The Family Heirloom

Elisha’s grandmother gave her the mysterious family heirloom way too early. It was meant to be given specifically on Elisha’s wedding day, but other family members say she just knew she was not going to be able to make it to that day. Everyone’s wedding day marks a huge decision made in your timeline, it can change the course of your life and even your future generations forever be it for the good or for the bad. A loving family filled with joy and playful weekends together or a house filled with silence and bonds broken by spite, either way it all comes down to that decision and the person you are choosing to unite to.

On just her fifteenth birthday Elisha was given the famous necklace she heard of in the stories her family made since she was a toddler. She didn’t see anything that surprising about the necklace. At first sight it seems normal, a rose quartz crystal hanging by a handmade intricate macrame string. To Elisha it looked like a type of necklace she would see when her parents took her to the town's artisan fair. With the birthday cake with candles ablaze still in front of her they began celebrating the day she turned fifteen by song. After the Happy Birthday song culminated and Elisha blew the candles of her cake she raised her sight and bathed in delight as her parents, little brother, and grandparents came at her with a group hug. It was a joyful afternoon Elisha will most likely always remember when she is an adult.

When all the laughing and overlapping of talking calmed down. Nancy, Elisha’s grandmother, came near and sat down next to Elisha at the living room’s sofa.

“I’m so proud of you baby!”, Nancy exclaimed as she hugged her granddaughter in a warm embrace.

“Thank you much for the necklace Grammy, but can I ask you a question?”, Elisha said shyly.

“Or course my angel ask me anything”, her grandmother replied.

“Why did you give me the necklace today and not when I get married like mom said you would?”, Elisha asked staring straight into her grandmother’s eyes.

“Oh honey just know that I want you to have it and I love you so much”, Nancy said as she grabbed Elisha in another hug.

Elisha was not quite satisfied with that answer but as she thought to insist, her mother came towards them to take pictures together. Even though the moment passed she couldn't help but wonder why she was given the family heirloom so early on and not on her marriage day how it was done for generations in her mother’s family. The family stayed together playing board games and telling old stories to Elisha and her little brother until her grandparents left the house and it was time to go to sleep.

A couple of months have gone by and Elisha didn’t question the reason behind her having the crystal that was hanging by her neck. She just knew she had to wear it every single day since her birthday and it had become part of her outfits. In school, some other girls had praised it and asked her where she bought it, she always answered that it was a gift.

She was attending English class trying to stay awake while her teacher gave the specifications of the report due next week. Elisha was doodling in her notebook when the school director suddenly came to the classroom and told her teacher from the doorway he needed to talk to her. Her teacher talked to the director and then looked straight at her as she said “Elisha pack your things your mother is waiting for you”.

Elisha noticed her classmates staring at her as she got up and grabbed her notebook and put it inside her backpack. As she went outside she asked the director what happened but he only said that it was better that her mother explained it to her.

“Mom what happened? why did you came to pick me up so early I’m just on my second class”, said Elisha quickly.

“Elisha I don’t know how to tell you this…”, said her mother anxiously.

“Mom please just tell me”, Elisha was already scared of her answer.

“Your grandma… she, but she didn’t tell anybody I don’t understand… she she died”, Elisha’s mother said bursting into tears.

“Grammy?! No it can’t be! “, Elisha started crying simultaneously with her mother.

After their intense moment of despair they headed back to the car where Elisha’s father was waiting at the driver’s seat to take them back home. Elisha looked lost in thought through the window, it had started raining. A phone rang filling the silent ride with an overly joyful tune. Her mother answered the call.

“How did she have cancer and we didn’t know Lucille? I just can’t understand how”, Elisha heard her mother’s side of the phone conversation. She thought to herself her mother was most likely talking with auntie.

Elisha kept looking through the car window as the town’s building and landscape went past on the way home. But she noticed sudden dark spots in her vision, she looked down towards her body and saw the rose quartz from the necklace strangely glowing, her body felt heavy and her heart started beating faster.

“Dad I don’t feel good”, Elisha managed to say before she passed out completely.

When Elisha woke up, she wasn't in her dad’s car anymore. Standing in a strange room she hadn't seen before she stared at her reflection in the mirror. The person staring back at her looked so similar to her mother, she raised her hand towards the mirror and then touched her face. The reflection followed her every move. Elisha was looking at herself. Face marked with expression marks and more freckles, her hands looked older like her mother’s hands.

Elisha was confused, she began looking around the room trying to see if she could determine where she was but it definitely wasn’t the house of any family member she could remember visiting before.

As she walked towards the doorway she heard running downstairs and laughing, children. And then a small voice screaming “Mom she is bothering me again!!”.

Followed by another small voice saying “I am not! You took my toy first! Mommy!”

And two little kids came running up the stairs towards right in front of Elisha. She stared at them trying to understand what was happening.

‘Mom? Do they think I am their mother?’ Elisha couldn't help wondering.

Elisha felt scared and thought she must be dreaming, she couldn’t be a mother of these children when she was just fifteen or at least she thought she still was.

