by Paige Watson
“Thanks,” I said, leaning over the table to grab the pencil from his hand. As we exchanged the pencil, our fingers brushed past one another. The touch of his hand sent a jolt up my arm, and an unsettling feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. I pulled my eyes away from his to focus my attention back on the board. I glanced back at Conrad and saw he was leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head and his feet on the desk. What a dick. He wasn’t even trying to pretend like he was paying attention. Although I guess when you were that good looking, you could afford to be a little cocky.
“Now who can tell me what the controversial part of the Inquisition was?” Mr. Rieder looked around the classroom in search of a willing pupil to answer his question.
“Well, they tortured people in an attempt to coerce confessions or information out of them,” Conrad answered.
“Yes, yes they did. Although it has been exaggerated upon as to how many cases actually involved torture, it’s true that torture was used in some of the trials.”
A flash from one of my dreams leapt into the forefront of my mind. A mangled body lying on its back with its arms twisted around unnaturally burned itself into my eyes. Instantly my stomach flipped over inside my body. I dropped my pencil and cradled my head in my hands. A sharp metal spear was being heated over a fire. The end was glowing bright orange. I watched as the spear was thrust into the stomach of a writhing body. It cut through the flesh like a knife through hot butter. My throat burned, and I could feel my breakfast begging to come back up. I placed my fingers on each of my temples and started massaging my head. I was trying to rub out the flashes from my dreams I had just seen. I looked up, hoping no one had seen me but Conrad had his gaze fixed on me. His eyes surveyed me with curiosity. I quickly turned away to see what else Mr. Rieder had written on the board. It took all of my attention to focus on what he was teaching.
About twenty minutes into the lesson, Mr. Rieder dismissed us from class to go to lunch. I watched as Claire invited Conrad to sit with her and her friends at lunch. Beautiful people always seemed to flock to other beautiful people and that was just the way of the world. I passed up getting anything to eat since my stomach was still a little uneasy and instead I went into the crowded cafeteria to grab an open seat. The popular seniors always sat at the benches in the center of the lunch room, but since Caroline and I were loners, I found us some seats in the back corner of the cafeteria. Claire of course took her usual seat at the center benches and Conrad sat down right beside her.
“Well she is certainly trying to mark her territory, isn’t she?” Caroline sat down her tray as she glanced over at Claire.
“I don’t think he seems to mind,” I said.
“Maybe not.” Conrad and Claire were the center of a large group of laughing seniors. I watched as she touched his arm and threw her hair over her shoulder. She was pulling out all the stops. I couldn’t blame her though; if any girl in school had a chance with him, it would be her. While I was watching the two of them eat lunch, Conrad looked up from his tray and caught me staring at him. He smiled at me and I quickly turned away without returning the gesture. I wanted to watch the two of them as they sat in the center of the crowded cafeteria, but decided against it. If he caught me looking at him again he would probably think I was a creeper.
Mr. Rieder didn’t lecture for too much longer after we got back from lunch, and I released a sigh of relief when it was time to go to my last class of the day. I never had flashes of my dreams play out before my eyes like that. I felt nauseous just thinking about the things I saw. You would think after all of the dreams I had over the years I would be used to it, but that wasn’t the case. I think the things I dreamed about were something you never got used to, no matter how many times you saw them.
“Thanks for letting me use your pencil,” I said, holding it out to Conrad.
“You keep it. Like I said, I don’t take notes.”
“How—how can you come to all your classes and not take a single note?” His nonchalant attitude toward school grated at my nerves. I was one of those people who took my classes seriously and made good grades.
“Well when you’re as smart as I am, one finds that taking notes simply isn’t necessary,” he replied with a smirk. Then he got up and left the room.
“What was that about?”
I turned to Caroline with a confused look on my face. “What do you mean?”
“Well he is so good looking, lets you borrow his pencil, and you thank him by accosting him for not wanting to take notes in class?”
“Well people who don’t care about grades bother me,” I replied in a defensive tone.
Caroline shook her head at me. “Any other girl would have been drooling over him, heck I was drooling over him, but you just scold him instead. Only you would do that Evey.” She started to laugh. “Come on let’s go to Physics.”
I reluctantly packed up my books in my bag. Maybe I had been rude. Either way it didn’t matter; Conrad would probably never talk to me again. Our last class only lasted forty-five minutes since it was the first day of school and classes always let out by 1:30. This was lucky for me, since I was too sick at lunch to eat anything, I was famished. Caroline and I changed into our pink waitress uniforms before going out to the parking lot where her car was parked. A few parking spaces down I could see Conrad sitting on the hood of his car. He had a red Mustang convertible and Claire was leaning on the car, talking to him.
“Well he works fast doesn’t he?” I asked, throwing my bag into the back of the car.
“Apparently she does too,” Caroline answered.
“I guess we all knew that was coming,” I replied.
