Remember

She couldn’t remember how she got there. All she knew was that she was sore and hungry and tired. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and remember. It didn’t seem to help. When she opened them, she looked around hoping to find some clue as to what might have happened.

She was sitting in the sand on a beach. The wind was blowing, and the moon was in the sky above her. The area was deserted, which seemed reasonable since it appeared to be the middle of the night. The sandy beach appeared to stretch for miles in either direction. 

The last thing she could remember was meeting someone for breakfast in a small café in a small town called Salem, Ohio. Now it appeared that she had lost more than twelve hours of time and been transported somewhere along the coast of Florida. 

Her name was Jasmine, and she was a pretty girl of about 25. She had long black hair and startling blue eyes. 

Jasmine had decided to take a chance and meet up with someone that she had been talking to on one of the many dating sites that had become so popular. 

Now she couldn’t help but wonder if the person she was supposed to meet was responsible for where she was now or if something else had happened.

She decided that it obviously wasn’t helping any to sit there wondering. So, she decided to get up and look around a bit. She was fully dressed wearing a black sweater and a pair of jeans. However, her shoes were missing so that now she was barefoot. She did not have her purse or her phone anywhere that she could find.

Once she stood up and turned around, she could see that she was in front of one of the many hotels located in the area. She slowly limped towards the entrance. She didn’t have any injuries that she could see, but her whole body ached like she had been run over by a train.

She made her way to the front desk and asked the young clerk if he recognized her and also if she was registered there at the hotel. While he was checking, she looked around the lobby hoping to stir some kind of memory. 

Unfortunately, there was no whisper of a memory, and the clerk could not find her registered on the computer. So, then she asked if she could use the phone to call someone.

Jasmine placed a call to her sister Sari. Her sister picked up immediately, demanding to know where she was. According to the clerk she was at New Smyrna beach. Sari wanted to know how she had gotten there but Jasmine was still clueless. She was also very hungry and tired. She asked if her sister could help her. She did not have her ID or credit cards, so she was pretty much stranded. 

Her sister Sari told her that she had a friend in the area that might be able to help her. She would give them a call to see if they could come pick her up.

While Jasmine was waiting, she decided to go back outside and explore the area that she first came awake.

She could tell where she had been sitting because the sand had been disturbed. She started by filtering the sand through her fingers. She suddenly felt something. It looked like a necklace with a big stone on it.

As she looked at the stone, everything seemed to come into focus. It felt like the world had been spinning around her and now it was standing still. She remembered everything.

She had gone to the café to meet the gentleman she had been talking to on the dating site. However, when she got there the person she was expecting wasn’t there. Instead, there was a complete stranger waiting for her.

He was an older man who carried an air of elegance with him. He appeared tall and strong with silver hair. He waved her over to sit with him.

At first, she was tempted to simply walk right back out. However, she was overcome by a sense of curiosity and figured that she should be safe enough in the crowed café.

As she sat, the gentleman introduced himself as Latimer. He apologized for the subterfuge but stated that he had been searching for a way to set up a meeting with her. He had something special to give her. He said that it had belonged to her mother. 

For a moment she was overcome with sadness, because her mother had died a long time ago. She wasn’t sure if she could believe him, but she couldn’t resist finding out what it was. As she waited, he pulled a beautiful necklace out of his pocket. On a silver chain, there rested a huge emerald. 

As she looked at the emerald, the world started to spin and went dark. Next thing she knew she woke up on the beach with no shoes, purse or phone.

The memories seemed to rush over her like an avalanche. She knew that she must discover exactly who Latimer was and how this necklace seemed to have transported her in both time and place. 

She decided to wrap the necklace in some paper and place it in her pocket hoping that would keep it from moving her again.

When she walked back to the hotel her sister’s friend Kevin was waiting for her. He appeared to be about the same age as she was with shaggy blond hair and greyish blue eyes. He seemed startled upon first seeing her. Of course, that was probably because she looked just like her twin Sari. 

Because Sari had explained the situation as well as she could he had brought a pair of flip flops with him, hoping that they might be acceptable. Jasmine was quite grateful. She felt like her whole world had been turned upside down. His willingness to help her made her want to cry. 

The two of them went to a fast-food restaurant and grabbed a couple of burgers. She thought she had never tasted anything so good.

As they sat there, she explained to Kevin everything she remembered. Jasmine expected him to laugh and call her crazy. Instead, he just sat there like he was flabbergasted. He stated that he heard of a necklace that could do that, but he thought it was just a myth.

