Chapter 2 - My Mother's Name Is Sarah
The water was still dripping off my chin.
It had hit me so fast I hadn't even seen her lift the glass. One second I was standing there trying to get someone to look at me, the next my eyes were squeezed shut and my hair was stuck to my face and my coat felt heavy and cold. The ballroom went quiet except for the chandelier humming above us. I could hear my own breathing.
Evelyn Whitmore stood over me. I didn't know her name then. I just saw the teal dress and the blonde hair piled up and the dark earrings swinging when she moved. Her mouth was open like she'd been yelling and her chest was rising fast. The marble under me was cold through my pants.
The necklace had fallen out when I flinched. I hadn't meant for it to show. Mom had told me to keep it tucked inside my shirt always. But the chain had slipped when the water hit me and now it lay on the white marble with the grey lines running through it, the gold catching the light, the blue stone dark against the floor.
She stared at it. Then she stared at me.
"Where did you get this?" she said.
Her voice wasn't loud. It was sharp. Like she already knew I was going to lie.
I wiped water from my eyes with my sleeve. My coat had slipped off one shoulder and my shirt underneath was still damp and dirty. I could feel everyone watching. The men in tuxedos and the women in long dresses standing in a circle around us, not moving.
"My mother gave it to me," I said. My voice shook. I couldn't make it not shake.
She didn't pick it up right away. She kept looking at the necklace, then at my face, then back at the necklace. Her hand was tight around the empty glass. Someone behind her whispered something I couldn't hear.
"My mother's name is Sarah," I said. I had to say it before I lost the chance. I kept my hands on my knees so they wouldn't shake so much. "She said this necklace belonged to her grandmother."
For a second nothing happened. Evelyn's face didn't change. Then something small happened around her eyes. Her eyebrows pulled together just a little and her lips parted. She lowered the glass slowly and handed it to someone without looking.
She stepped closer. Her heels clicked on the marble. She bent down, not all the way, just enough to reach the necklace. I saw her hands up close. Her nails were done, pale pink and perfect, a thin gold bracelet at her wrist. She had rings on, but she used just her fingertips to pick up the chain, like it might break.
She lifted it. The blue stone turned in the light. It was shaped like a tear and the gold around it was crowded with tiny blue stones too. I'd never looked at it that close when Mom let me hold it. I always thought the blue was just one stone.
Evelyn held the locket in one hand and with the thumb of the other hand she found the little edge on the side. I hadn't known it opened. Mom had never opened it in front of me. Evelyn's thumb pressed. There was a soft click.
She didn't open it all the way. She just held it there, her thumb on the hinge, her fingers trembling a little. I could see her breathing now, shallow and fast. Her perfect makeup made the wetness in her eyes shine more.
The ballroom was still silent. I could feel the cold water drying on my cheeks and making my skin tight.
Evelyn looked at me again, really looked at me this time. Not at my coat or my wet hair, but at my face. Her eyes stopped on my cheek, under my left ear.
Then she sank down.
She didn't just crouch. She knelt, both knees on the marble, her teal dress pooling around her. The fabric made a soft sound against the floor. Now we were at the same level. I could see the small lines at the corners of her eyes and the way her earrings caught the chandelier light. She held the necklace up between both hands, the chain looped over her fingers, the blue stone hanging in the air between us.
Her face had changed completely. The anger was gone. Her mouth was softer and her eyes were wet and her eyebrows were drawn together like she might cry. She wasn't looking at the necklace anymore. She was looking at me.
"Where is your mother?" she asked.
Her voice was quiet and it broke a little on the word mother. She leaned forward just an inch, like she was afraid I'd move away. The necklace swayed slightly between her hands.
May you like
I swallowed. My throat was dry. I could hear the air conditioner and someone's bracelet clinking behind us. I didn't know how to answer that. I didn't know where Mom was. That was why I was there.
I sat with my knees pulled in and my wet hair stuck to my neck and I looked at the woman kneeling in front of me holding my mother's necklace, and I didn't say anything yet.
