The City and the Locket

It sparkled through the mud as though all the grime in the world couldn't dim it. That's how my father would tell the story to us, late at night, huddled around a chemical torch. I wondered if the locket had really shone like that, if it had really sparkled. My father swore it did.

He had been working in his assigned pit when the rain started. A gentle drizzle softened the hard clay and made the task easier, but on this day the weather picked up and turned into a downpour. Sides of the wall began sloughing off, threatening to bury my father. He struggled through the mud and the streams of water, clambering over the shifting ground. Days of work were buried beneath the mudslide, but he managed to stay on top of it and not drown in the muck. And that's when he saw the heart-shaped locket.

It had been uncovered by the deluge, just a few feet from where he had been digging. So close to the surface, he would have found it within a few days if he'd been looking in the right spot. As it was, the locket found him. He took it in his wet and muddy hands, holding it in his palm, watching it reflect a sliver of sunlight that pierced through a hole in the clouds that had emerged at just the right moment to catch the edge of the gold. Holding it, looking down at it, he knew that his whole life would change. His rough and smudged fingers gently undid the clasp that held it closed, and it opened in his hand, revealing nothing but more mud.

The village had never uncovered a single amount of gold like this. There were rumors of jewelry made with precious metals, but they couldn't expect to find that in the junkyards they were digging over. Here, the biggest find was a computer circuit board. But there it was, just like my father would dream about, sitting around with his friends, drinking apple beer, talking about hitting the mother lode and getting all the way to The City.

The City. Everyone knew that Carter Wilstrop had made it there, his years of solid finds adding up eventually to where he could afford it. What wasn't widely known was that his cousin had also earned his way to The City just a few years before Carter. It wasn't so unusual for it to happen. You just had to keep digging, keep working, keep sifting through the mud, and you could make it. You could earn your ticket if you satisfied the collectors.

There were two that came by once every month or so, collecting the gold traces that had been dug out of the ground, tallying up the gains and subtracting the costs of the supplies they delivered. Most everybody was in the red; they started out that way, with the entire cost of their childhood being put into their account. Once they hit thirteen and could start digging, they could begin to earn their way out of the hole. After seven years, my father was still trying to get into the black, but he knew that the locket would put him well into the clear and beyond.

Collector Cardinal was the kind one. He told jokes and listened to their complaints and sighed in commiseration. My father knew that Cardinal would be on his side. The problem was the second collector, Collector Tram. Tram was brusque and cold. He collected the earnings without a word or even a glance, never meeting the eyes of the diggers. There was an air about him, an arrogance, like he was too good to be there.

"Show it to Cardinal first," my father's friends said to him. "He'll treat you fair."

"No," my father said. "I want to see the look on Tram's face when I drop this in front of him. I want to show him what we can do."

When the collectors came, bouncing into the village in their battered car, the other diggers jostled around my father, squeezing his arm, tousling his hair, laughing. They knew that today was a special day. My father's fortune shone brightly on everyone there, and if he could find something like this and make it to The City, why not all of them as well? It was a fine day.

As the collectors approached, amid shouts and cheers, my father opened his hand to reveal the locket. He said it was the finest moment of his life until the day he saw my mother. Over the past weeks, every free chance he could get, he had cleaned and shined the gold locket. If it had sparkled in the mud, now it was positively blinding in his palm. Each digger had freely given up their take for the month and deposited all the dust they had accrued into the locket. When my father opened the delicate clasp, the inside was almost half full of gold dust; the entire wealth of the village. Combined with the container itself, it was a sight worth more than any of them had ever seen.

Collector Cardinal whistled. "Incredible!" he shouted. "Well done!" And the villagers cheered even louder.

"Is it enough?" my father asked, breathless.

Collector Tram shook his head. "Not enough."

In an instant, the entire crowd slumped back, heartbroken.

"Please," my father said, begging. "You must. This is everything. This is the biggest find we've ever had. If this isn't enough, what would be?"

