as if I were watching a recording of everything that had happened to me there within its sparkling depths. Who knows, perhaps I was, in a way. And there was a long, long moment where I wondered. I wondered if the door was fully shut or if I could finally go back. If I could actually get some answers this time. Perhaps the enigmas of our childhood could be solved if I just…
A sharp knock on the door derailed the train of thought. “Tabby-cat, are you coming out anytime soon? We’re going to be late.”
“Coming.” I replaced the necklace carefully, almost reverently, back in the jewelry box and shut it. Maybe I would be able to forget it for another 15 years. But I sincerely doubted it.
I was looking for something new, actually. I had purchased a new pendant specifically for the wedding, and it would complete the rhyme: my dress was old, my bouquet was mostly blue, and the shoes were borrowed from Alex. The last thing on my mind was my childhood as I riffled through my jewelry box. But there it was.
The silver chain and setting were dulled with age – Lord knows how long this thing had been shoved in the box. I don’t wear much jewelry, normally, and usually the box is a catastrophe of tangled chains and single earrings. This chain, however, was still unknotted and complete, and the gem in the tarnished silver caught the light as if I’d been shining it lovingly for the past 15 years. A ruby, the pure crimson of blood.
My lips stretched into a thin line as I stared at it, holding the necklace up to the light. It wasn’t so much that I had forgotten. I hadn’t even fully convinced myself that it was a dream. But suddenly this one piece of jewelry made it all concrete in a way it had never been before. Nothing is fully concrete when you’re nine years old, not really. And now, standing in my bedroom, I knew with a deep certainty that the four of us had been there. That it wasn’t just a game – it was far more important, in fact, than we had been capable of realizing at the time. And I was also certain I would never tell Paul. Nor would I mention finding it to Alex or Mary (I had called her Mary Anne then, hadn’t I?).
I don’t know how long I stood there, staring into the ruby, as if I were watching a recording of everything that had happened to me there within its sparkling depths. Who knows, perhaps I was, in a way. And there was a long, long moment where I wondered. I wondered if the door was fully shut or if I could finally go back. If I could actually get some answers this time. Perhaps the enigmas of our childhood could be solved if I just…
A sharp knock on the door derailed the train of thought. “Tabby-cat, are you coming out anytime soon? We’re going to be late.”
“Coming.” I replaced the necklace carefully, almost reverently, back in the jewelry box and shut it. Maybe I would be able to forget it for another 15 years. But I sincerely doubted it.
