• Trinkets


    It didn't look like a key.
    For one thing, it was spherical. Who'd ever heard of a spherical key? Certainly not Eli. It was silver, this sphere, small enough to be concealed in a closed hand, and its entire surface was inscribed with delicate characters (Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic, cuneiform, hieroglyphics, and something that was somehow all and none of the above).
    It was beautiful, it was intriguing, but it was no key.
    She squatted down again and peered back into the small space in the fireplace she had found it. The shape of the key vaguely reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She sat back on her haunches and studied the key again. "What's that?" asked a familiar, rotten voice. Eli jumped up and hid the key behind her back. Mary-Ann stood too, folding her arms across her frilly pink dress. "Hm?"
    "It's nothing," Eli replied quietly.
    "Nothing, hm?" Mary-Ann asked in her nasally whine. "I'll leave that up to Father."
    "N-No, Miss," Eli protested meekly. Mary-Ann turned back around smugly, now placing a hand on her hip. Eli looked around the room quickly then cupped her filthy hands around the object to show Mary-Ann. "I found it," she said, somewhat proudly.
    "Stole it, more likely," frowned Mary-Ann. Eli arched her eyebrows in surprise at the comment. She swiped away her too-long brown bangs, leaving yet another sooty streak across her brow.
    "No, no, Miss," Eli gasped, brown eyes wide. "I found it in the fireplace."
    Mary-Ann's blond curls bounced as she glanced up with blue eyes at the slave, not believing her one bit. "It's just a shiny trinket," she said, shrugging. "I won't tell Father you stole it."
    "But, Miss," Eli tried again, but was stopped with a menacing glare from Mary-Ann.
    "If," she emphasized, "you do something for me."
    Eli glanced down at the key. She really wanted it. She wondered what it unlocked, and it would make her seem busy enough that her masters wouldn't give her more chores when they found her resting. Then she looked back up at Mary-Ann in her pink frilly dress, so unlike the plain, drab one she wore. "What is it?" Eli asked uneasily.
    Mary-Ann smirked, obviously pleased. "I want you," she pointed at the filthy girl in front of her, "to trade places with me."
    "What?"
    Mary-Ann looked at her with a devilish grin, then grabbed Eli's dirty arm and dragged her to her chambers. Eli was uneasy. She was never allowed into Mary-Ann's chambers. Mary-Ann quickly went over to her jewelry box and opened it. Out came a golden, spherical key, an exact copy of Eli's silver one. "Trade places with me," Mary-Ann said.
    "I-I don't know what you mean," Eli stuttered.
    "I hate it here," Mary-Ann said in an excited whisper. "I hid your Trinket in the fireplace, waiting for you to find it."
    "Huh?" Eli was utterly confused and a little frightened.
    "And now, you've finally found it. Everything will go according to plan."
    "Plan?"
    Mary-Ann rushed back to Eli, who backed away, but the princess grabbed her once more and took her to the middle of the vast room filled with jewels and pink. "We're going to trade," Mary-Ann said in such an absent way that made Eli fear for not only Mary-Ann, but herself.
    "Mary-Ann," Eli said, "you're hurting me!"
    "All part of the process," whispered Mary-Ann, seemingly more distant, as if she were in another world. "I will soon be free from this wretched curse..."
    "What curse?" squeaked Eli.
    "Give me your Trinket," Mary-Ann commanded. Eli handed it over, and Mary-Ann finally released her. "Take mine." Eli took the golden Trinket, holding it unsurely. "Repeat after me."
    "Um... Okay," whimpered Eli, terrified.
    Mary-Ann began to speak in a foreign language. Eli stared at her. "I cannot say that," she gaped.
    Mary-Ann sighed, exasperated. "It's only Greek. Very well, we'll have to settle saying it in English. Repeat after me: The evening and morning I come to ask for help."
    "The evening and morning I come to ask for help."
    "Free me from this body."
    "Free me from this body."
    "This girl is me."
    "This...girl is me..."
    "This girl I'll be."
    "This girl I'll be?"
