He pointed down to the glass case with the sparkling jewels. Rows of priceless necklaces glistened in the store lights. He reached for my hand, tugging me lightly to the rows. He asked which one I liked. I glimpsed past the sea of gems. “That one is really pretty.” I motioned to small gold heart with a purple jewel in the middle. He grabbed my hand, telling me to get it. “I can’t. I don’t have any money.” He sighed and reached into the case, his arm going straight through the pressed sand. “What are you doing?” He pulled his hand out and told me to turn around. I did and then there was a light pressure on my collar bone. He whispered that it was for me and I giggled. “I want to show Mommy.” I turned around and couldn’t find her.


“Build it up with silver and gold, silver and gold. Build it up with silver and gold, my fair lady.”
“Essie, where did you get that necklace?” Mommy pointed to my neck.
‘Oh, he gave it to me.” I giggled at his faces; he looked like Grumpy from Snow White. He wanted to go after that man and ‘teach him a lesson’ or something like that.
“Essie, where did you get it?” Mommy pressed.
“Mommy, He gave it to me!” I said, stomping my foot. I pressed the necklace to my neck, the thin chain felt like a spider’s web between my fingers.
Mommy sighed, picking Caroline up. “Let’s go home and talk about this later.” She got Caroline into the car and buckled her up. He buckled me up and then himself. Smiling, I fiddled with my new token as we drove home.


He grasped the color of an eggplant and started to scribble across my pure white paper: creating small little doodles of hearts and apples. He loves apples. Cold tiles froze my lungs as I sprawled across the floor. Pain and pressure weaved their way up my leg. Caroline’s toy felt rough and jagged in my hand. The troll’s hair looked like a fuzzy cotton ball that had a close in counter with a bottle of pink nail polish. Throwing it at the wall, I watched as he scribbled down our names. “Silver and gold will be, stolen away, stolen away, stolen away. Silver and gold will be stolen away, my fair lady.”
“Why would it be stolen away?” I could hear the steady drum in his chest.
“Because it’s precious.”
‘What do you mean by precious?”
“It’s valuable, like something that can’t be replaced like your new necklace, even you.”
“I’m ‘precious’.”
“Yep! You’re very precious, especially to me.”
“Reall-y?” My lungs expanded, arms stretched out and a yawn grasped my voice.
‘Yes.” My hair ruffled, and then there was only black, and the color of an eggplant on his hands.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A thump hit the door. “Essie, who are you talking to?”
“Huh?”
“Essie, who were you talking too yesterday after we got back from the store? You know, when you were drawing?”
“Mommy, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She grasped the paper on the floor.
“Essie, who is Alex?” Her eyes never left the paper.
“Who?”
“Alex.” She showed me the paper. Cursive hand-writing was doodled by apples and hearts; the name Alex and Esme laid side by side like turtle doves.
“I don’t know who ‘Alex’ is Mommy.” Shoulders lifting without a care, I put one foot in front of the other and went out of the room.
“London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down…my…fair…lady.”