Dialogue - The Locket

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Dialogue - The Locket

At midnight, Paul went outside and sat on the bench on the old, plank porch. Despite bundling himself in a heavy blanket, he shivered in the cold. The eastern sky before him was dotted with stars, scintillating above the quiet spread of desert. A few lonely clouds were drifting by.

Patricia timidly opened the door; hesitant to disrupt Paul’s solitude. As he glanced up at Patricia, she could see the melancholy in his eyes.

“What you said today at the funeral was beautiful,” she murmured.

Paul smiled sadly.

“I just wanted to tell you that. Good night.”

Paul extended his hand. “Would you join me?”

Patricia took his hand and sat down on the bench next to him. Paul wrapped the blanket

around her small shoulders. She turned to look at him.

“I suppose that I have never properly thanked you for saving my life. I am sorry for that. I was not sure then that I wished it saved.”

He thought about her words. “What keeps you with him?” he asked.

It took a long time for her to answer. “It is my lot.”

Paul frowned. “That’s not much of an answer.”

“No,” she replied, “but maybe that’s all there is.”

“Have you considered returning to Ireland?”

“It is not a possibility.”

“But if it were?”

“No good comes from considering things that cannot be.”

Patricia was firm. Paul considered this a moment before speaking.

“I suppose you’re right. Where about in Ireland are you from anyway?”

“I came from Cork.”

“You do not carry much of a brogue.”

“I have worked hard to eliminate my brogue. Jack mocks me for it, and there are those in this country who hate me for it.”

“It is unfortunate,” Paul said. “I think that it sounds beautiful.”

Her gratitude and pleasure showed in her eyes. Paul glanced downward and noticed her petite fingers nervously playing with a locket that hung around her neck. The locket was cast in the shape of a four-leaf clover. It was unique, and she wore it religiously–it was almost as if she had been born with the necklace around her neck. It was as much a part of her as her deep auburn hair and green eyes.

“I have heard it said of Cork, that the sky does not rain, it weeps,” Paul continued.

“It is a beautiful, tragic land,” Patricia replied.

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