Caroline and I got in the car and started driving to Pat’s Place. It was a small white building with a dark green roof located on the main strip of town next to the Police Station and the U.S. Post Office. We walked in and set our stuff down in the break room next to the kitchen. A long bar spread across the back of the room and a row of barstools sat in front of it. The counter on the bar was a sparkling white and matched the tops of the tables. Booths with green seats covered the remaining wall space inside. Kit was at the counter ringing up a customer when Caroline and I met her behind the bar.
“Hey girls,” she smiled at us.
“Hey,” we answered in unison. Kit’s mother’s name had been Pat. When her mother died, the diner became hers. Her and her father, Mickey, have been running it since. I had never met Pat because she passed when Kit was young, but a picture of her hung on the wall behind the register. Kit looked just like her mother made over.
“How was the first day of school?” Kit brushed a stray brown curl from her eyes. Her hair hung in ringlets to her chin. She was in her mid-thirties but she could pass for twenty five any day.
“It was pretty good. School is school,” I answered.
“There is a new student in our history class and he is gorgeous,” Caroline added.
“Oh, well I just hope that you girls are focusing on the assignments and not the scenery of the classroom,” Kit said with a wink.
“That might prove a little hard for Evey, since he was staring at her in class today,” Caroline said.
“Oh he was not!” I could feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment. “I borrowed a pencil from him, that’s all.” I shot Caroline a glare as I walked over to the serving window between the kitchen and eating area. Kit came up and grabbed a hot plate of fries off the window and walked it over to a customer that was sitting on one of the bar stools.
“Hey Mickey!” I called through the window. Mickey was an older man with graying hair and a set of creases that cut across his forehead. A thick mustache hid the top part of his mouth making it look like he only had a bottom lip. Though I’d never met any of my grandparents, Mickey was the closest thing I had to the word. He always referred to Kit, Caroline, and I as “his girls”. Caroline and I had been working at the diner for the past two years, and it felt like we were all one big family.
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nbsp; “Hey!” He looked up from the grill and beamed at me. “You have a good first day?”
“It was pretty good. I felt sick at lunch though, so I didn’t really eat anything.”
“I’ll cook you up a burger and some fries. Just give me a minute. Does Caroline want anything?”
I pulled myself over the bottom of the window and pecked him on the cheek. “Thanks! Hold on, I’ll ask her.” I turned to face the opposite end of the bar. “Caroline, you want a burger too?”
“No thanks, Mickey,” she yelled. “I’m not hungry right now.”
I braided my hair into pig tails, letting the ends fall in my curls from earlier and tied my white apron over my dress. Then I grabbed an order pad and pen from beside the cash register before sliding it into the pocket on my apron. Caroline set to cleaning the windows on the opposite side of the restaurant while I ate my belated lunch. After I finished my meal, I started refilling the ketchup bottles and salt shakers. I was about halfway done with all the tables, when the bell on the front door rang out, signaling the entrance of a customer. I looked up and saw Conrad walking into the diner. He stalked past me and took up a seat in the back corner of the room. I looked over at Caroline. She had her head bent toward Kit in conversation. They both looked at me and motioned for me to go over to Conrad. I shook my head no. Caroline’s eyes narrowed and she mouthed the word, “GO”. I knew better than to cross her, so very reluctantly I wandered over to his booth and pulled out my pad and pen.
“Hi, what can I get you to eat today?” I asked nervously.
Conrad looked over the menu for a moment before meeting my gray eyes with his shocking blue ones.
“So we meet again,” he answered smoothly. “My name’s Conrad. What’s yours?”
“I’m Evey.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too.”
“You don’t seem to like me much.”
“Well, I don’t really know you,” I answered.
“I see. Well if there was something you would like to know about me, all you have to do is ask.” He flashed me another smile, but this one wasn’t devious.
“Thanks. So what can I get you?”
“I’ll have a burger, fries, and a coke.”
“Ok,” I said, writing down his order. “Well I’ll have that out to you in just a few minutes.” I walked back to the counter and could feel him watching me as I handed the order to Mickey. Caroline flashed her eyes at me from the register; which meant: tell me everything later. I nodded my head and filled Conrad’s cup with coke. “So what made you move from Los Angeles to Estill Springs?” I set his coke in front of him, waiting for a reply. He took a long drink before answering.
“It seems like a nice enough place,” he said with a shrug. “Why don’t you sit down and join me for a minute or two?” I looked back at Kit, who nodded her head in approval. She and Caroline were watching the two of us like hawks.
“Alright. Just for a minute though.”
“Actually, I moved because I have some family business to attend to. My uncle recently passed away, and he left me his house here. Since he was the last living family member I had, I decided to come and live in his house.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your uncle.”
“It’s ok. I didn’t really know him all that well. I only met him a couple of times.”
“What about your parents?” The words rolled out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
“They died a long time ago,” he answered, looking away.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I looked down at my hands sitting on the table and bit my lip. He was trying to be friendly and all I could do was bring up a past he probably didn’t want to talk about.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”
“I know, but it was rude of me to pry. It must be hard to be alone; I mean, to be living on your own,” I said.
“I’m not alone. You are sitting with me after all,” he smiled. Before I could say anything, I heard the ding of the order bell. Conrad’s food was ready.
