Chasing An Echo

The Necklace

"What do you think your doing?" Echo asked, managing to keep a tight reign on her anger. She still stood in the door way, with her arms crossed looking from Mr. Thompson who stood near Amelia's sheet less bed and Mrs. Thompson near the paper strewn desk.

"Echo? Right? You was Amelia's little friend" Mrs.Thompson said nonchalantly. Echo bristled at the 'little' but decided to let it go. She went to go repeat her opening demand but Mrs.Thompson held up a hand stopping her.

"We're clearing out this junk, luckily Amelia already cleaned out the other room after her parents died. Thank god or we would have even more garbage to through out. I want to hurry up and get this done, since we're only gonna stay long enough to get this place on the market ...oh and for the funeral of course. But if we get most of this crap cleaned out we can talk to a realtor in the morning about selling this dump." She explained slowly like Echo was a child, then she picked up a stack of CDS off Amelia's cluttered desk and threw them into a bag at her feet. Echo didn't know if it was the act of carelessly handling her friends things or the cold, detached way she spoke about Amelia and her parents and their home. Whatever it was, Echo's control over her anger snapped. 

"You'll throw out Amelia's things over my dead body" Echo said defiantly, anger radiating out of every pore in her body.

"Excuse me? I'll have you know that as the current owner of this house, I can call the police and have you brought up on trespassing charges. You just walked in here uninvited and all. So unless you want to be in the back of a squad car Missy, I suggest you leave us to our business." Mrs. Thompson threatened.

"Go ahead and call them" She said taking a menacing step towards the older women. For a long while they just stared each other down, neither one wanting to look away first.

"I just can not believe my granddaughter associated with the likes of you, your nothing but trash. But I guess like mother like daughter, my Theresa was apparently attracted to trash too. Now look where it got the both of them." she said callously, still staring directly into Echo's eyes.

Echo couldn't believe it. This old hag couldn't possibly be trying to insinuate that Echo was the reason Amelia is dead. If there ever was a good reason to fight the elderly it was now.

As if he just suddenly found his voice, Mr. Thompson spoke up from his corner.

"Maria let's go. We've done enough for today and we still need to check in at the hotel"

'Maria' finally broke contact to look at her husband. She gave a tight nod then returned to Echo.

"You better be gone by the time we get back. We don't have time for anymore unwanted disruptions" She sneered.

"Oh go to hell lady" Echo bit back as the old couple made their way out the room.

The door closed behind them and Echo was left standing alone in the middle of Amelia's old room. . Echo took a look around the room, really trying to memorize every detail. 

The walls were covered from floor to ceiling in pictures and paintings, some original works of art. Others mere sketches done by Amelia herself. Her favorite had always been the one her mother painted for her when she was 4. In the picture a small child is being held in the arms of a beautiful lady surrounded by different flowers. It was beautiful really, Echo could see why Amelia admired it so. Her eyes kept drifting taking in Amelia's paint splattered curtains then her full sized mirror completely covered in various colored kisses and small cut-out pictures. Every inch of this room screamed 'Amelia.' So messy and unorganized but creative. Sighing Echo crossed the short distance to the desk. She started sorting through things, not really knowing what she was looking for. Most of the things that cluttered the desk were balled up papers and various forgotten trinkets. She opened the drawers the lined one side of the desk. But it wasn't until she ruffled through the last one that she found what she was looking for. The last gift Amelia got from her parents, just a simple gold chain with a tiny "A" pendent. Echo clasped the simple reminder around her neck, then with one last look around the room, exited the way she came.