Necklace

 

   I was going through my jewelry armoire when I saw something I didn't expect. It was a necklace. The pendant was a clear glass heart. Inside the glass heart were two small hearts touching, one blue and one green. The pendent hung from a red silk cord. 

   It was lying there along in the back of the drawer. I was a bit taken aback seeing it there. I didn't realise that I still had it. I had bought it at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival a long time ago. In those days I went to the festival a lot. So much so that I bought a noblewoman's costume to wear when I went. This was before I met C when I was dating someone else. I bought the necklace because it was a romantic gesture. Two little hearts touching in a big glass heart.

   Once C and I were engaged, I got rid of all the pictures and memorabilia from that relationship, except for the noblewoman's costume (because it is beautiful and I like looking at it in my closet) and a blender that I got as a present on Valentine's Day. (Yes, my former boyfriend gave me a blender.) Somehow I had missed the necklace. 

  Now that I found it, what was I going to do with it?  I knew I should probably get rid of it. It was a memento of my past life. It seemed disloyal to C to keep it. On the other hand, on a purely artistic level, I like it. It was handmade by an artist at the Ren Fest. Maybe it wasn't the most ornate things she or he (I can't remember who the glass artist was.) but to me it looks like a little miracle. The artist had to take the molten glass and form the two hearts. Then the artist had to make sure the two hearts were just touching and form the clear glass heart around them. There is a little flaw, but I don't mind that. Flaws happen when things are handmade.

   Since I was in a little quandary. I decided to ask C. I told him about the necklace. Then I brought it to him so he could see it. He liked it and had no trouble with me keeping it. 

   The more I looked at it the more I wondered if it had been a bit of a sign. I met C a couple years after I bought the necklace. The two hearts could be C and I. They are not exactly the same shape because we are two different people. The clear glass around us is our marriage which is a bigger things than either of us alone. The flaw in the glass is a reminder that our relationship is not perfect but it is still whole and sound like the glass.

   Thinking about it this way makes me more comfortable with keeping it.