Cardinal placed his hand on Tram's shoulder. "Look here," he said. "I think this might qualify. Weigh it out and check the balances."

It was the longest wait of my father's life. Tram was hunched over his scales, grimacing at the results. Cardinal stood next to him, and now and again would smile confidently to my father. Hope beat feverishly in the chest of every villager present. Finally, Tram finished and spoke in hushed tones to Cardinal. The two went back and forth until eventually Tram shrugged and walked back to their dusty car.

Cardinal walked slowly over to my father, who stood in the middle of a group of diggers, every one of them holding their breath.

"Any family here?" Cardinal asked.

"No, sir," my father said. "My parents are dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Any spouse? Children?"

"No, sir," my father said again.

Cardinal nodded thoughtfully, then broke into a beaming smile. "Congratulations, my friend. You're going to The City."

Over the next month, the whole village celebrated with my father. It was the greatest thing that any of them had ever experienced. Carter Wilstrop had made his way well before any of them were even born, and lived on only in the stories. My father told his friends where he had found the locket, and they took over his digging site, hoping to stumble onto other pieces like the one he had found. Everything was joyous and they pushed their rations to the limit. They could rebuild their stores again in the coming months, but how often did a chance to celebrate like this occur?

When the collectors returned, my father was prepared to leave the village forever. He embraced his friends who clapped him on the back and shook his shoulders. All of his possessions were in a meager bag that he carried on one wiry arm. Cardinal laughed along with everyone else while Tram hung back and scowled at the ground. Finally, they were on their way, and my father waved his hand out of the car window at his village, getting smaller in the distance. He never saw it again.

"How long until we get to The City?" my father asked from the back seat.

"A few hours," Cardinal said. "Try to get some rest."

But of course my father couldn't rest. He was overflowing with questions. He asked where he would live, where he would work, what movies were playing. My father had never seen a movie, but he knew they existed in The City. He knew everything existed there. It was the place where the best and brightest people in the world had gone when the war had started. After the global devastation that followed, they had started to plan on how to spread and grow society all over again. Everything flowed from The City now, and he would be a part of it, and he wanted to know everything.

But Collector Cardinal just laughed. "All your questions will be answered in time."

My father watched The City appear over the horizon and slowly get bigger and bigger. For every dream he had of it in his life, he could never have imagined the size and scale of the buildings. When they reached the outer wall, the buildings were towering over them and still several miles in the distance. My father's heart was pounding as they got closer and closer and the buildings stretched up into the sky higher, blocking out the sun. When the car made a turn and drive directly into one through a large door, and they were completely buried underneath, with no hint of sky or grass, and a tunnel stretching out forever in front of them, the sight was too overwhelming and my father passed out.

He came to when the car stopped. They hustled him out onto the smooth gray ground. All around him were flat surfaces, hard edges, other vehicles in neat rows, and dull flickering lights that cast a strange glow. A small group of people in drab blue uniforms were nearby, looking at my father with bored expressions. Cardinal went to speak with them.

"I'm sorry," Tram said to my father. He spoke softly while looking at the ground. "I didn't want this for you. I didn't want to have to come here."

"What's happening?" My father stared wildly around with fear in his eyes.

"You'll be living underground, working in the engines. For the rest of your life."

"Why?" said my father. "Why are you doing this? Why did you lie to us?"

Tram shook his head. "So you'd keep digging."

That was many years ago. My father met my mother in the engines room, where they were both covered in soot, and he would say that she was just like that heart-shaped locket, shining through no matter what covered it. She and her family, my grandparents and aunts and uncles, had all been down here for generations, since the war ended. It was rare for an outsider to come into the group. They would all listen over and over to the stories my father told of the life that existed outside of our walls.

My father tells us this story of the heart-shaped locket, and my favorite part is when he talks about the sky. It sounds so wonderful, stretching out as far as you can see, filled with light from a glowing star millions of miles away, changing colors, sometimes just dropping water out of thin air. Can you imagine such a thing? We'll see it someday, if we just keep working.