    "Until we find both another old."
    "Until we find both...another old..." Both the Trinkets suddenly jumped out of their hands and into the air. They began to chase each around in circles around the girls, soon becoming a blur. "What's happening?" Eli cried. Mary-Ann smiled.
    "I'm free..." she whispered. Mary-Ann began closed her eyes, as if she were at peace, then took Eli's hand and kissed the back of it. "See you...Princess." Mary-Ann looked up at me, her eyes were brown. Greasy brown hair fell into her eyes, and she swiped them away with a sooty hand. Then she held it out and the silver Trinket landed perfectly on it. The golden one fell at Eli's feet. Mary-Ann turned and walked calmly out of the chamber, Eli staring in horror.
    She looked down at herself. She wore a pink, frilly dress; she had delicate, fine hands. She rushed over to the mirror and cried out. She did not expect herself to look exactly like Mary-Ann. She had traded bodies. Eli had traded bodies with Mary-Ann. Eli was the princess, Mary-Ann was the slave. How could Mary-Ann wish for such a thing? However, things did turn to Eli's favor. Could it be that Mary-Ann is just so very unselfish? But she had said herself that she hated it here, and something about a curse. But perhaps Eli would live happily ever after in the body of a princess?
    It was not meant to be.
    She happened to look out through the glass window just at the right moment to catch Mary-Ann, who was now herself, running through the meadow. Eli knew that route well. No matter how many times she's tried to escape, she was intercepted by the blood hounds waiting for her on the other side of the treeline. Mary-Ann could not escape. She would be brought back and punished severely. Eli looked at the golden Trinket. How had Mary-Ann ever get ahold of such a thing?
    The Trinket glinted in the dying sunlight as the dogs' howls of pursuit echoed throughout the estate. Eli closed her eyes. Foolish girl. The hounds fell silent. That was strange. Eli made her way across the large room to the window again, footsteps bouncing off the walls and ceiling and back towards her. All was silent. Had the hounds lost Mary-Ann?
    Alas, no. A hound emerged from the forest, walking backwards, dragging a limp object that was her body, which Mary-Ann had possessed for a fleeting moment. The master of the household, Mary-Ann's father himself, walked over to the hound and apparently commanded it to drop the girl. He picked up Mary-Ann and carried her back to the house. Mary-Ann did not move. The sun had finally set below the horizen.
    Mary-Ann's father laid her down in front of the steps of the house and disappeared from Eli's view as he entered the house. Soon, Eli heard his heavy feet climbing slowly up the stairs. They stopped as he conversed with a woman, Lena, the maid, then continued toward Mary-Ann's chambers. A knock on the door. "Mary-Ann?" called her father.
    The door swung open, and there the master stood, looking awkward. "Yes?" Eli asked. It was strange to Eli to hear Mary-Ann's voice where hers should be.
    "I've some news," he said. "Do you remember that slave girl named Ellie?"
    "Eli," she corrected him, somewhat irritated.
    "Yes, yes," the master said absently. "Well, she tried to escape again."
    "And?"
    "This time...She lost her life. The hound that killed her will be put down, but unfortunately..." the master's sentence trailed away and he promptly turned and left the room. Eli looked at the golden Trinket in her hand. The silver Trinket lay on the dresser. Eli hadn't noticed Mary-Ann leave it there. Now what?
    Eli sighed and once again went back to the window. She watched as a man came and took away her lifeless body. She wondered where Mary-Ann's spirit went. She didn't want to be stuck in Mary-Ann's body forever. 'Tis a curse to wear these pinchy shoes, Eli thought, shifting her weight onto her other leg. She sighed and held up the silver Trinket. It glinted in the moonlight and a small figure on the ground outside passed by. Eli took interest and looked closely at it.
    It was a girl, nearly her age, carrying the soot bucket. Eli opened the window and heard the master call the girl's name: "Sally, come!" The filthy girl hurried over to the master, and Eli looked at the Trinkets once more, a smile forming on her lips. Soon, she would be free of the curse.