The Talisman

As she went through all the familiar motions, measuring this, adjusting that, glancing back and forth, Lissa kept her eyes wide open. She didn’t even blink. She was so afraid it was a mistake -- a mirage, a dream, a vision that would vanish like smoke if she closed her eyes, even for an instant. 

Is this it?

All the years of work, of searching, of chasing -- it was all over.

***

“Hey - HEY!” Lissa ran down the pier, footsteps reverberating in the tired old boards it was built of. She was in hot pursuit of a dalmatian bounding toward the hungry waves at the end of the world. At least, that was how Lissa imagined it. As far as she was concerned, the end of the land was the end of everything. Oceans did nothing but drown people, breed monsters, and fuel hurricanes. 

Well, no, she thought, Oceans do give us sea salt. But that’s about it. Lissa was quite fond of salt. 

When the dalmatian reached the edge of the pier, he paused and looked back at her. Lissa put out a hand.

“Here, boy,” she said in what she hoped was a calming tone, “Come here. It’s okay. It’s just me, see? No need to run, no reason to jump…” The dog scooted closer to the cold water below.

“No, no, no!” Lissa’s fear and irritation was not easily concealed. “Don’t you dare--” With an arf and a splash, the dog was gone, reappearing as a smudge of white in the vast grey. 

“Stupid dog…” Lissa muttered, quickly shedding her jacket, scarf, socks, and shoes. She took a running dive off the edge of the world. The grey of the sea blended with the gloomy sky in the distance, making her imagine for the split second she was in the air that the continents were adrift in the endless abyss of grey and sea and sky. Then that split second ended.

The water hit her like a blast of icy wind, quite nearly snuffing out what little heat she had retained. Her body was sent instantly into a fit of shuddering convulsions, but all that mattered was the dog. She needed to get that dog. She pumped her unwilling limbs into action. Fighting the power of the waves, Lissa broke the surface and took a great breath. The cold wind dug into her numb face like a million needles as she swam after the dalmatian.

Move. Move. Got to move. Got to get that dog.

She pressed on for what felt like hours, endless hours, filled with the heavy weight of exhaustion. 

Where did you go?

Lissa stopped and tread water for a moment, scanning the waters for the familiar white smudge. But all she could see for miles ahead was water, so much of it. 

No, no, no, no, no…

She ducked under the waves and forced her eyes open, searching. Nothing. Swirling, murky nothingness, interrupted only by… a great, black shadow jutting up from the depths. Lissa swam toward the ominous shape, praying that it was what it looked like. As she drew nearer, the image grew clearer. It was as if someone had plucked a lighthouse from the shore and dropped it at the bottom of the sea. Rock formations clustered around the odd building. Lissa laughed out loud, bubbles escaping her grinning mouth. 

She surfaced, floating for a moment above the great, dark shape of the building, taking in great gasps of air. Then, she plunged down as far as she could go. Dim, eerie silence pushed her down, against the upward longing of her lungs. She circled the building like a predator, searching for a way in. 

And there it was. An opening in the slimy walls allowed her entry to the lower part, and she swam through gratefully. A moment passed in total darkness, with nothing but her burning lungs reminding Lissa that she was alive. Then, the surface appeared above, rippling closer to her than she had imagined possible. 

She broke it gracefully, pulling herself up onto a cement ledge. The room was wide and cold, but not as cold as Lissa, who shivered and hugged herself into a ball. She was soaked to the bone and freezing. 

A whimper and a nudge reminded her of why she was there. The dalmatian was there, standing over her with what must have been the dog equivalent of a self-satisfied expression. Lissa dragged herself to her feet and looked around. There was only one doorway, leading to a lonely staircase.

“I guess it’s just you and me, huh, boy?” she said, peering up into the emptiness. The dog wagged its tail. “In that case, I hope you don’t mind… I’ll freeze in these wet clothes.” She stripped down and left her wet clothes stretched out on the floor before proceeding up the staircase, feeling much warmer. 

The room upstairs was furnished like a study, with a moldy armchair and a worn old desk. Long-dead candle stubs occupied the lanterns and several spots in the broken bookcase. 

Lissa opened the top drawer of the desk. There was only one thing inside. She took it out and held it carefully, almost reverently. It was a red, old fashioned fountain pen. On one side, inscripted in gold, it read:

INSIDE COLLAR

Lissa dropped to her knees next to the dalmatian and undid its collar. Embroidered on the inside was a set of coordinates, as she had expected. She put the collar around her own neck, so as not to lose it. Then, she turned the pen over. There was an inscription on the other side, too. 

