The Treasure Chest

Today the chain on my penny necklace broke. That penny means a lot to me. It's a sign from the other side, a gift from my friend Richard, delivered 11 months after he died. I've worn that penny around my neck for eight years, ever since I received it on Good Friday in 1999.

So I went searching through my jewelry box to try and find another chain to hold the penny. It wasn't easy. I don't have that many necklaces on chains. I suppose I could create a special beaded necklace for it but I don't have the ambition for it. Besides, colorful beads would detract attention from this worn out 1936 wheat penny that means so much to me.

I finally found a shorter, very thin chain. It might even be 14 karat gold, though there wasn't a little tag telling me this. I slipped the penny on it and fastened it around my neck. It is too short to pull on and off over my head, so I'm going to leave it on permanently, even in the shower. I guess I'll have to take a chance that it won't come off in the swimming pool at the Y, or else I will have to find a much longer chain again. I would feel terrible if I lost that penny. I feel as though when I wear it, Richard's spirit is with me, protecting me. Without it, after wearing it every day for eight years, I would be bereft.

My search through the jewelry box, which is a jumble of costume jewelry I never wear anymore, uncovered a treasure chest. Yes, a genuine one! It is a tiny plastic red box, shaped just like a pirate's treasure chest. It doesn't close perfectly so when I disturbed it rooting around for another chain, it opened up and spilled its forgotten treasure into the bottom drawer of the jewelry box (which is shaped like a miniature chest of drawers).

The treasure is a collection of Jason's baby teeth. Not all of 20 of them, but four or five little teeth, shrunken even more by time and dehydration, I suppose. If there's anything left of them by the time I die, perhaps Jason will find them and keep them. Marilyn told me she found her mother's collection of her baby teeth but when she opened the envelope so many years later, there was nothing but dust.

But now I am reminded of my treasure chest and the treasure inside, the memory of my young man as a little boy. Maybe that's why the chain broke today, so that I could find that little treasure chest and savor the memories it brought back to me. Thank you, Richard.