The Necklace

October 29, 2022

D̶e̶a̶r̶ d̶i̶a̶r̶y̶,

I̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶p̶e̶r̶ ̶g̶i̶r̶l̶’̶s̶ ̶d̶i̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶I̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶m̶m̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶a̶g̶e̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶I̶’̶m̶ ̶j̶o̶u̶r̶n̶a̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶?̶

̶D̶e̶a̶

I really shouldn’t use ink. There we go, pencil.

Today while I was sipping my morning tea and watching the leaves fall in the front yard from my living room I got a package. I almost couldn’t believe it but a drone dropped it on my doorstep. A DRONE! It really is the future. It wasn’t a normal package though. It wasn’t sent through a delivery service and it definitely wasn’t sent to the right address.

It’s a small jewelry box that was wrapped in an old newspaper (who still gets newspapers anymore?). Inside I found a beautiful gold necklace with a small tear drop shaped ruby and even smaller diamond above it as well as a little handwritten note.

“My dear Elizabeth,

I thought about you every day of my travels and I still mean every word I said. I saw this necklace in India and had to get it for you. If you’d like to talk, please stop by my house.”

There wasn’t any signature at the bottom or anything on the box saying who this was from. I suppose Elizabeth wouldn’t need a reminder (lucky her, I haven’t dated in over a year). Thankfully there was something of a hint to help me solve this little puzzle. Mystery guy left his address.

I can’t, in good conscience, keep this necklace. So I am going to get it back to whoever sent it. This means I’ve got to go to this guy’s house and hope I don’t get murdered by some sneaky cryptic maniac who preys on idiots who return his fancy looking jewelry traps.

Wish me luck!

October 30, 2022

Good news and bad news. Good news is I wasn’t murdered. Whoop-dee-doo, I know. And for the bad news, I didn’t find the guy. I’d keep looking but there are probably a trillion Elizabeth’s out there and I don’t have anything else to go on.

The guy that did live at the address was very nice and kind of hot (tall, dark brown curls, and adorable freckles). He listened to my whole mysterious necklace situation and offered to help if he ever could and asked for my number! Obviously this whole mystery thing is at a dead end and he wanted my number for other reasons. We talked for a bit about music and TV shows and we like a lot of the same things. Talking to him was super easy and natural. Fingers crossed he asks me out.

As for the necklace, I love it but I think it’ll live on the shelf because it feels like I stole it. I can’t imagine it’ll ever find its way back to its rightful owner.

November 1, 2022

Halloween turnout was not too bad, lots of little trick-or-treaters making their rounds. My favorite costume this year was a little boy in an astronaut suit he built himself, you’re gonna go far kid.

Earlier yesterday, probably around 5ish, Ben called. That’s the guy whose house I went to the other day. Benjamin James Langley. So sophisticated. Okay so, he didn’t tell me his full name, only that his name was Ben. I looked him up with his address from public tax records. You can find out almost anything online! Anyway, he asked me if I would meet up with him today and gave me an address. I’m guessing it’s a restaurant or something but I didn't google it because I like surprises.

Currently I’m in the middle of getting ready for this date. Going for a casual but chic look. Honestly that necklace would be perfect with the dress I’m wearing. It still seems wrong to wear it but I think I might take it with me in its box for luck. That necklace is how I got this date after all.

Later the Same Day

I’m in a bathroom at a nursing home right now and I feel like an idiot.

This is not a date. Not a date! NOT A DATE! I got all dressed up and he totally isn’t into me. He asked me to come to a retirement home because he actually tried finding the owner of the necklace.

I don’t know how I didn’t think of it but that same tax information I used to stalk the guy (who I’m apparently NOT dating) he used to find the previous owner of the house. An old man named Richard who now lives here. We haven’t met the guy yet. We've been waiting in the lobby while the staff is seeing if he will allow a visitor.

I’ll report back after we meet Richard. If we meet him. I’m glad I brought the necklace but I can’t believe I thought he was asking me out.

Even Later the Same Day

We didn’t meet Richard today. He has dementia and the staff said he wasn’t in a good state of mind for guests. The lady at the old person’s home, Jenny, said we should come back tomorrow a bit earlier and we might have better luck. Tomorrow Ben and I plan on going back at noon.

November 2, 2022

Things went much better today than they did yesterday. Richard saw us and more importantly I didn’t think it was a date. No dressing up for the old folk’s home today!

The real news is we found the elusive necklace owner at last. Rich (as he prefers to be called) sent that heartfelt gift to Elizabeth, his highschool sweetheart because he just got back from traveling and he wants to win her back. He asked us to please take it back to her and insisted on writing her address out for us to complete the delivery. It was my address. Ben and I agreed we should leave the necklace with Rich and we set it on his dresser.

Rich seemed to think he was in the past. It was kind of heartbreaking seeing this old man trying to get this girl who wasn’t there. Who is Elizabeth?

Talking to Jenny after talking to Rich, we learned she didn’t know who Elizabeth was. Then I got to see Ben’s sleuthing skills in action, reaffirming that he only wanted to solve this puzzle. He found out Jenny got another staff member, Todd, to make the delivery for Rich as she didn’t realize he wasn’t fully lucid while making the request. Todd is a tech guy and wanted to test out his new drone.

Todd is the future. Amazon wishes they were Todd.

Ben isn’t quitting here. He has gone full Sherlock and is determined to know who Elizabeth is. He is going back to talk to Rich again and see if he knows more. I’m sitting this one out. The necklace found its owner and Ben isn’t interested, time for my life to return to normal.

November 5, 2022

Wow. I don’t even know where to start.

I had Ben all wrong. Or I guess right then wrong. The point being he was interested in me. I’ll get to that in a moment though.

Elizabeth, as Ben discovered, was Rich’s wife. Between public records and patiently talking to Rich for days Ben put the pieces together. Rich and Elizabeth got together in High School and Rich left for India for reasons undetermined and told Elizabeth he loves her and would come back for her. She wanted to break it off because he was leaving. When Rich got back he bought what is now Ben’s house and wanting to win Elizabeth back sent her the necklace. It worked and they ended up getting married and living together in Rich’s house for a long time. Eventually Elizabeth passed away after having a stroke. Later Rich’s family noticed he had signs of dementia. Living alone wasn’t safe for him anymore so his family had him sell the house and move into the care facility. Poor Rich has been stuck in a past reality every now and then thinking he still needs to win Elizabeth back.

What a beautiful and bittersweet story.

Now about Ben. He was never into puzzles. The man got into them because he wanted to spend more time with me. He even left work early on November second to talk to Rich with me. This morning he came and knocked on my door with the necklace and told me everything and asked me on a real date.

Ben told me he talked to Rich yesterday while he was actually lucid and not living in the past. Rich told Ben that he should tell me how he feels and gave him the necklace to give to me. He said he loved his wife dearly but the necklace wouldn’t bring her back and it’d do more good if he took it.

Now I’m going to get ready for an actual date with Ben and this time I’m wearing the necklace.