____________

_   _________________________________________________________

Everyday I have been told to wear the same necklace. It looked like a key but had an intricate design on the top, which was carved wood creating the image of flowers and vines in the shape of a heart. Every day I would feel the weight of it hanging on my neck, never allowing me to forget it’s presence. Don’t get me wrong I thought the thing to be incredible beautiful, but its purpose baffles me. Just what is it for?

     “Rosabel, wear this always and you will be brought happiness and security. It was a gift from you father, and with this you will always be watched over. Having this around your neck will bring you love and peace, so don’t ever take it off.” I have never forgotten my mother’s words when she told me that. At the time I had never understood what she meant, but I always listened to her, even now, after she has passed, I wear the necklace.

     When my mother was in her death bed she uttered her final words to me, “Rosabel, find what this key opens, like I did, it brought me the greatest gifts in life, you, and your father.” I was only 12 then, so I didn’t think much of her words and thought she was continuing her gibberish. My mom often told me wild stories about my father and how great he was, she always called him a king and talked about how he was a gentleman. But through all her praises for him, I still couldn’t get it out of my head that he was never there. I have never once met my father nor seen a picture of him, sometimes I wondered if he was even real.

     On my 18th birthday is when everything changed, the aunt I was living with, due to my parents deaths, gave me a gift, except this wasn’t from her, she never got me anything. She handed it to me and said, “This was given to the guardian of you, so that when you were 18, you would get it. It’s from your mom.” As abruptly as she gave it to me, she left, leaving me standing there with a box in my hand. I looked at the box, it had similar carvings as my necklace, but there were no keyholes. On the bottom was a letter, labeled to me.

Dear Rosabel,


     You have finally become an adult! Congrats, I can’t believe my baby has finally grown up! I’m sure this box looks familiar to you; I sure hope it does at least. I’m writing this knowing I don’t have long left, there was so much I wanted and needed to show you, but you weren’t ready yet. Only you should be able to open this box and understand what’s inside. Once you have it open, you will understand more about me, and where you came from, this is my last favor I’m asking you.

Love you,

Mom

I took another look at the box, it was smooth on the bottom, and on all 5 other sides was the same pattern of flowers and vines in the shape of a heart. I was looking intently at the one side trying to figure out how to open the thing, when I heard my aunt.

     “Don’t bother, your mom was a crazy one, that thing is a hunk of wood. No way to open it, I tried.”

     “Okay,” I set the box down and looked at her, “anything else?”


     “No.” Then she walked away. As soon as she was gone, I went to my room with the box and locked the door, I needed to think, and get it open. My mom said only I’d be able to open it... Hmm…

     I fiddled with the pieces and noticed that on the top one of the pieces was loose, so I pressed it and a song began to play, it was my mom’s favorite song. I listened to the song but noticed that the bridge was wrong, there was a clicking noise, and then once the tune stopped, the piece popped back up. I pressed it again and noticed a few others move to, then once the clicking started, I took note of which pieces moved then when the song stopped again I pressed those pieces in the order they moved.

     There was no change, so I placed the box down and sighed, but then suddenly I heard a snap and I looked at the box, which now was open.

     Inside the box was a photo that was ripped down the middle, I could see that there were 2 people but the only person visible was my mom. From the other person I could see the edge of their hair; it was short and black, assuming it was a man, he was much taller then my mom. Also there was another note, it read:

Dear Rosabel,

     
I knew you'd be able to open it! You are now one step closer to finding it. This is the only picture I have of your father, I know it's not much but that's him. The reason the picture is ripped is because of our parting… There's more out there then you'd think, because I chose to leave your father, everything that resembled him, like this picture, has disappeared. It was like walking through a door of an imaginary place, and once through the door whatever was on the other side was gone. I loved your father dearly, and until the day I die I will always love him. You 
may be thinking why did I leave him, and why I never went back, well I'll tell you,
 but first you need to find the next box.

Love, 


Mom

     I flipped the note over and there was a map, there were 7 locations, each with a Square on it, but on the seventh was a wall with an indent in the shape of a box. On the bottom of the map was the words 'find the squares and place them in the final location' written in my moms handwriting. I looked closely at the map, it looked like the area where my mother brought me up, and luckily I recognized most of the spots that she had marked.

And that's when my journey started.

_   _________________________________________________________

____________