The Locket

At seven years of age, I thought life, as I knew it, was over. I had been torn from my happy island home in Jersey and thrust into a strange school in a strange country where I was bullied and shoved and ridiculed for my English accent and my shy ways. My first impression of Canada was that it was a living hell.

I didn't know I had an accent until some rude kids kindly pointed it out to me. I figured out that I better lose the accent, the quicker the better.The shyness was harder to overcome.

One day,as I was wending my way home, sniveling and crying,tears leaving trails on my grubby little face, I saw something lying on the sidewalk in plain sight.

It sparkled.I picked it up and saw that it was a small silver locket. No chain was attached. It was heart shaped and had tiny flowers cunningly carved around a smaller heart in the centre. It winked at me and I felt as though I had been given a present.

I had never owned a piece of jewellry. My parents probably thought it was a waste of time to give anything so valuable to a seven year old. It turned out to be not very valuable at all but I did not know that. It looked like the crown jewels to me.It had a little 'M' scratched inside. My middle name started with M. I suddenly felt a little surge of happiness. I buffed the locket on my sleeve and it glowed back at me as if to thank me.

I put it in my pocket and walked on, stopping every twelve steps, exactly, to take it out and look at it. It made me smile. I had a locket and I was going to take it home and put a picture of my dad on one side and a picture of my dog ( a mangy old mutt that I had adopted) on the other. Then, when I got that sad and so lonely feeling at school, I would take out my locket and open it and look at the pictures and I knew I would feel so much better.That night, I placed the locket very reverently in my music box,which was the only other thing of value that I owned.

The next morning, I put the locket on a piece of string and wore it around my neck under my clothes. I didn't need to show it off. I could feel the warm metal bounce against my chest as I walked. When I had a stressful day or that bully started taunting me, I would take out my locket and look at the pictures inside and feel close to home and safety. It worked. I felt so much happier.The locket threw a protective force field around me of warmth and love and all the bad things that happened in my day just bounced off the force field. My life improved gradually. Of course, it was the power of the locket.

My luck improved too.There was no end to the powers of the locket. I had a champion. Our landlord, a very nice, redheaded, freckle faced Scotsman took pity on me when he observed the schoolyard bully and his entourage taking pot shots at me. He came over and grabbed the bully by the scruff of the neck and took him away to have a little talk with him. I was never bothered by the bully again. And, my champion often strolled past the schoolyard and stopped and pointed meaningfully at my tormentor,who seemed to shrink and shrivel under his gaze. The entourage also melted away and I was left to my own devices,which I much preferred.

I started wearing my locket on the outside of my clothes and some of the other girls admired it enviously. I told them my uncle loved me very much and he gave it to me. He was going to buy me a chain for my birthday. I didn't feel that I was lying. It was important to keep the secret of the locket to protect the magic.

The locket protected me for years. I never got a chain for it. I used to carry it in my pocket. It was always with me. I guess I was in grade eight when I noticed it was missing. I was sad, but not too sad because I didn't need it any more. I had established myself and was fairly popular. I could draw and paint quite well and the kids were impressed with that. I could also play the violin and they thought that was pretty cool.

I guess I kind of forgot about the locket over the years. I graduated from high school and went to art college, I married and got pregnant. One day, I was setting up a nursery for my son and I decided to pull out my old music box to see if it still worked. It had played a lovely waltz by Strauss and I thought the baby might enjoy it. The music box was dulled with time and travel and I polished it vigorously. It rattled. I opened it and saw nothing, so I lifted the floor of the box to look at the workings inside.

Wedged against the the little metal scrolls was a tarnished heart shaped thing. I felt my eyes well up and a couple of tears insisted on falling for that little girl of long ago who had suffered cruelly and then found herself, with the help perhaps, of a passing angel, who dropped a little silver locket filled with magic especially for her to find.

Thankyou 'M'.