A Golden Boy

She got up early to pack her lunch. As she putting the sandwich into the stylish black and white striped tote, she smiled.  It was her first week at a new job — A job she has been waiting for almost a year, after humiliating rejections and 5 years of infertility treatment ended in a pregnancy loss.

“Can I ever re-start my life again?”  She asked millions of times.

Today, she finally found a starting point. She put he rings and necklace on to complete the ensemble and walked out.

It was early in the morning but the sun already out and birds were chirping.  She took a deep breath and looked around.  As she glanced over her neck, she felt something wrong. The necklace chain was loosely dangling on her neck and the pendent, missing?  She touched her neck again.  Not there.  Where could it be? On the walking path, in the car, or at home? She clearly remembered putting it on. She panicked.  She walked back to the path and looked into every cracks of stoney path.  Once in the parking lot, she searched inside and outside of her car few more times. Still nothing. Looking at her watch, she was already 20 minutes late for work.  She decided to go inside of the building.

The entire day, she could not concentrate.  She kept thinking where could it be. She wished it were just a regular pendant. But, it was not.

“Look, what I got for your birthday.” Joo tossed out something dazzling in front of her.

“Let me see. Let me see.” She couldn’t wait.

It was a sterling silver necklace. The pendant was a shape of heart, decorated with tiny diamonds and rubies, on each side. Resting on the top was a female stretching her arms to reach out to a gilded baby.  It took her breath away.

“See, the little baby there?” Joo added.” He is your golden boy.”

“A golden boy…” She knew exactly whom he meant, their lost child, Kevin, the one and only.

Her voice quivering, “This is… special.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It took me quite a while to find this.”

“Yes.” she nodded tearfully. “It must have.”

Sitting at her desk, thinking how she got the necklace and what it meant to her. She could not contain her tears. Like a broken faucet, they were pouring out. It was so bad that she lost her child to pre-eclampsia. She had to lose the symbol of her child, the golden boy as well?

“I am useless! I could not keep any of my boys!” She was mad.

By the end of day, she decided to search the path again, this time the grassy edges. It was the only place she did not look in the morning. It was 5 o’clock and still bright outside. As she moved her eyes inch by inch on the grass, she found rocks, ants, and acorns. No way I could find it, she thought.  Half way toward the end, the grass was less dense. She saw something shinning. It could be just a dime. She picked up and her face lit up. It was her golden boy!   She jumped.

Then, she softly kissed the golden boy, carefully wrapped it in a napkin, and walked toward the parking lot.