The Locket

By Katie J. Z. Barrier

Tossed into love and new adventures, a young girl protects her heart, her dog, and her free will. Living on her own, having a feeling of instability, she has a hard time painting the picture of her future. Her longest friend Tommy has been her crutch since she lacks some of her memories, not knowing he has a few secrets of his own. A simple treasure she finds reveals secrets about the land and pulls people together. Is this her guidance or demise? She is betrayed, falls in love, and develops an odd addiction, all the while trying to regain her memory. Can she trust the person holding her hand, or has her memory faded the fact that they are her enemies?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503533196

Katie J. Z. Barrier

Growing up with a fondness of many stories from her elders, she has developed a fine creative edge. Spending most of her life in the state of North Carolina and enjoying all the outdoors have to offer, she has a deep respect for all other living things. This girl, brought up by a loving family and taught by the sincerest teachers around, has put together this novel of feelings and dialogue, with an extraordinary twist in imagery and fantasy together. Ever since childhood, her love of writing has given her the motivation to put her stories down on paper. Wed to her best friend in the world and perfect life partner, she understands the wonder and beauty of true love. Having a husband as loving and supportive as hers has made it possible for her to go after her dream of sharing with the world and making it a reality. Although life is a roller coaster, with its ups and downs, she has learned anyone with a strong free will can conquer and grow. Some of her inspirations have been developed by real-life heartaches and blessings. She has had many people befriend and care for her, allowing her to enjoy love in many different ways. Her mother set huge stepping stones for her by reading and telling bedtime stories to her when she was a just a few inches tall. They would spend night after night making up fairy tales as they went until her eyelids would fall heavy, simple yet enormous way to show affection and spend time with her, a gesture from her mother very much appreciated by her even now. Many of her settings and storylines are fiction, but they let us see how well you can distinguish which are which. Dive in and enjoy this book by a loving and determined soul whose only wish is for her readers’ enjoyment.

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Copyright © 2015 by Katie J. Z. Barrier.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/07/2015

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 Rachel

Chapter 2 Ashley

Chapter 3 Shell

Chapter 4 Benjamin

Chapter 5 Shell

Chapter 6 Shell

Chapter 7 Benjamin

Chapter 8 Benjamin

Chapter 9 Ashley

Chapter 10 Shell

Chapter 11 Mrs. Albright

Chapter 12 Benjamin

Chapter 13 Shell

Chapter 14 Celery

Chapter 15 Shell

Chapter 16 Nurse Debbie

Chapter 17 Benjamin

Chapter 18 Shell

Chapter 19 Tommy

Chapter 20 Mrs. Albright

Chapter 21 Shell

Chapter 22 Ashley

Chapter 23 Shell

Chapter 24 Benjamin

Chapter 25 Tommy

Chapter 26 Celery

Chapter 27 Ashley

Chapter 28 Benjamin

Chapter 29 Ryker

Chapter 30 Celery

Chapter 31 Tommy

Chapter 32 Uncle Benny

Chapter 33 Celery

Chapter 34 Tommy

Chapter 35 Benjamin

Chapter 36 Celery

Chapter 37 Celery

Chapter 38 Tommy

Chapter 39 Celery

Chapter 40 Celery

Chapter 41 Tommy

Chapter 42 Celery

Chapter 43 Uncle Benny

Chapter 44 Ryker

Chapter 45 Shell

Chapter 46 Ashley

To Gina Frey and Geri Blackwelder.

I appreciate you both for always believing in me. You are my motivational dream catchers. Thank you both for your support and bestowing the love of writing within me. Thank you for catching my dreams and stories at a young age and for helping me grow.

PROLOGUE

Did you know that the island of Bonaire was long ago inhabited by the Caiquetios, which are a branch of the known Arawak Indians that sailed to the coast of Venezuela almost one thousand years ago then became Bonaire’s culture, which, throughout time, still resides today?

The first Europeans came to Bonaire in 1499, when it was claimed for Spain by daring men, Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci. They unceremoniously enslaved the Indians of Bonaire, deciding the island was of sparse commercial value for agriculture, hence virtually leaving the land effectively unpopulated until 1526, when cattle were brought to the island. Or at least they thought it was desolate. Were they wrong? This bloodline of a few remained planted and untouched and survived many cultures presented to the land.

