♦♦♦
Well, reader, what do you think? Did the apothecary give Susanna the wrong gem? Who is this sweet old lady who's come to visit our eager protagonist? And this Mike fellow -- what do you think of him? I hope you've put your thinking cap on because you'll need it. This story has only just begun and there are a few twists along the way. Be prepared.
♦♦♦
The two women were sitting across from each other in the modest living room of Susanna's apartment. Susanna had made tea which each lady sipped occasionally to fill the silence between them. The old woman had showed up at Susanna's house almost three hours earlier with very interesting news. (Poor Mike had shown up and been told that their date was to be postponed due to "unforeseen circumstances.")It so happens that the woman, Meredith Comings, had seen Susanna enter the apothecary shop earlier that day and had information pertaining to the gem she'd been given.
Meredith had been given the same stone exactly fifty years earlier and was told the same poem at the time she received it. She had been just as confused and in the same state of denial until strange things began happening. The stone had illuminated until it shone a radiant blue that was virtually impossible to hide. Then it had become scalding hot to the touch. Meredith had had to wrap the gem in a dish towel in order to move it and go back to the shop to complain. The man behind the dusty old counter was the same one who Susanna had spoken with earlier, and he refused to give Meredith any information on the mysterious jewel besides repeating the strange riddle of a poem. Meredith in the end had left the towel-wrapped gem outside the closed apothecary shop late one night and never saw it again until she saw Susanna enter the shop earlier that day.
The two women had sat in silence ever since Meredith finished telling her tale, both pondering the meaning of the strange blue gem that tied them together. Susanna, not able to withstand the monotonous silence any longer finally broke it.
Well, reader, what do you think? Did the apothecary give Susanna the wrong gem? Who is this sweet old lady who's come to visit our eager protagonist? And this Mike fellow -- what do you think of him? I hope you've put your thinking cap on because you'll need it. This story has only just begun and there are a few twists along the way. Be prepared.
♦♦♦
The two women were sitting across from each other in the modest living room of Susanna's apartment. Susanna had made tea which each lady sipped occasionally to fill the silence between them. The old woman had showed up at Susanna's house almost three hours earlier with very interesting news. (Poor Mike had shown up and been told that their date was to be postponed due to "unforeseen circumstances.")It so happens that the woman, Meredith Comings, had seen Susanna enter the apothecary shop earlier that day and had information pertaining to the gem she'd been given.
Meredith had been given the same stone exactly fifty years earlier and was told the same poem at the time she received it. She had been just as confused and in the same state of denial until strange things began happening. The stone had illuminated until it shone a radiant blue that was virtually impossible to hide. Then it had become scalding hot to the touch. Meredith had had to wrap the gem in a dish towel in order to move it and go back to the shop to complain. The man behind the dusty old counter was the same one who Susanna had spoken with earlier, and he refused to give Meredith any information on the mysterious jewel besides repeating the strange riddle of a poem. Meredith in the end had left the towel-wrapped gem outside the closed apothecary shop late one night and never saw it again until she saw Susanna enter the shop earlier that day.
The two women had sat in silence ever since Meredith finished telling her tale, both pondering the meaning of the strange blue gem that tied them together. Susanna, not able to withstand the monotonous silence any longer finally broke it.
