All That Glitters

Prologue

Prologue

This was an urban legend that didn’t make it onto Snopes.com.

In fact, it wasn’t even famous. Those who even heard of it dismissed

it as town folklore. But, he didn’t.

He sat up, turning up the volume on the TV as soon as the next

programming started to play. These skeptical stories about urban

legends only fueled his fire, even though it might just be another

repeated programming he’s seen before. It might just be the same

information in all the magazine articles, newspaper clippings and

highlighted book segments he had thrown all over his room, but he

was always looking for more. There was only so much to do with

recycled information. Wasn’t there a time and point where this

information becomes updated? The narrator on the TV began to

drone on.

“There is a story, dating back to the ancient Aztecs of a young prince

named Chimalhuitzcoatl next in line to become king, but a king was

everything he was not. He was shy, insecure, weak, and unable to

make decisions. He certainly was going to be the one to bring the

fall of the civilization. Desperate he prayed for days to the gods for

help, and one night the god Tezcatlipoca appeared to him. ‘Take these

jewels,’ he said to the prince, holding out an assortment of necklaces

and rings and bracelets. ‘I have blessed them to take care of your

personal faults. They will help you cure those faults and make you

the person you were meant to be.’ The Prince put them on, and then

was no longer shy and weak and no longer indecisive and insecure.

He became a great king, but on his deathbed, he wanted the jewels

to be destroyed. Fearful that anyone would find out he was only great

by magic, and would use his magic jewels to do harm, he cast them

away. Many years later people believed they found their way to the

western United States, mostly in Iowa. The legend is still a legend,

and not even proven to be true, but it has remained an idea some

love to entertain.”

The man sat unmoving on his couch and unmoved by the narration.

All he knew was that for some reason these legendary jewels managed

to stay hidden and find their way into modern-day jewelry stores.

“While this is so,” the narrator continued, “people have claimed to

come in contact with pieces of gold jewelry that gave them their own

magical touch and became believers of this legend. There was one

case in the nineteen forties of a jewelry store owner who claimed

he had a lucky chain. He wore the chain while vacationing in Vegas

and went home with jackpot winnings. There was another of a young

shopper in the eighties who purchased an anklet at a strip mall. She

claimed this gave her the gift to become the fastest swimmer in the

state and won a full college scholarship. These stories and others all

come from Iowa but many jewelry shop owners and workers have

been interviewed, and not many believe in this legend. In fact, several

were unfamiliar with it in the first place and disregarded it. If this is

so, then why did people in the area claimed it happened to them?”

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, drumming

his fingers together rhythmically.

This time, he promised himself, it’s going to be me.

 © Jackie Sonnenberg

Photo Credit Eleanor Bennett