The Girl with the Pearl Necklace
I'm Gothic. You could say it's in my blood. I'm just 13, but I'm very secure in who I am -- unlike my five cousins and one sibling.
When I was young, I would get visions, vivid things that I knew weren't dreams. In most of them, I met my departed grandfather, during the dead time of night. I understood a lot as a young child, a lot more than everyone around me gave me credit for.
One night, at the age of four, I woke up at 1:34 a.m. The numbers on the clock near my bed were all too familiar -- it was the same time at which my grandfather had passed away. My eyes were suddenly filled with a bright light, the white kind they show in movies when someone is dying. I was terrified; I didn't know if I was dying or just seeing a vision of my grandfather.
I knew it had to be my grandfather, because they'd buried him in a suit whiter than ice cream.
He stepped out of the light, beckoning me to get out of bed. I did, and followed his pointing finger to a box that I'd never seen before. In a soft, vacant voice, he told me to pull out a chain with a small pearl on it. I reached my hand into the box, and when I pulled it out, exactly what he had described was draped around my tiny fingers.
I fell to my knees and began to cry, because my grandfather had vanished, leaving me alone in the dark, away from the protection of my covers. My mother burst into the room as my crying filled the house. Her jaw dropped as she saw the necklace.
"Where did you get that?" she asked me.
I sniffled and spoke around a runny nose. "Granpa gave it to me."
Now her tears began to fall, and mine dried as I unsteadily stood and toddled over to comfort her.
"I wanted to give it to you on his birthday," she sniffed as she hugged me close.
That made me cry again.
It was only recently that my sadness about that night drifted away. I finally figured out why my grandfather had decided to give me the necklace on April 30th instead of on his birthday. He wanted to give it to a present for me and my mother in a way separate from his special day.
I still wake up on the birthdays of my family members to a small white glare or streak of light in the corner of my eye, a reminder of his presence with me forever. The necklace I wear always, the key to our togetherness.
It may not fit a Gothic girl very well, but I wear it proudly.
