The Necklace V - Strawberries & Wine

Part I - August 2016 - December 2016 Chapter 1 - The Mysterious Mobile Phone

It was August 2016, and Thomas, age 43, was clearing out boxes from his London flat in preparation for a move to Los Angeles, California. He'd been offered a position with the Los Angeles Symphony, where he would have the opportunity to share the role of conductor as well as maintain a position as concert pianist. It was a prospect he couldn't turn down and, to be honest, he was anxious to move to a sunnier climate.

Although he'd grown up in England and his father, sister and brother lived there, he was ready for a change in his life. His failed marriage haunted him. The London fog and rain depressed him, and the sameness of his position with the London Philharmonic bored him. He was given very little freedom to perform his own works and the politics had become intolerable.

There was one box left at the back of his closet when he heard his mobile phone ring out in the living room. He brushed the dust off his hands and went to answer it. It was his sister, Carrie.

"All packed up yet, Thomas? I'd offer to come help you, but I'm hands deep in clay. I'm almost done with the bust of Adonis...finally!"

"Haven't you been working on that for over a year now? And, no, I'm not all quite packed up yet. I had a few boxes left in my bedroom closet that I've been going through. Most of everything else, though, has been sent ahead to my flat in L.A."

"Won't you be sad to leave England? You know I'm going to miss you."

"Come on now, Carrie, you won't miss me. We hardly ever see each other with your gallivanting all about the globe."

"We see each other at Christmas when Dad's in town, and we had dinner at Robert's restaurant just last month. Plus, since my traveling companion, David, got married, I haven't been doing much exploring. No fun to go by myself."

"Still, I've only seen you two or three times in the past few months. No, I'm not sad to leave England. I'm ready for a change in my life. I need to brush all of the cobwebs off me, plus I'm ready for some California sunshine."

"Dad is going to miss you. I think he's rather enjoyed working with you on a few classical pieces for piano. It's diverted him from that awful marriage to Hilary. God, Thomas! I'm so glad that woman is out of his life. What a disaster she was!"

"Not only a disaster but she took nearly half his fortune, especially when Dad insisted on having full custody of Sherry."

"Well, he wanted full custody of Sherry, but the witch only gave him 80%. I think he would have given his entire fortune to her if he could have got full custody."

"Probably, but it would have made her look bad...you know, a mother who gave up all contact with her child...and you remember how she loves the limelight."

"Yeah, horrible, hideous woman." Carrie shivered on the other end of the phone. "Dad said he's really enjoyed spending time with you when he's been in London. Like I just said, I know for sure he's going to miss you."

"Well, now that he's married again, he won't be missing me or any of us very much. He seems to be quite happy. I told him to bring Sherry on over to the states and stay with me in L.A. for a bit. He's talking about recording another new album before he goes back out on tour and said he might even record it in L.A. You should come too. We could all take Sherry to Disneyland."

"Hmmmm...let me think on it, okay? Sounds like fun."

"Well, don't think too hard. Talk to Dad about it and let me know. I'll call you as soon as I'm settled in."

"Okay then, Tom-tom; I'll talk to you later." She giggled.

"Don't call me that!"

Carrie laughed again. "No promises, Thomas. Bye."

They disconnected, and Thomas went back to his closet for the one last box. It was way in the back and had been there for years. He knew what was in it, and for a few moments after pulling it out, he just stared at it, beginning to feel melancholy.

It was a box containing some clothing and personal items that had once belonged to a young woman named Michelle, the woman who had been his first true love, a love he'd never been able to forget. Just thinking about her and picturing her in his mind, brought sadness to his heart. He sighed heavily as he sat down on the floor next to the box, lifted the lid and looked inside.

The scent of a sweet perfume wafted up from the contents, and Thomas closed his eyes picturing a blonde girl with aquamarine eyes looking at him with a wistful look on her face. He blinked his eyes open and began lifting items from the box...a couple of dresses, blouses, jeans, intimate apparel, cosmetics, and a bottle of perfume that he'd bought for her. He wasn't sure what had made him pack her things away after she left, but here they were, and the longer he sifted them through his hands, the clearer the memories of the girl he'd once loved so passionately came flooding into his head.

Ahhh...lovely, feisty, intelligent and passionate Michelle...the woman he thought he would spend his life with...the one who was supposed to marry him in a double wedding ceremony with her mother and his dad on Christmas Day in 1999.

Was it really almost 17 years ago? It didn't seem that long. Seeing, smelling and touching her things made it seem just like yesterday.

He dug deeper into the box, removing a few more items of clothing before coming across another object at the bottom. It looked like a mobile phone, and as he examined it more closely, he realized that it must be the object he'd discovered out at Auntie Annabelle's cottage shortly after Michelle and her mum vanished into thin air on that disastrous Christmas Eve Day, the day before he would have made Michelle his bride. At the time, he wasn't sure what it really was, never having seen a mobile phone of that type before.

He noticed that the phone had the image of an apple on the back of it and found that to be very curious, as Apple phones didn't exist back in 1999 when he'd found it at the cottage. Amazingly, it appeared to be an Apple iPhone, but it didn't quite resemble his own mobile phone, which was a Samsung.

He turned it over in his hands a few times and tapped on the screen, but nothing happened. He wondered how it had come to be in the cottage in the first place and who might have placed it in the bathroom cabinet wrapped in a towel. No answers came to mind, making him even more intrigued.

Deciding it was a mystery that needed to be solved, he stood up and put it in the backpack he planned on taking on the plane to Los Angeles. He had a techie friend who worked for Apple in L.A and thought he'd show it to him. Brett would certainly be able to tell him what it was.

He glanced back at the box of Michelle's things and sighed again as her vision passed through his head and heart. Sitting back down on the floor next to the box, he lifted one of her dresses up to his face and breathed in the scent.

Knowing she was from Southern California, would it be possible to find her once he moved there?

Dare he even try?