#Friday Flash- The Silver Locket

The Silver Locket

Beth sat crying, her head buried on her knees, her back against the rough bark of the old oak that stood in the middle of Raven Town Cemetery. The sound of her sobs was heart wrenching against the backdrop of silence. The sun was setting and had Beth looked up, she would have been stuck by the peculiar beauty of the gray headstones set against the scarlet of the sky. But Beth didn’t look up. She continued sobbing until the sky had faded, the scarlet given way to blues and purples.

When she finally lifted her head and scrubbed a hand across her face, the first stars were just beginning to wink into life in the night sky. She grasped the locket that hung from her neck and wished upon the first one she saw.

“Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish…I wish…I wish I had a true love.” She felt silly saying the words aloud, but it really was her one wish. Growing up in foster care, she’d never really felt loved. Her penchants for graveyards and horror movies hadn’t made her many friends at the small town high school she now attended. She didn’t have any friends, let alone boyfriends. And she was tired of being alone. The final straw had come today, when she’d visited Eccentricities, her favorite store. The little old couple that ran the place had always been nice to her when she was there. Today, the woman had told her that she had something special she though Beth might like. It was a beautiful silver locket. When she opened it up, there was a picture of a man inside. He was the most handsome man Beth had ever seen.

Mrs. Bienhoff, the woman who owned the store, had told her the story behind the locket. Beth didn’t know if it was true or not, but it was beautiful. And all she wanted was for someone to love her that much.

The man in the picture was Captain James McCord. He’d lived in 1888, and had been the Captain of a big sailing vessel that traveled the world. All the women in the seaside town where he lived were madly in love with him. But he only had eyes for Elizabeth Tucker. They were engaged to be wed, but first he had one more voyage. He was having a beautiful house built on a cliff overlooking the town and the ocean as a gift for his beloved Elizabeth. Everyday Elizabeth would walk up the road to their future home sight to look for James’ ship. While he was away a terrible storm blew in, the worst the state had seen in over a decade. Many of the ships from the town were lost and a good number of their men perished that day. Elizabeth told herself that James’ vessel was far from here and so he was safe.

After weeks of waiting, word came that the ship had gone down, all hands aboard. Elizabeth was inconsolable. That night, she snuck from her parent’s home to the site where her house was being built and threw herself from the cliff, not wanting to live without James. James’ ship had indeed gone down, but James and a handful of his crew had been able to survive in the sea until they were rescued. When he returned to town he was told of Elizabeth’s death. James never sailed again. He moved inland, here to Illinois and bought some land. He died a recluse, alone and unloved.

Beth thought the story was the most romantic and tragic thing she’d ever heard. She wanted nothing more than to be loved like that.

She snapped out of her reverie when she heard someone approaching.  She didn’t know whether to run or hide. No one was supposed to be in the graveyard at night. She couldn’t decide, so she just froze. Whoever was coming was not scared, in fact they were whistling. Beth thought it a lovely tune, but not one she’d heard before. The next thing she knew, a man was standing in front of her. He stopped whistling and stared at her.

Beth smoothed back her hair and set up straighter. She knew her eyes were probably puffy from crying and there wasn’t much she could do about it.

“Is this seat taken?” the man asked, indicating the spot of ground next to her.

Beth shook her head. The man sat down next to her and didn’t say anything at first. Beth squirmed, uncomfortable with his nearness and wondering what he wanted.

“I heard you crying.” He said.

“Oh. I’m sorry.”


“No. I’m sorry. It must be something very bad to bring such heart felt misery. Did you lose a loved one?”

Beth shook her head again. “You have to have someone to love before you can lose them.”

“This is true.” He said. “So that’s why you were crying? Because you don’t have a lover?”

“I don’t know,” Beth answered. “I guess that was part of it. I also heard a very sad story today and I guess I was just empathizing with the people too. They had a love that lasted. For their lifetimes anyway. But things didn’t go so well for them.”

“I know something about tragic love stories,” he said. “I know they say ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved’. But I’m not sure that’s true.”

“I’d like to find out.” Beth sighed. They talked for hours. Reluctantly Beth finally headed home. She didn’t even know his name. In the morning she realized the locket was missing. She cut school to find it and once at the graveyard she searched all around the tree to no avail. As she was about to give up, the sun glinted off of a nearby tombstone and Beth hurried over. Hanging from the corner was her locket. But what shocked her more was the name on the stone: James Edward McCord, 1850-1920.

Hope you enjoyed it! This month is Grotesque Love month, the theme for this week- "Love in a Graveyard". I know I missed the 'grotesque' part by a mile, but well, this is what came to me. You should definitely check out the Vamplit Publishing Blog for all the other really great flashes for this week! And if you like them? Do the author a favor and leave a comment. We live for comments.

♥Stacey