GEMS

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GEMS (Story five of ten, Volume One)

By Michelle Roselyn @2018

Gemma marveled at the brilliant, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. They sparkled all
around her. It was beautiful. Nature had cleverly embedded them into the ground
here. All she had to do was dig them up.

She pictured the jewels set into exquisite and stunning pieces of jewelry. There
was a real career to be had here. She could make money, improve her life, and
make people feel beautiful at the same time.

Three birds with one stone. What a stroke of luck to find this mine. She had sketchbooks full of designs for settings and had just finished a jewelry making class. She had proven
herself by casting the settings and pulling together designs that sold. Her new career was right here under her fingertips.

What a day.

She took a breath, ignoring the ping pain in her side as she looked to the right. More gems gleamed in the dirt. She ran her hand over them.  All she had to do was
pluck them out. She dug her fingernails into the dirt around the ruby at her
fingertips and prepared to pull it out when a man pulled her hand away.

He said something to her, but she didn’t understand what he said.

She admired the gems again, but something washed over them, obscuring them as it oozed forward swallowing them up. One by one they were disappearing.

“No, I have to save a few. They’ll be perfect.”She heaved in a breath. Why was it so hard to talk.

Someone answered her, but she didn’t understand the language. Why wouldn’t he let her dig up the gems? All he wanted was for her to lay here and let whatever that ooze was sink the gems back into the earth from which they came. She reached out and swiped at the ooze to get it off the few gems that were left, but it smeared and stuck to her hand.

Someone lifted her up and away from the gems. She reached for them, but he tucked her hand in at her side. The sun was bright, and she couldn’t see where they were taking her. It felt like she was on a rolling bed.

“My gems.” She needed them. She was ready to finally realize her dream of being a jeweler. It was a good job that would get her away from here.

She looked up at the man, but the sunlight obscured his face as he rolled her along.  It was awfully bright for this hour in the morning.

He stopped, and she heard a door open. As he rolled her forward. Something eclipsed the sun as she was lifted up- a sign that read, Ambulance.

[These were the final thoughts of Gemma Williams as she died. She had been an aspiring jeweler, caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs. The gems were actually little
bits of broken glass that had collected from broken liquor bottles over the years and stomped into the ground by ten thousand steps. She would have accepted a job offer tomorrow afternoon at a jeweler. She would have escaped poverty. Instead, her mother will identify her body this afternoon and begin planning her funeral.]

 

This story is from a collection of very short moments, a work of fiction: Each story is different and features different phases of life, culture, and people. You can find more here.

https://michelleroselyn.wordpress.com/2018/10/02/very-short-stories-about-life-volume-1/