Never Go Back

• Keira Cox, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

My name is Judy Hames and this is the story of how my life changed forever. I can't say whether it was for the best but all I know is that there's no going back.
One year ago
The doorbell rang and I jumped up from my place on the lounge and went to the door. I opened it to find the postman there with a small parcel about the size of a small tissue box. The package was wrapped in foam sealed with sticky tape. I took the package and signed for it and taking it into the kitchen I started to open it. I peeled off the sticky tape, too curious to be gentle and started to work on the foam box. Inside was a wooden box made of many different types of mahogany. There was an hourglass etched finely into the soft wood. The box was smooth and otherwise spotless.
I grabbed what I assumed was the top of the box and pulled, waiting for the lid to make way and creak open but instead the box remained intact. I turned the box over, looking for a way to open it. Then I felt it. The slightest movement under my thumb. I slid my thumb right, dragging the little square piece of timber with it until the square caught on something, refusing to budge any further.
This looked like it was going to take a while to open so I picked up the box and brought it into the study, where on impact with the chair I had an idea. I grabbed my grandfather's journal that was stowed away on my bookshelf, which I had never read before as it seemed to be written in code. I had tried to decipher the code many times before but as far as I knew, it wasn't written in any modern language I knew of.
On the front of the journal was a symbol which had four triangles pointing away from the center and joined at the points, with a single circle in the middle touching the sides of the triangles. I looked back at the box and saw the similar shapes in the mahogany. I set to work sliding the pieces of wood into the shape of the symbol on the journal. Finally I had one piece left to move and as I locked it into place I heard a series of locks unlatching and the lid of the box popped open. When I saw what was inside I gasped. Inside the box, carefully encased in smooth, black velvet sat a perfectly polished bullet. Although, what shocked me the most was what was written on the bullet. I traced my thumb lightly over the words and whispered them, afraid of what they meant. The words etched almost too perfectly into the bullet were, 'Judy Hames'.