365 Days- Book I

33. Jewelery

August 2, 2018

"Write about a piece of jewelry. Who does it belong to?"

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He pulled out the clinking gemstones carefully from the old wooden jewellery box, with its faded and worn velvet lining. The box belonged to his grandfather and had been stashed in one corner of the dingy storeroom. He sighed; grandfather had been a pawnbroker and a meticulous one at that but his father had never been interested in that business. He had loved the money but never had either the tact or the genteelness, an appropriate mixture of business acumen and personal empathy, when dealing with the customers. Now that the old man had passed away, his father had wasted no time in dumping the shop and the business on him; not that he minded, he had been eternally fascinated by the small storeroom, where the long lost and forgotten items were stored, for him each item had a history of its own, a story to tell.

It had taken him a few months to set the things into order before he turned his attention to the storeroom and the first thing he did was to pull the wooden jewellery box and carry it outside. He settled in his seat by the window, at the back of the shop, were he could work undisturbed and carefully unlocked the box.

At first sight, it was not impressive; he knew it was silver despite the aged and blacked look of the metal. He carried it with him to the workshop where he cleaned it of tarnish and walked back to his seat. As he started rubbing the silver with a soft cloth to make it sparkle, the design began to show. It was a bracelet, made of irregular and different shades of lapis lazuli and uncured blue quartz. The stones were moulded in silver sheet and individually welded to form the bracelet.

Time and age had lent a soft patina glow and as the piece turned warm in his hands he wondered who must have created that labour of love. For it was a labour of love, crafted by hand, an expression of affection. He thought about the hours the craftsman must have spent, heating the silver over a small flame, carefully hammering the sheet to hold the gemstone and then welding them together. The wrist that the bracelet adorned must have been a woman much loved though he was saddened at the thought of the circumstance which must have brought the bracelet to the pawn shop, to lie in the dark, forgotten by both the maker and the lover.

Once he finished polishing it, he pulled out a new velvet case, the deep blue serving as a startling contrast to the dull turquoise of the stones, and set the bracelet in a prominent place in the jewellery counter. Even if it had been forgotten by its maker, it deserved a wonderful home, adorning the wrist of another woman who could be equally loved.

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Word count 480