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” As I picked up the plate, Mickey winked at me. It seemed like everyone wanted me to get to know this boy better. I set the food in front of Conrad and sat across from him. “So how come you don’t take notes in class or anything?”
“It bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“I just don’t see how you can act like school isn’t a big deal. I don’t know. I guess I just take school seriously and want to do well.”
“Well, when I lived in Los Angeles I was homeschooled. I had a private tutor and I’ve already studied pretty much everything the teachers were going over in class today. Believe me when I say my education was a top priority before I moved here.”
“Oh, ok.” We sat in silence for a few minutes while he ate his food.
“I like your hair like this,” he said, reaching forward to touch a soft curl.
“Thanks, I wear it like this for work,” I said, fidgeting. My cheeks started to burn and I avoided his gaze.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s ok. I don’t mind,” I smiled at him. He wrapped the curl tighter around his finger, before letting it fall back to my chest.
“What happened in class today? You looked like you didn’t feel well.”
I thought back to the class. The flashes started after I touched his hand. “I just felt a little sick to my stomach is all.”
“Oh,” he said, scrutinizing my face. “But you feel better now?”
“I do, but thanks for asking. I better get back to work. Let me get you another coke.”
“That’s ok, I need to go anyways. I pay up at the register right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll see you later,” he said, walking past me to the register. I heard the bell ding again. I grabbed the steaming plates from the window and carried them out to the customers. When I went back to Conrad’s table to clear it off; I found a black velvet box. I picked up the box and saw the napkin it was sitting on had a short note written on it. I thought you would like to have this back –C. I slowly lifted the lid of the box; inside it was a pendant on a gold chain. It had a bright red stone cut into the shape of a
diamond, which was encased inside a larger diamond made of gold. A gleaming pearl hung from the bottom tip of the gold pendant. I looked around, but no one was watching me. I slid the box and the note into the pocket of my apron. I couldn’t believe that he would give me such a gift. And what did his note mean? I’d never seen that pendant before in my life.
That night, when I got home from work, I walked straight to the den to find my parents. My parents owned and operated their own auction house in town. They appraised and sold a variety of antique furniture, jewelry, and paintings. I wanted to find out more about this necklace, and they were just the people to ask.
“Hey mom,” I said, walking up to the couch where her and my father were reading.
“Hey! How was your first day?”
“It was good, kind of busy though. The teachers jumped straight into the lessons today.”
“Did you and Caroline get all of the same classes?”
“Yeah we did. I’m not sure how we managed it; I guess we just got lucky.”
“That’s good,” my father answered.
“I have a necklace for you guys to look at, and I was wondering if you could tell me anything about it.”
“Where did the necklace come from?” my mother asked, reaching up to take the black velvet box from my hands.
“Oh, someone left it at the diner, and I was hoping you could tell me a little about it. You know, if it’s really valuable then I would tell Kit and Mickey so they could put up fliers or something, in case the customer came back.” She opened up the box and stared at the necklace.
“Oh wow,” she said, shooting a look at my father.
“Do you think it’s real?”
“Yes it’
s definitely real. I’d say it’s a ruby, and not a garnet,” she answered.
“How old do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure. Here, Guy,” she said handing the box to my dad. “You are better at dating things like this than I am.”
He took the necklace out of the box and turned it over in his hands a few times. “Hmm. It looks pretty old. I’d say late 14th century, possibly even older. It’s quite a stunning piece and it’s still in great condition. It could be in a museum even. I haven’t seen anything of this quality in a long time.”
“Oh wow.” He handed me back the box and I closed the lid over the necklace, holding it carefully. “Well I think I’m going to head on to bed. I’m pretty tired.” I hugged and kissed both my parents before heading back to my bedroom.
I stretched out underneath the covers of my bed, but I couldn’t get Conrad or the necklace out of my mind. The only thing more puzzling than his note, was the necklace itself. What did a 600 year old
necklace have to do with me? And why did my flashes start after I touched his hand? Thinking about that made me feel uncomfortable, but I didn’t have any choice; I would have to talk to him about everything at school tomorrow. The last thing I thought of were his piercing blue eyes as I quickly fell asleep.
I had the same dream as the night before. I begged the merciless king to spare the man’s life. I pleaded with him on my knees, but it was all to no avail. When I fell to my hands I looked down and saw the glistening pendant hanging from my neck. Before I could think about it any further, the axe swung through the air while laughing resonated throughout the room.
I woke up with a start. A glance at my alarm clock told me it was 4:07 a.m. I grabbed the glass of water off my bedside table and took a big gulp. The black velvet box beckoned to me from on top of my dresser. I threw off my comforter and carefully walked over to the box. The pendant shined, even in the dim light. I fastened it around my neck and went into my bathroom to see it. The bottom of the pearl reached the middle of my chest, and the deep red of the stone was almost the same color as my hair. I couldn’t help but be taken in by the beauty of it. Reluctantly, I put the necklace back in its box and slid it down into my messenger bag. I would have to figure out why he wanted me to have it.