My Family Laughed At Me On My Birthday Without Knowing The House Was In My Name

I was not fast enough. He threw the locket into the fire with the triumphant sound of a child who has been told he is funny and is performing that belief as fully as he can.

The locket landed in the coals. It caught the light for a moment, the engraved world map briefly visible as a fine bright line before the metal began to change color. Before it continue reading …