Benjamin’s long-ago ancestors processed a pendant-like jewel that was way ahead of their time. The materials and designs were of a modern-day locket. Out of the true bloodline, many married and pursued the new ethicizes presented throughout the years, expanding humanity by means not only of love and lust but also by the force that dwells within this locket, like a cupid’s arrow that no one ever questioned. Does the locket affect Benjamin’s life, or is it a long-lived fairy tale of the Caiquetios?

Five years ago

The Canvas

CHAPTER 1

Rachel

Ding! The oven alarmed that the cookies were done; the whole house, smelling like sugar cookies, was an indication of a pleasant day.

A girl dressed in a periwinkle sundress and white tights came sliding across the kitchen floor on her shoeless slippery socked feet. She grabbed the countertop to slow herself down and then reached out to grab the red oven mitt that read Chef Princess in pink lettering and didn’t match anything else in her mom’s olive-toned kitchen. She slung open the oven door and carefully pulled the cookie sheet out while whiffing the sweet smell of the ready-to-eat delights lining it. She sat the hot sheet on the stove top and dug through the cabinet to locate the perfect serving tray. She still had a few minutes before she could put them on the tray anyway, so she proceeded out the glass sliding door on to the back patio to get her big sister, eager for her to try some of them.

Shell, the cookies are done. You want some while they’re soft and chewy? She sold her baked products with her tone and description just like a used car sales rep talks up the newest vehicle on the lot.

She smiled as her elder sister Shell turned around from her easel, grinning. Shell seemed to always be in a good mood. She was only eleven, but she heard about this adventure young girls went through filled with mood swings called puberty. However, her sister who was almost three years older than her seems to slide by all that, or maybe she was a late bloomer. Rachel’s mom had already told her a few times that she would need to get a training bra and that she needed to go to her room with her moody self. Either her mom was way more private calling out Shell or she was beating her elder sister to it. She loved how grounded and happy Shell was with everything though. Because she enjoys watching her elder sister paint, she studied her for a moment before saying more. Shell was so talented at painting and made beautiful canvas art with hardly any effort. Although the chef princess was first class at drawing bubble letters and making scrapbooks, her elder sister could do it all, that and more. Shell was good at baking too and was good at any hobby-in-a box their parents ever bought them to try: wood burning, painting, looming, and drawing. You name it, she knew her sister could do it and do it well. Her sister was quite the baseball player, hunter and fisher, shrimper, and diver too, which oddly seemed to make for perfection at doing stereotypically male things but not perfect at being a good girlfriend. She never heard any of the boys say anything about her sister’s looks. Even the cute older boy who stared at Shell at the military ball never said anything to her. Rachel knew they had to admire her looks. Rachel thought her sister was beautiful and one step away from Hollywood. Rachel was learning the easy way that being good at everything had some negative points. It may draw the attention of adults and teachers, but it only breeds jealousy or distance among peers of their age group. So she learned from her sister who could do it all that in order to gain a guy’s approval, she would need to play helpless. People love being accepted and feeling like they belong; some people just can’t handle standing out or being different. As the baby of the family, she knew early on how imperative it was to her to feel accepted. Rachel learned the tricks and weaknesses of her whole family. She was scolded early on for being jealous of her sister and acting on sibling rivalry, so she took up a totally different interest than Shell Lorie. Rachel also knew that males liked to feel needed and in control. In class, she often asked a boy for help in doing simple things like reaching books on the top shelf and opening her glue for her. She would learn so much from her sister, and the things she couldn’t learn, she knew she would always have her sister to do them for her. So she secretly would give males the control but knew subconsciously that her sister would always be there for her when a guy fell short. Just as her thinking was mature and beyond her years, her sister Shell never thought past the present, and this also determined their major differences.

Shell replied and promised her sister Rachel, the chef princess, that she would come in and try her cookies as soon as she could get their new golden retriever puppy Lilly, with pendant pointed ears and bushy fluffy tail, to sit still long enough to capture the outline of her painted. Rachel was eager to hear a loving compliment about her cookies from her elder sister.

