The Locket | Hero Fiennes Tiffin

Unrecognisable

Hero

"Hero Fiennes Tiffin" a squeaky Scottish voice says. I look up from my phone and stand up. My Mum made me come to A&E, despite saying I was fine a number of times after falling down a few stairs whilst carrying my moving boxes.

I walk towards the consultant and she leads me down a corridor. When we reach the room, she sits down behind a large desk and tells me and my mum to sit down on the two blue chairs opposite so we can tell her what's wrong. My mum explains what happened and then she examines my wrist, which my mum thinks is damaged from the fall. It isn't, but the consultant tells me to go and an X-ray taken anyway in case there is a small fracture.

As we are about to stand up and leave my mum says "That's a nice necklace, you've got there"   I look to see what she is talking about and I instantly recognise it. The necklace is a silver locket with intricate wave patterns and a dolphin on it. I don't recognise the person at all. She suddenly seems anxious about us being there as she hides the necklace under her uniform and her eyes go wide. Maybe it is her I wonder. But it can't be she moved out of the area at least 10 years ago and I haven't heard from her since.

"Hero" my mum nudges me in the ribs. Shit, I must have been staring for too long. We thank the consultant and then walk out of the room and walk to the X-ray department.

Amelia

He leaves the room after staring at me. I know he was trying to see if he recognised me because of my necklace. I was not ready for this chance meeting. I thought I would never see him again after that dreadful day where I said goodbye to him when I moved house. I can feel my eyes watering and I start to feel nauseous. I blame the nausea on only eating a cereal bar for breakfast, but the tears I blame on seeing him after all these years. He never tried to contact me after I moved, even when my mum and his mum were on the phone catching up, he never spoke to me.

I think he recognised the necklace, but there is no way he recognised me because I have changed so much since I last saw him. My brown hair is longer, I'm a lot taller, my awful fringe is gone, I've lost quite a bit of weight, I now wear glasses/contacts and my accent has drastically changed. I no longer sound English because I trained myself to speak the local Scottish dialect and now I find it hard to speak the way I used to. So I just speak this way even though I moved back down to London.

*****

"I'm going for lunch now, call me if you need me" I tell the other staff on duty.
The waiting room is now empty, so I'm going to go for lunch whilst I have the chance.

After I saw Hero, time seemed to pass by and I got through at least 10 more patients. After the last patient my tummy started to rumble, so I decided I needed to go to the canteen and get my lunch. The canteen is a short walk from A&E so I don't have to walk for long on an empty stomach.

When I get there it is nearly lunchtime so the queue is quite short, but there are still a few people. I join the end and grab a tray. When the queue moves along a bit I grab a bottle of water, a bag of Walkers salt and vinegar crisps and a bowl of lentil and bacon soup from the hot food section with a bread roll. I then walk over to the till and pay for my lunch. After that I go and find an empty table to eat my lunch at. I would rather sit by myself than be forced to make conversation with people I don't really know. It's the way it's always been and I honestly don't mind if it stays that way. I'm a very introverted person and the only people I really feel comfortable talking to are my close family, my 7 friends back home, my colleague Lucy, my cousin Eleanor who I live with, and my long distance boyfriend Ryan.