Jasmine decided to call her sister up again and ask her if she had ever heard of the necklace or of the gentleman named Latimer. Sari couldn’t remember anything. When their mother died, she had left a box of letters that the sisters had never had the heart to go through. Sari said that she would go through them and see if there was anything referring either to the necklace or the strange man.

Kevin suggested that maybe there was a reason that the necklace had brought her to this beach. He had grown up hearing about mysterious appearances and disappearances in the area. In the stories there was always a necklace that was referred to.

For the night, they agreed that for the night, she would stay on the couch in his apartment and in the morning, they would look on his computer to start a search. Afterall it was getting close to midnight and Jasmine was exhausted. She may have been flung from one place and time in an instant, but it felt like she had run a marathon.

The next morning, Jasmine woke to the smell of bacon cooking. The aroma started a grumbling in her stomach. She stretched and then got up to discover where the aroma came from. Kevin was in the kitchen fixing bacon and eggs. She couldn’t help but ask him how he managed to stay single when he was so good in the kitchen and so willing to help out a stranger. He just laughed and said that he would do anything for a friend.

Once they had eaten the delicious breakfast, they headed over to his office to get to work on the computer. Unlike the rest of his apartment, it was a little messy with books and papers lying everywhere. 

Jasmine asked him what he did for a living. Kevin confessed that he was a history professor at the local college. She couldn’t believe her ears. He definitely didn’t look like any professor she had ever known.

First, they searched the history of the place for stories of the mysterious appearances and disappearances he had mentioned. She was surprised at how many stories there were that came up. Several of them even mentioned a strange emerald necklace. However, it appeared that they had been treated as tall tales. She wondered what the origin of the necklace was and why it seemed to be centered in New Smyrna.

While they were working on the computer, Kevin’s phone rang. When he saw that it was Sari, he put it on speaker and let her know that Jasmine was listening.

Sari told them that she hadn’t had much luck going through their mom’s old letters. However, Latimer, the gentleman that met Jasmine at the café, had contacted her. Evidently, he found her number in Jasmine’s phone. He explained to her how Jasmine had disappeared just as he was about to tell her the story behind the necklace. She left everything behind including her shoes. He requested her help to try and find her.

They weren’t sure if they could trust him, but at this point it seemed like he was the only one who had any answers. Sari gave them Latimer’s contact information and then she said that she was going to get on a flight and come down to New Smyrna. It seemed like that was the best place to find any answers. Everyone was in agreement to this.

After hanging up with Sari, Kevin called Latimer and again placed the phone on speaker. Jasmine explained to Latimer how she had found herself on the beach. Latimer then suggested that he also take a flight to New Smyrna and meet them. They reluctantly agreed to this. After all it seemed like it was the only way they would get any answers. 

The next day, they all met at the restaurant attached to the hotel that Jasmine had first found herself in front of. Jasmine was extremely nervous and anxious while they waited for Latimer to show. She was worried that something else might happen with the necklace before they figured out what was going on.

Strangely enough when Latimer walked in, he did not inspire a feeling of fear. Rather she felt relaxed for the first time since she had woken up on the beach.

Once all of them were seated, including Sari, Latimer told them that he had a strange story to tell. He said that up until he met with Jasmine, he had not been sure of whether it was even true or not. Now he did not have any doubts.

It seems that long ago, before Florida had been settled by the Spanish, there arrived a ship to the shores of new Smyrna. It carried a young couple who escaped from pirates. They brought with them some of the loot that had been carried by the pirates. Among this was an emerald necklace. Once they landed on the shore, they had no way of returning home because the small boat they arrived in was wrecked. They were able to trade most of the loot with the Indians that were currently in the area, to help them survive. However, they held on to the emerald necklace. 

At the time, the necklace did not appear to have magical powers. However, over time as it passed from one generation to the other strange stories were told of people disappearing or reappearing with the necklace. 

As it happens Jasmine and Sari were the last descendants of the couple that had landed on that shore. Somehow, the necklace had become misplaced over time. 

Latimer’s theory was that when it recognized Jasmine, it transported her to what it considered home. He said that since he had come across the necklace in an estate sale he had been researching and attempting to find descendants of the first true owners.

The sisters decided to keep the necklace in a safe place and continue to research it’s past as much as possible along with the help of Latimer and Kevin. Who knows what adventures might follow them.