The Necklace

The Necklace

It had been eight years. After she was suddenly gone in the spring of 2004, I hadn’t seen her for eight years and five months. Thus, it should not be a surprise even if I suspected the phone call that I received last night as a voice fishing strategy. With exactly the same voice she used to have eight years ago, she asked me to meet at the local coffee shop.

More than an hour earlier than the promised time, I ran to the shop as fast as possible. My heart beat tremendously, and my necklace shook with the heart as well.

The necklace. My dear necklace had been on my heart for eight years. We had two identical necklaces: one on my neck and the other on her neck. It was the last present that she gave me before she moved away.

Holding the necklaces together, she murmured, “Sorry Brian. I have to go now. I will certainly come back someday. Please wait for me. When our necklaces touch each other again, we can be together forever.”

Since then, it had been the only thing that I could lean on whenever I felt weak about my life.

I sat at the table and waited. Perhaps, a little more than an hour passed. Ding-ding. The door opened, and a woman in her mid-thirties came in. Though her face was not familiar at all, I could instinctively feel that she was the one I had been waiting for my life.

My legs were frozen; I could not move any part of my body, except for my eyes. As she walked closer to me, my eyes turned desperately to find the thing. But when she approached right in front of me, I had to admit that her neck was empty. No necklace.

Trying hard to hide the pitiful disappointment, I almost shouted out the greetings, “Hey! How have you been, Rachel!” as if I were the coolest guy in the world.

After realizing the awkward silence, I noticed Rachel and I were not the only ones sharing the same air. There was a girl right next to her, staring at me with the most innocent eyes in the world. Without any extra information, I knew who she was.

The girl, probably about eight years old, looked exactly like the woman standing beside her, too similar for me to allow a possibility of her being a stranger walking by us.

“This is my daughter, Audrey. Audrey, say hello to mommy’s old friend,” was the first sentence she said.

“Hello!” Audrey seemed like an outgoing little girl; I could feel it just by hearing the hello she made.

As I was trying to introduce myself, Rachel murmured, “Sorry, Brian, excuse me, I need to answer this phone call from my husband,” and ran outside.

In less than five minutes of seeing her, since eight years ago, she walked away again, and I was now left with her daughter alone. Unlike my worries, the silence between Audrey and me broke in a few seconds.

“I had a blueberry cupcake for breakfast and it was delicious,” Audrey started talking to me in a casual way, “but I couldn’t eat more because mommy said it was too sugary for me to eat two.”

“Wow, I love blueberry cupcakes, too!” It was true that I did love them.

“Brian, how are you friends with my mommy? I have never met you before. And mommy never hangs out with boy friends. It is kind of weird.” What she said was enough to make me curious.

“Why? Your daddy doesn’t let her meet any other male friends?” I was being childish, trying to get some information about both Rachel and her husband.

Audrey laughed. “No, my dad doesn’t do that. He lives far away.” She was making me more and more curious.

“Where does he live? How far is it?” I tentatively asked this, considering every single possibility as an answer: Did they get divorced? Is he earning money in a different country? Why?

“He lives up there, which is very far away.” Following Audrey’s forefinger, I turned my face to the sky. Audrey continued, “I miss him.”

“When did you last meet your dad, then?” I tried to dig up information as if I were a detective.

“I’ve never met my dad. I hear of him every day, though. Mommy loves him very much.”

“You don’t know how he looks?”

“No. But mommy tells me I look exactly like my daddy! She has pictures, but she said she will show me when I become a third grader.”

Thinking that I could not get any more information from Audrey, I promised myself to be courageous enough to ask Rachel about everything when she came back.

“You must be very curious, girl.”

“It’s okay. I can love my dad without seeing his face. He is the best man I know!”

“Why?”

“Mommy says he is the only man she loves in her life.” When she said this, I felt something that I had never felt: a feeling that was a combination of disappointment and a new hope at the same time.

“I don’t know. She says he has left a lot of things for her.”

“What are they?”

“Well. I only know one thing.”

“Can I ask what?”

             “Ugh, wait. Yes. Sure.” Audrey hesitated for a while and searched her pocket, trying to find something.

After a few seconds, she cried out, “Here we go! Mommy tells me this is the most precious thing she has! I heard that my dad gave her this even before I was born``````.”

             Audrey continued talking, but I could not hear anything after seeing what she found in her pocket.

             I was literally frozen.

It was the necklace: the one that I could not find on Rachel’s neck was in Audrey’s pocket.

Waking up suddenly, I untied my necklace and put it into her tiny hand from my shaking hand. Unlike I expected her to be surprised of my sudden action, she smiled calmly.

In her smile, I could find a familiar face other than Rachel’s. Audrey was no longer my ex-girlfriend’s daughter; she was my daughter. She shared my blood, my necklace, and my soul. Finding my smile in her face, I smiled with her.

Like a miracle, Rachel appeared from the back.

“Rachel…. I just can’t….. Rachel….”

“I’ll tell you everything later. Brian, just remember that I’ve always missed you.”

I couldn’t believe anything: my eyes, my ears, and my fast beating heart. I just hugged her as strongly as possible.

Next to us, our necklaces were still shining together in a small angel’s hand.