She followed them downstairs and took a look at everything, the detailed kitchen, the living room floor filled with kids toys laying around and the purple curtains. Elisha didn’t understand what was happening but she somehow needed to go back to her parents. The kids grabbed some toy cars in their hands and began racing themselves and making car sounds as they ran around the house. Elisha came near the sofa to sit down and suddenly noticed a framed family photo. It was a photo of her dressed in college graduation attire and both of her parents standing to each side of her. But they seemed older in the picture, both with white hair. Next to it, there was another framed photo of an older pregnant Elisha holding a little boy in her arms. As Elisha examined them, she felt a course of terror through her whole body as she thought to herself what she could only think would explain all of this… somehow she was in the future.

‘Okay let me think, I was at school then mom came to get me to tell me the news about grandma then we were at the car, I felt really bad saw the necklace glowing and everything went black’

‘The necklace. To think that right now it is the only thing I have from my real life.’

Elisha took the quartz necklace in her hand and cried out of frustration. She couldn’t help but think of her grandmother the day she gave it to her. She felt lonely, scared and hopeless and when she opened her eyes she saw how the quartz began glowing similar to that moment in the car.

‘The necklace must have something to do with this. It's glowing again.’

“I want to go back please. I need to go back”, she said out loud while holding the necklace between her hands.

Her body felt heavy, this time she felt the world spinning and then she passed out…

Elisha opened her eyes anticipating waking up in the back seat of her dad’s car on that rainy day. But as she began regaining consciousness she heard a voice, her mother’s voice, saying “Elisha no! Leave that! I already bought you the drawing kit, maybe for Christmas Santa Claus will bring you that plushie if you are good.”

Elisha was standing in the toy aisle in a store she remembered only from her childhood because when she started middle school the store was permanently closed in the whole country.

She looked down at her body, she was smaller, her hands now way too tiny than she remembered.

Her mother grabbed her arm urging her to walk and Elisha noticed her mother was way taller now. Her height only reached her mother’s torso.

‘No no no this can’t be happening’

Elisha was now in her eight years old body if she had to guess.

‘I wanted to go back but I went too far back.’

Elisha continued walking next to her mother as they went through the different aisles in the store. When all of a sudden she realized something. She didn’t have the necklace anymore.

‘If I don’t have the necklace, how I am going to get back to my real time? I need to go back to my fifteen year old self. But right now the necklace must be with grammy. It’s going to be hard to get it from her as an eight year old she won’t let me even touch it.’

Elisha then decided she would need to act “her age” until the opportunity to be near the necklace came.

2 weeks passed and everyday was harder for Elisha to act like an eight year old when in her mind she actually was fifteen. But today seemed promising, her grandmother was coming to visit them and spend all day at the house. This was Elisha’s moment to get near the necklace and try to go back to her time.

When her grandparents arrived at the house Elisha tried acting as she remembered she always did in her childhood. She ran excitedly towards them and threw herself into a hug.

“Grammy! I missed you!”, Elisha said holding back her tears.

Nancy looked at her granddaughter and felt something was different about her. She knew that it had happened. Elisha had time jumped and it was time to help her fulfill her destiny.

“Elisha honey let’s go to your room sweety I brought you some new clothes”, she said as she walked Elisha hand in hand.

When they got to their room, Elisha went straight to the point and told her grandmother she wanted the necklace she was wearing. She thought that being that direct would not seem that odd for an eight year old. Her grandmother just smiled as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“I died, didn't I? and you are not exactly yourself”, Nancy said to her granddaughter.

“How do you know?”, said Elisha confused. She thought it was going to be difficult to get her to help her while acting as everything was normal.

“This rose quartz necklace is special. That is why it is so precious and has been in our family for many generations before us. With it you can time jump to the future and also the past. The strings of life intertwine and the timeline crosses. I had a vision, when the day came that I couldn’t battle my cancer anymore that would be the first time you would time travel. So I had to make sure you would have the means to go back to your original timeline. I decided to give you the necklace before the time I was actually supposed to do it so that when I was gone you could still find your way to me. Even though I'm now wondering if giving it to you early on is what triggers it.”, Elisha’ s grandmother explained.

“But grammy why didn’t you said anything about the cancer, not even to mom?”, Elisha questioned.

“Oh baby I just did not want anyone pitying me. I wanted to enjoy my last years surrounded by family and the things I love. I didn’t want to feel like a hospital patient in my own home. I tried everything that was possible but once I knew there was nothing to be done I made my peace. Now you need to go back Elisha”, Nancy sighed and lowered her head.

“But I’m not going to see you again Grammy. I'm going to miss you so much. I love you”, Elisha said as she cried and tightly hugged her.

“I love you too honey please live a happy and long life I will always be with you”, Nancy cried with Elisha and didn’t let go of her as the necklace started to glow.

Elisha heard the faint sound of rainfall, then her mother’s voice talking on the phone and she opened her eyes to the back of the passenger seat of her dad’s car. She was back to her original time and now she knew more than everyone in that car of the endless possibilities of life. She touched the necklace and tears escaped her eyes.

“Mom? Dad? I have something to tell you.”