Precious

Image by Eva C from Pixabay 

Mabel stared at the pictures in the old locket. She had never thought to see those faces again. Not after the fire. She’d lost everything in that fire. A fortune in antique furniture. All her client files. But nothing had been as devastating as the loss of every photograph of her grandparents.

Her mother had entrusted them to her keeping after her parents had downsized, moving into an apartment. The only blessing, if you could call it that, was that the fire had happened after they had died. The only reason she had any pictures of them was that they had documented their retirement on Facebook. She had downloaded and saved every one.

In a fit of nostalgia, Mabel had talked Gord into taking a trip to the town where her grandparents had lived. She didn’t know anyone there anymore. Hadn’t been back in forty years. She had wanted to visit the old house, which, it turned out, wasn’t there anymore. A coffee shop had taken its place. They stopped there for lunch, and she pretended she was in her grandmother’s kitchen.

Always a fan of antiques, Mabel pulled the car over when she spotted the antique shop at the end of the downtown strip. Inside, she browsed until she spotted a locket that reminded her of the one her grandmother had worn. And when she had opened it, there they were—Nana and Papa—a gift she had never expected to receive.

How the locket had found its way here, she neither knew nor cared. She paid the exorbitant price for it and headed home, her heart lighter than it had been since the fire.

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I knew I wanted to write a story involving a locket. The picture dictated the direction it took. Hope you enjoyed “Precious.”