An Unexpected Gift
by Anonymous | Score: 2750
Once upon a time there was a young boy. He was as brave and kind and cruel and foolish as most children.
On a particular day, he saw an unfamiliar child at the playground fall and begin to cry. Being a day where kindness was more in his mind than cruelty, he chose to help the stranger. After he found told their parent of the injury and the child's scrape had been properly cared for, the child insisted on giving the boy a locket as thanks. The boy found this strange, but accepted the gift.
Later that day, he and his parents went shopping for shoes. The owner of the store (and sometimes crafter of particularly fancy shoes) was rather loud and prone to rambling.
The boy, as so many do when faced with another's rambling, stopped paying attention to his words and started looking at the locket he had been gifted. It was round, made of a slightly tarnished metal that looked a bit like gold, and shaped with the image of a tree. Looking closely he saw that in the branches of the tree were a tiny sun and moon. When he tried to open the locket, he found the catch rather more difficult than it looked.
Before he could pry open the locket, his parents finished their shopping and returned with several pairs of shoes for him to try. It wasn't until after he went home and had his afternoon snack (a butterscotch pudding cup) that he was able to open the locket.
Imagine his surprise when he suddenly be