Rachel saw her neighbor digging away in her flowerbed, a soil river cradling bulbs, and asked the elderly lady on her knees facing away from them, her gray hair shining platinum in the sun, if she would like to try some of her cookies too. Rachel didn’t know that the woman digging has a grandson. The woman called for him then turned around, using her digging tool as a kickstand to heave her tattered seventy-year-young body up, and faced her. In a clogged throat, her voice struggled for a brief second, and then she managed to tell her that he might want some. The woman would send him over to get some for the both of them. As the woman hollered in an effort to communicate to this grandson she never knew, she tried to think back if she had ever seen anyone over at Mrs. Albright’s house besides her son who was also turning gray. They had been neighbors for a whole year, since her dad was stationed here on the island last summer, but she didn’t know Mrs. Albright had a grandson.

Rachel beamed with excitement and was pleased to get to share her art of baking with all and anyone who would try it. The more, the merrier, she thought. She then went back in and put the cooled cookies on a turquoise tray that complemented their cream hue. She poured some brownie mix level in a glass bake dish and slid it into the already heated oven.

So she would have few dishes to clean up later, she washed the used dishes. She was then joined by her mother in the sudsy warm water. Her mom made sure to pick with her by flicking some suds up in the air and on her nose. Rachel enjoyed washing dishes with her sweet mother, as it gave her a moment to bond with her and it got the dishes done quickly. For her age, Rachel was very responsible in the kitchen. Most of her Girl Scouts peers back home in Georgia were never allowed in their kitchens, but she and her mother shared and bonded in theirs. It was their cozy oasis filled with vanilla and cinnamon essence. She noticed that the few kids she had met here on the island in the last year actually had a lot more responsibilities than those of in the States. She knew one kid that shoveled and tended the stalls of the donkey rescue for no pay or allowance, just purely for the love of the animals and to help out. Every injured or hit-by-car feral horse in Bonaire was brought there, making it a long day’s worth of labor to keep up. He would do as much as he could before the sun come up in the wee hours before school. There had to be thirty-plus donkeys at one time occupying the shelter. She often wondered how early in the morning he actually wakes up. That was just one responsible friend she knew, and his lifestyle was normal compared with others, and he wasn’t teased or looked down as an outcast like her old friends in the States would have viewed him.

Right as she wiped the last dish dry, her mother asked her who the boy with Shell was. Her mother raised her eyebrows when she said it, just like she did earlier while watching the Dr. Phil show, when he schooled some whinny unthankful guest. You know, those eyebrows rise so high that the hair on your head literally shifts. Then Rachel glanced over to see a boy scarcely older than her sister sitting down on his folded legs beside her sister’s chair and easel. She locked wide eyes with her mom. After breaking out in a joyous giggle from their silly wide-eyed faces gawking at each other, they both were bitten with curiosity and observed him. He held the paintbrush in his hand so effortless, painting away on her sister’s canvas. She told her mom exactly what her mother was already thinking. She didn’t know but was sure Shell didn’t like anyone painting on her picture.

When she finished gawking, she noticed her sister smiling immensely and giggling at the boy’s large strokes of flamboyant paint. She was now drowning in curiosity, so she put the dish she was drying away and grabbed the sugar cookies and toddled out to the patio, mischievously glancing over her shoulder at her mother still parked in front of the sudsy pond.

No one was ever allowed to interfere with Shell’s painting, she murmured as she neared them.

She glanced back at the glass wall of windows to see if her mother was still observing inside. They made eye contact through the barely transparent blob of her periwinkle silhouette, and her mom shone a half smile and raised eyebrows through her reflection.

She went to interrupt them with her gesture of treats, when she saw an amazing painting in front of her sister and the strange boy. The amazement took the words right out of her mouth. Where Shell was struggling to place her constantly moving golden retriever puppy Lilly on the canvas now was a mound of golden gems with a more defined rock as a backdrop. The detailed and three-dimensional shadowing was amazing. In the middle of the canvas was a motionless Cambridge blue pond where Shell had light grass and the beginning of the backyard. The picture was as colorful and realistic as a picture from the National Geographic magazines her dad ordered and annotated the text in each month, studying the environments just in case his unit ever ended up elsewhere. It was so pretty she stopped in her tracks to see what he was intending on painting next before daring to interrupt them with something as minute as cookies.

They laughed and talked softly to each other in candor only their grade level would understand, terms she heard her art teacher in Georgia use once in blue moon, vaguely familiar and undefined. Shell was truly enjoying him painting with her, odd enough as sharing her paint with anyone else was. Rachel saw his side profile as he, while painting, briefly glanced up at her sister sitting in the chair. Rachel thought he was much cuter than the older boy who stared at Shell at the military ball. Maybe it was a good thing that the stranger lacked the galls to speak with her sister.

