49. Grand's Brooch

Kyra was just a small child when her grandmother passed away. She remembered standing by the bed while the adults around her stared off into the distance with glassy eyes. Papa tried to comfort her, but her heart was too tender to find comfort in words. Grandma was leaving and she wasn’t coming back.

In a quiet moment when no one else was around, Grandma had whispered for Kyra to retrieve a small box hidden in the nightstand. Grandma’s eyes widened as she opened it. Kyra couldn’t quite see, but the contents seemed to glow. Grandma sat up with a smile on her tired face that Kyra hadn’t seen in some time.

“Come close dear sweet child,” the words barely audible. “This brooch was the first thing Papa ever made for me. Said it took him years to save the money to purchase the golden nugget and many months to work on the design. I don’t think your Papa was ever so proud of anything else he had ever given me. I want you to have it.”

Kyra remember not knowing what to say. The brooch looked brand new, yet she had seen grand wearing it on many official occasions. The detail and care that papa put into it boggled her young mind. That her own Papa Kyra had produced this with his own hands made it more than a keepsake.

“Miss Kyra, the crew is expecting you,” said Goldie, snapping Kyra back into the moment. “Tell them I’ll be there as soon as I finish my snizzle.” Kyra always felt uncomfortable when she told a white lie. Her snizzle was cold and she was finished with it, but she wasn’t finished with the sanctuary of a few closely held memories. She needed just another minute to remind herself of who she was.

“Dear child, I give you this brooch to close the circle,” grandma had said. She must have noticed the puzzled look on my face Kyra thought. “This brooch has value in that it represents love. When you hold this brooch you hold love. Only love would save for years; only love would labor for months; and only love could light up your papa’s eyes like they did when he gave this to me.”

“Take it Kyra,” grandma had urged. “Close the circle between us three. Papa always said love was truth, that love would conquer all. I don’t know what he saw on Zael, but your papa’s heart came back ten-fold the size that it was. He told me that’s when he started saving.”

“I love you my dear sweet child. Keep this brooch. Hold it close to your heart and know that the gleam of light in your eye is the sparkle of my soul forever protecting you with the shield of love given to me by your papa and which I now bestow upon you.”

The day was starting, if one could call time in space such. Between the ring and the brooch, Kyra had all the grounding she needed to see clearly. Time to make things happen.