CONNECT THE DOTS

“What?” she said aloud. 

***

The moment the maps were laid out, she dropped into a chair. Her eyes were still wide, her motions still mechanical. Connect the dots. She sat still for a moment, then seized the red pen she had found a week ago and drew a bold line across the first map.

Each of the places she had gone, each coordinate she had chased down, was marked with a dot on the map. Every lead she had gained and lost, she had kept marked, refusing to let go of her hope. She needed to find the talisman. She needed to make that journey. 

She connected the dots. 

Scarlet ink bridged the gaps between locations, and when she was done, she dropped the pen. The map was full of red, spelling out three words:

LOCK OF GOLD

Lissa’s hands went immediately to her hair. How could that be? Her hair… the talisman? It was crazy. But then, all of this was crazy -- finding a hidden trail with a long lost talisman. Lissa grabbed the phone. 

“Ray?” she said. The voice that came back through the receiver was crackly and low.

“Liss? Is that you?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you find it? Are we ready?”

“Why else would I call you?”

“Well? Where is it? What is it? How did you find it?”

“Ha. Well, it turns out the key was a lock.”

“What kind of lock? Like a code lock, or a padlock?”

“No, no, not that kind of--” Lissa stopped. She hesitated. She came to a realization. What kind of lock? A golden one, of course.

***

“Daddy?” Lissa kept her hands hidden behind her back.

“Not now, Liss, Daddy’s busy.”

“Okay…” She backed out of the office. If he was busy, he was busy. No need to bother him… 

There was silence. And then there wasn’t.

“LISSA!” 

Lissa gulped. 

“Y-Yes, Daddy?” She tried to look innocent, but her father wasn’t having it. He held out a small wooden box.

“Did you open this?” he demanded.

Lissa bit her lip.

“Just for a little bit...” she nodded meekly.

“I told you never to open this without my permission. Now, look. Did you do this?” He opened the box. Inside lay the broken pieces of a spun-glass necklace, sparkling sadly in the sunlight from the window.

Lissa burst into tears.

“I’m sorry!” she sobbed. “I just wanted to look at it…”

“Were you just looking at it, or did you put it on?”

Lissa just cried.

“Well? Did you put it on?”

“I wanted to look like Mommy…” she sniffled. Her father’s expression softened. He knelt down and gave her a hug. “I didn’t mean to break it,” croaked Lissa.

“I know,” said her father, “I know. You miss Mommy.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I miss her too.” There was a moment of silence, in which Lissa cried quietly, and her father embraced her, biting back tears of his own. Then, Lissa pulled back and held out a small, golden padlock. It was open.

“Where’d you find the key?” her father asked.

“I didn’t,” Lissa sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Then how’d you open the lock?”

“With a bobby pin…” 

Lissa’s father chuckled. 

“I saw a girl in a movie do it,” said Lissa. Her father kept laughing.

“Wow,” he said, “What am I gonna do with you?” He laughed again, letting the question hang. Then he said, “Well, this lock can’t be really useful to me if a little girl can pick it that easily. Why don’t you hold on to it?”

“Okay,” said Lissa, putting the lock in her pocket. 

***

Lissa dropped the phone and dashed down the hallway and into her bedroom, things toppling over in her wake. She dove under the bed, held back a sneeze, and crawled through the dust bunnies to a small, wooden box. She backtracked and pulled it out from below the bed. Not bothering to try and find the key, she simply pulled a bobby pin from her hair and picked the lock, pushing away long-forgotten memories of her childhood as she did so. She grabbed the old, golden padlock, then hesitated a moment. 

She opened the box. Inside lay the ancient fragments of a broken necklace, dusty, but still glittering. Lissa had a moment of doubt. Why isn’t the necklace the talisman? Why the lock? 

But deep down, she knew the answer. 

The talisman isn’t just a golden lock.

It’s a memory.

Not a broken memory, like the necklace, but a whole one. One that reminded her of what she had, not what she had lost. 

Lissa walked slowly back to where she had dropped her phone.

Picking it back up, she said, “Ray? Um, plans have changed a little. You can borrow the talisman, if you really want to do this, but… I’m not coming.” 

“What?!” came the voice at the other end. Lissa looked around. She didn’t need to go off to other lands, chasing what she had lost.

“I’ve got a life to live right now,” she smiled.