The boy had started painting in the top corner when the woman next door, seeing the yummy cookies Rachel held in her arms, welcomed herself on to the patio with the children. After all, the next-door neighbor, Mrs. Albright, was responsible for her grandson and was asked already if she wanted some of the cookies. Rachel was slightly disturbed at how her cover was blown, and even with her stealth-like movements, she interrupted his painting. Rachel noticed how the boy was giggling and happy with her elder sister, but whenever his grandmother presumed up, he acted guilty of bad behavior and such.

Her presence also made him change his mind about the color on his paintbrush, so he laid the brush filled with golden yellow down and picked up a smaller clean brush and dipped it into white. When he painted the figure, it was obviously a fowl, either a seagull or a dove. She observed as her elder sister stared with amazement and knew Shell had made a new friend for sure.

Mrs. Albright politely took a cookie and then ordered her grandson to help. Boy, come help this here fine young lady pack us some of her wonderful sugar cookies to go, so that we might eat with our supper!

Rachel watched in embarrassment as the already cheerful boy stood up from her sister’s side and turned his smiley face toward her, catching the little sister spying after whispering something softly in her elder sister’s ear. He progressed toward her and held out his hand. Hello. I’m Jonathon. It’s so nice to meet you.

She let him take her hand and told him her name, but the whole time, she gawked past him at her elder sister smiling back at her. She had to act normal, so she led him into the house and wrapped up half of the cookies with his help, trying to come across as normal as possible. Even though she wanted to flirt with him in one way, in another way, she wanted to talk her sister up to him. He was so cute after all.

She didn’t say anything in an effort to come across calm and collected. He still kept his manners toward Rachel; he was polite and kind but was eager to finish the task and go back out to the canvas with Shell. She could totally read his silent but hurried movements and knew then he was interested in Shell without her verbal help. She was sort of happy Mrs. Albright sent him in to help, not because of any hormonal reason but because of the mere fact that Mrs. Albright was an elderly and loved to take more than what she needed of anything. If she were to come in, she would have packed up all but four cookies and maybe even more. Last time she was offered a cupcake, the long-nailed thin-skinned hand that reached over to help itself was followed by her other hand multiple times until she had eight of the dozen Rachel made. Rachel loved sharing her desserts but liked everyone to get the opportunity to try them.

Rachel checked on her brownies and stood in the kitchen for a moment after he left until she realized her mother and the next-door woman were talking at the sliding door’s way, and her just standing there may appear rude and out of place. Mrs. Albright constantly eyeing her didn’t help that feeling either.

Setting her timer, Rachel then was off to the patio to take in the talented piece Jonathon created for Shell and to admire the newfound artist who enjoyed her elder sister’s company. She slid past the two adults, trying to be discreet and without a scolding.

Tommy would enjoy watching the boy paint too, she thought as her own boyfriend popped in her head.

She was making him brownies, which were his favorites, but at that moment, her guilty conscience of thinking another boy was handsome urged on her trail of thoughts to strictly him.

They used to watch Bob Ross together on the only channel that streamed American channels at the community day-care center for the military kids. The island’s customs and art were so different from what the army brats were used to, and that channel brought them back a piece of their home to their home away from home.

Rachel smiled at the new chocolate aroma she felt creeping up her nostrils. The smell danced through her senses in a chocolaty tango. She loved making Tommy happy, and he just adored brownies, and they would be done in perfect time, seeing he was on his way over. Rachel and Tommy were friends for a while now but only knew each other from Tommy playing baseball on Shell’s little league team. So they both took every opportunity to spend time together wisely.

She thought of how apple pie was very American and would make that next for him, although she really had become fond of Bonaire and began to miss the United States less and less.

Shell was the only girl on the team, but all the retired army ranks seemed to love her like their own athletic daughter, and they were used to the whole coed thing being soldiers among many enlisted women as well, so her being a girl never bothered them.

