Samantha's Gift

Samantha’s Gift
By: Annie Thompson

Samantha holds the box. She turns it this way and that looking at the intricate detail in the design cut into the ornate wooden box. She takes a deep breath allowing the feeling to sink in that she is opening up a part of her families’ history that has been handed down for centuries. She sets it down on the table, slowly turns the key in the lock and lifts the lid. The moment seems to last forever because somewhere inside her there is fear and part of her is turning into a little girl, kicking and screaming that she does not want to know what is inside and she does not want to look at it, but she knows she must. She had held her breath and closed her eyes and now, she opens them and looks down into the wooden, black felt lined box and gazes upon the beautiful magic that lay inside. It is an emerald ruby. Red as blood and large enough to fit in the palm of a persons hand. She lets her fingers slide over the surface and to her astonishment, she thought that she seen the ruby glow. She stopped moving; held in place by shock. She wonders if that really happened. Within a couple of seconds her fear subsides and she lets her fingers slide across the surface again and gently picked up the ruby. It had glowed, as it is glowing now. And she knows, as if it was magic, the history behind her families’ secrets, the ruby and the gift she has been blessed with. It was very faint, like a movie in her head but very translucent. In the seventeenth century there was an English man, named Benjamin, who as a child had been captured by Indians. He was held captive until his heroic escape at eighteen and later became a spy for the United States, spying on the Indians to discourage their frequent attacks. He found a young English girl whose family had been murdered by the Indians. Her name was Victoria.



Victoria had been held as a white captive. In a battle Benjamin rescued Victoria and he fell in love with her. He married her and then after his service with the United States found himself fairly wealthy. Out of his incredible love he held for his wife, Benjamin built a huge mansion and created an empire in her name. Victoria, though, held a secret. A secret that, in that time, would have resulted in her death, to be hung by a noose and labeled a witch. It was however, on the contrary, a gift that Victoria vowed to keep hidden forever out of her desperate love and fear of losing her wonderful husband who had saved her life. Hiding it was easy for who would have ever known, for who she really was, after losing her family and being rescued from the Indians? She loved her husband so much that she never revealed or ever used her powers until one fateful night. Benjamin had returned from work one evening and swooping her up took her out on the town and treated her like a princess. Beautiful and romantic the evening ended in dancing and a beautiful walk in the park beneath the moon. That night, she knew would be a magical night, so Victoria had already decided to tell Benjamin that she was due to have a child, their child, when walking in the park, he stops and turns to face her, taking her hands he kisses her and when she opened her eyes, in her hands lie the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was a red ruby, the one that Samantha now holds in her hand, hanging from an ornate gold chain. She decided to wait until they were at home and comfortable in their bed to tell him about the baby. That night, returning home, Benjamin was shot and killed by thieves. Her despair and heartbroken agony was so unbearable that she drug his body into their home and using the beautiful red ruby, she cast a spell on the ruby giving it the power to bestow upon herself and any of her descendents to be able to see into the future and, foresee any danger that may cause them to lose love and to see



into the past so that they may remember and never feel the agony that she felt that night over the loss of her true love.

Samantha, standing in the attic, holding this beautiful red ruby is suddenly weak by the episode sits and pray’s that she will never need the gift or the magic inside the ruby.