The party had already started when Melanie walked downthe stairs at around 1:00. Only, you wouldn’t necessarily call it a party, because the only people that were there were both Melanie and Mallory’s best friends and Papa. Mallory insisted that her best friend, Tammy had to come.
Melanie turned around and saw her best friend sitting at the end of the table eating a piece of slightly burnt toast that was about the same shade as her.
“Hey, Sarah, what are you doing eating our breakfast?"
Sarah gave her a half-smile back and rushed her answer, “Well, I forgot to eat breakfast at my house, and Mallory said I could help myself, and, and,” she slowed down a little, “and, well, you know, I just forget a lot more than others!”
“It’s ok; it was just leftovers anyway!” Melanie said jokingly. Sarah’s thin face turned as red as a raspberry.
Melanie had met Sarah in 1st grade when she had to show her the bathroom. Now, six years later, they were still best friends.
“So where’s the cake?” Mallory’s best friend, Tammy, asked, obnoxiously smacking her gum.
“It’s coming in a minute, silly, but you, like, just got here!” Mallory answered in the same annoying tone of voice. Then, she pivoted around with one foot and stomped away to find Papa and the cake.
After awhile, their grandfather walked slowly into the room carrying the cake shaped like the number thirteen with Mallory at his heels. The candles on it were glowing brightly. Everyone joined in and sang Happy Birthday to the now a year older girl. When it was time for her to blow out her candles she looked up quickly and spotted her grandfather.
He saw her and winked, “Go on, and make a wish!”
She nodded, and before Mallory tried to blow them out for her, she took a giant breath in, and thought, I wish that I would have an adventure, something that is important enough to change the world, and with that, she blew out the thirteen decorated candles. She looked up and felt different somehow; maybe my wish will come true!
The thought made her happy, so she said, smiling yet again, “Let’s cut the cake!”
They all joined in to help cut the vanilla slices that Melanie had insisted on, it being her favorite flavor.
She never knew how much that wish would make a difference, a change for the worst.
That evening, when all of the guests had gone home, Mallory and Melanie did what they had done in the four years their parents had been gone; they ran outside to get the mail from that morning. The two had always gotten gifts from their parents for both of their birthdays through the mail. Melanie grabbed the envelope addressed to her and ran up the stairs with Mallory to open it in her room.
“I can’t wait to see what it is!” Mallory said, always very excited about getting gifts.
Melanie flipped the light switch to her room and jumped up onto her bed excitedly. She ripped open the packaging and reached her hand in to find the letter. She always read the letter first. This is what it said:
May 12th 2009
Dear Melanie,
Hi sweetheart! Happy 13th birthday! I hope that you had a lot of fun! Your father and I both agree that next year we should be home by the time your birthday comes around. I hope that you like your gift! Your father found it and the boss said that we could keep it, so we gave it to you. It’s your birthstone. We love you and miss you so much!
Love,
Mama and Daddy
Melanie hugged the letter tightly against her chest. She realized that tears were streaming out of her eyes and urged them to stop as she wiped them away with her sleeve. Then, she slowly opened the package, and out fell a rounded object quilted in tissue paper. Melanie, who was being ever so careful and gentle, unwrapped the unknown object and placed it in her left hand. It was a beautiful emerald. It sparkled in the light of her lamp and glittered in the center, it was round and smooth and cleanly cut. Melanie was so mesmerized by its beauty that she didn’t hear Mallory knocking on her bedroom door.
“Hello? Mel, are you in here? Look what mama and daddy gave-”
She stopped as soon as she saw what Melanie had been staring intensely into.
“Wow...that is so cool,” Mallory said breathlessly, then, back to her normal self, she said, “I get a tiny golden locket and you get an actual emerald. That is so not fair!” She walked over to where Melanie was lying on the bed to get a closer look.
Melanie shrugged and changed the subject, “So, what’s inside the locket?”
“I have no idea. Mama and Daddy never sent the key to it,” Mallory replied.
She tossed to the locket on Melanie’s bedside table so that she could see.
“That’s very strange,” Melanie inquired, looking at a strange shape on her emerald, “Can you give me a second alone, please.”
Mallory nodded a silent yes and left the room, carefully shutting the plain white door behind her.
***Pic on side is of Mallory's locket***
YOU ARE READING
Emerald Green
FantasyMelanie Ann Sanders is turning thirteen. She seems like an average girl, and she was, until the night of her thirteenth birthday. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders, Melanie and her older sister Mallory’s parents, are Gemologists whose work takes them around th...