This past military ball, not only was Rachel watching this older guy stare at Shell, but she was also doing some mingling herself when Tommy asked her to dance, opening up the next step in their friendship. All the adults were dancing, and it seemed like the thing to do, so she said yes. After one dance, she couldn’t help but like Tommy more than just a friend of her sister’s, and that’s why they now referred to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Soon Rachel’s boyfriend Tommy joined them on the patio and talked to Jonathon about American football and surfing the cape and hiking around Bonaire’s salt pyramids in the distance. Rachel smiled at Shell, exchanging sister brain waves and encoding each other’s facial expressions. Without words, Rachel concluded that it was nice to finally have her tomboy elder sister interested in a boy. She had been feeling guilty for a while now that she was younger but the first to have a boyfriend.

If Shell were a color, she would be green.

The color green represents a fresh hold of all emotions, the majesty of nature, nature meaning life. Green is life; it’s showing Mother Nature at her finest. Green is happiness yet not too much excitement. It’s showing a neutral battlefield of gloom and purity. It’s Shell! Shell’s green because she kept things rolling and lively. Shell tries to not give up her green wick. Shell can’t promise a bright yellow zealous moment, but sometimes she is a lime green. Shell’s shy yet out there. Shell is at peace with time and yet worries about lots of seasons she can’t change, but at the same time, she just exists. She’s never black in heart, but she will slumber down to a pine green or forest green. Shell’s responsible and determined to hold up others and fit in like green does in nature, but obstacles will drop her in a brief hard-to-bear moment. Black, like burden, will mix with green and completely destroy it in the human eye. Although green’s contents still exist, It’s moral will fade in appearance. Though green’s still there hidden and her values and tender heart is there in mind, just a stone-cold black heart is what is visible, just like green and the gloom of black overcoming it. Shell’s perky with others’ help and assistance. She’ll show a peaceful serenity of joy in a molded stereotypical way. Most people see her as happy, but she is hiding behind so much mental and emotional stress. Hiding behind a smile, like green, is blue and yellow. Blue is youthfully known to be part of green but easily concealed and too easily forgotten. Blue, like gloom, is there if you pry—if you pry!

Four and a half years earlier

Mom’s Boyfriend

CHAPTER 2

Ashley

Gathering all her things for the birthday campout, she made sure to cram her green Care Bear into her backpack. She just won this Care Bear at the dog festival earlier today. Her friend Shell had given the speech for the mayor today and had made a simple mistake on stage, but all the friends of Benjamin were picking on Shell. Ashley wanted to give her the green bear and tell her how much Shell’s friendship meant to her and to not worry about Benjamin, Todd, Leo, and Ryker. Green was fitting for the circumstance too. Shell loved green, and it would make everything better. Given they were a little old for stuffed animals but still loved a good game a cops and robbers with the paintball guns, she figured she’d accept it with open arms. Shell was going to turn fifteen tomorrow and was having this campout tonight for her birthday, but she still acted Ashley’s age. Heck, Ashley thought she acted a year younger than her and sometimes younger than Rachel who was almost three years younger than Shell. She would love the teddy bear. Ashley remembered the biography Shell wrote about Teddy Roosevelt and the national parks in America for class and smiled even more. She had the perfect gift for her friend who she felt it was such a pleasure being her only girl friend. Shell had a ton of guy friends, but Ashley was the only one to make the cut and be Shell’s BFF. The perks were nice; through Shell, she gained access to a lot of the cute guys that were a year older than her.

Plus, she liked purple and orange, and maybe it was because she was a Gemini, or maybe it was because the last time she saw her dad, he was wearing the local high school’s jersey, and they were her favorite colors, purple and orange. He was the quarterback when he was in school, and her mom talked junk about how he thought he was still something nearly twelve years later.

Ashley didn’t like her mom talking badly about her dad, but she didn’t understand till now what her mom was saying. Her dad broke her mom’s heart, and all the blame for her mom becoming an alcoholic had been put on Ashley and Ashley’s dad. Ashley never understood why it was her fault; she didn’t choose any of it to happen, and all her siblings’ fathers were never ever brought up to spite them. But Ashley was conceived before high school was over, probably making it hard on her mom. She had to be showing when her dad asked the other girl Lizzy, or something like that, to the prom. Her mom only talked about her high school experience to Ashley when she was drunk on cheap wine, so she slurred a lot, making this girl’s name hard to recall; but what Ashley could recall was being born ruined her mom’s life, and her mom had postpartum depression and couldn’t even remember Ashley’s first words. Even though purple and