The small oak box held our bloodline’s most prized heirloom, a set of diamond earrings. Around 1879, a relative called Albert gained the jewels from a merchant who had trekked from the north. The only details I know of the huckster was he wore a gray frock jacket, and he had a fondness for cutting deals for the residents. When Albert heard the word of jewels the traveling merchant was selling, he became excited. Albert wanted to surprise his wife Mavis, so he walked to the town with his oldest Mark to the marketplace. Since the reconstruction, the times were trying for Albert, a soldier who battled for his native soil. His faction had failed and times changed. The once proud land was adjusting to a new way of life and one without as much wealth. Albert had saved his pennies and nickels to buy Mavis something nice, but he still could not afford the earrings. The merchant took a liking to dear Albert and cut a deal for him.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHzmrin6Smn
The joy he could see on Mavis made Albert’s day when he gave her the earrings. She wore them every day, even on the most trivial of trips. Mavis even wore them while harvesting the garden for supper when one day she became bitten by a cottonmouth. The snake sank his fangs in her ankle. Albert used the family’s only horse to travel to fetch a doctor in town. When they returned, the doctor tried to heal Mavis. He used every remedy in his black doctor bag, but Mavis still writhed in pain. He remarked that he had never seen such agony from a snake bite. Mavis prayed and pleaded to God to grant her a merciful death between her screams, but she suffered for three more days before dying.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXI31GHEUrh
Rather than burying Mavis in her prized earrings he passed them on to Mark. He held onto those earrings until he fell in love. The love of Mark’s life was the daughter of the town Butcher, a girl named Sara. The two married, and Sara birthed three boys. They saved for years until they could gain a parcel of their own land, this one inside the village. To celebrate a new beginning, Mark gave his wife his mother’s earrings. It moved his wife that her husband would gift his precious Mother’s earrings. She like his mother Mavis before her wore them proudly.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigZ8m0hiQS
The family was out shopping when Mark saw a familiar face at the marketplace. The merchant who had sold the earrings. What puzzled Mark was how the man had not aged. He sent his wife and sons to fetch supplies for the house as he went to speak to him. A fire happened, and the horses broke free stampeding away from the flames. Sara pushed her children out of harm's way as the horses trampled her. Mark never spoke to the merchant when his children found him and told their father what had happened. When the family arrived, they could observe the town doctor attending to the maimed but alive Sara. 249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FILdaKotS
Three days Mark sat with Sara as she pleaded for him to suffocate her. The horses had smashed multiple ribs and punctured a lung. It left Sara in anguish every breath brought her in pain. She survived for three more days as Mark held her hand as she drew her last gasp of air. When making plans for her burial, Mark left the jewels on his dear wife. The children and Mark laid Sara to rest at the town’s cemetery. The town experienced its first grave robbing as Sara and others were dug up. They had stripped each body of their jewels and gold.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxnu5QrsSPJ
Mark never remarried, he raised his boys alone. When the first great war happened in Europe, the three fought in a foreign land praying one day to come back home. Only the youngest, Jameson made it back. He settled back in his hometown meeting his future bride Suzie. The girl reminded Jameson of his mother, and after a year courtship, the two married. One day Jameson heard a knock on his door when he opened it he saw a small wooden box with a letter lying underneath. He opened the box to see his Mother’s earrings lying inside. The letter sounded quite mad. The writer claimed he could see a devil dance in the gems when it caught the light of a flame.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPPvhFeFGoq
Jameson did not believe in jinxes, nor devils dancing in stones. He kept his mother’s jewelry for the perfect occasion. The years passed and Jameson became a father to a boy they named Fredrick. The depression happened, it hit the town hard. Many men lost their work, including Jameson. He had no money for a gift for his wedding anniversary, so he gifted his wife the only thing he had. She marveled at the splendid stones and wore them on special occasion. Suzie wore them one day as she strolled through town to deliver a letter at the post office. She tried to cross the railroad tracks when her foot became stuck. 249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfNxUW5ZS5
She could not free herself, even after a few men came to help. They could hear a train coming and tried to free Suzie. The train hastily approached, they say you could hear Suzie’s screams all the way to the town hall, but the men could not release her. Suzie survived but lost her left leg. She caught a fever and begged for death as she laid in the hospital, and after three days she passed. Jameson was distraught and became withdrawn from the town. He removed the stones from her ears and hid them deep in his basement. 249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdNm07kAGf3
The years passed, and the earrings were always passed on with no one wearing them.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnSqZDoDuWA
When I got married at Cullman’s First Baptist Church, my father passed them on. No one had dared gifted these to a loved one for decades, but the stones had become part of our history. I had never told my wife about these cursed little stones. The years passed, as my wife and I began our life together each working hard in pursuing our career goals. The last year though, she has been working longer hours than ever, sometimes she doesn’t even come home for dinner.249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNgiTKG3oa
It became worse as she became more withdrawn emotionally and physically; she blamed it on exhaustion. I thought it was something else when I followed her one night. I was heartbroken the first time I saw her kiss him, a rat-fucking bartender from Oregon. I watched as he caressed her face and she gave a familiar grin she used to give me. All I can feel is the rage, and it burns at the thought of her with another man. That is when I decided what I had to do. 249Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRxy4k43D04
I had to give her a late Christmas present.
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