There once was a woman, Julie, who
came from humble means. Julie often
spent time imagining when she would someday be able to enjoy the finer things
in life. She believed that a true sign of
success and happiness in life were seen in one’s monetary value. Julie lived an ambitious life, always striving
for the best. She found a nice man who
accepted her as she was and was willing to work hard to give her the lifestyle
she so desperately wanted.
Early in their marriage they were
living on a small budget like many people just starting out. Julie’s husband was working a modest job with
a possibility of upward mobility. While
their future held an optimistic outlook, Julie was not happy with having to
wait. Her time was often spent trying to
find ways for her husband to make them more money and keep up the appearance
that they were better off than they really were. She believed her vanity was an investment
that would help them in the long run.
One day Julie’s husband came home
from work with exciting news. He had
been invited to a social work party that would provide ample opportunities for
networking. Julie was excited and knew
that this was her time to pull all the stops in hoping of impressing the ‘right’
people. She begged her husband to find
the money for her to buy a new outfit for the occasion. Despite their ability to afford such things,
they made the unnecessary sacrifices so she could look her best.
As she modeled her outfit in her
mirror alone in her room, Julie was unsatisfied. She felt like the only noticeable thing about
the woman staring back at her was her lack of any extravagant jewelry. Julie owned a few pieces such as her wedding
band, and a family heirloom pearl necklace, but she didn’t feel like she owned
anything that would portray the class she so desperately wanted. As she lusted after what she couldn’t have
she knew there was no way she could have the type of ornaments she desperately wanted. Julie felt sorry for herself.
The next day, they day before the
party, she had a lunch date with an old friend, Mary, she had known for a
number of years. Mary and Julie grew up together and were from the same
socio-economic background. The old adage
of “opposites attract” rang true for the women. Mary was the generous, content one of the
two. The girls got along so well growing
up because they complimented each other.
Over the last couple of years the girls had fallen in part largely in
part of their marriages. While both of
them had found nice caring men who treated them well, Mary had married into a
family with considerable amount of money, unlike Julie. Julie had let jealously come between a lifelong
friendship. She no longer enjoyed
hanging out with her friend because she found herself only noticing her nice
clothes and jewelry rather than following the conversations.
Mary had noticed her friend
becoming distant but couldn’t figure out why.
They had always been close, and could trust Julie with her deepest
secrets. It was a rare treat for them to
go out on a lunch date. So when Julie
showed up, Mary couldn’t help but feel the irritation rolling off her
friend. Julie was dreading the get
together with Mary, if she hadn’t cancelled twice already she would have called
the lunch off. The last thing Julie
wanted was to spend two hours with someone who had it all when she felt like
she had nothing.
Mary greeted her friend warmly and
worked some small talk. It wasn’t long
before Mary asked Julie what was bothering her.
Julie let her self-pity bubble over as she spilled out her situation to
Mary. Mary was relieved because this was
a problem she could fix for her friend.
Mary offered to lend a statement jewelry piece to Julie to wear to the
party. Julie was elated as she ended her
lunch to go pick up her dress and meet Julie at her house to find something
that would match.
At Mary’s home Julie modeled her
stunning dress as Mary complimented her friend.
Mary opened her jewelry box and pulled out a delicate necklace studded
with small diamonds that matched the dress perfectly. She placed the necklace on her friend and
admired the ensemble. Mary then told her
friend that she thought this necklace would match the best, but she was more
than welcome to look at the others if she wanted to. Julie liked the piece and the simple elegance
but she felt like it was an understatement to what she was trying to
portray. She walked over to the jewelry
box and fingered the beautiful necklaces one by one. She stopped when she came to a gold chain
that had a single pendant. On the
pendant was the largest yellow diamond she had ever seen surrounded by smaller white
diamonds. She picked up the necklace and
asked Mary if this could be the one she borrowed. Mary, being the gracious friend she was,
promptly agreed and helped Julie try it on.
Julie was breathless as she fixated on the huge stone. She knew this was what she needed to complete
her look and impress the people at the party.
The next night at the party Julie
held her head high as she did everything she could to put her husband in the
good sights of his superiors. This
seemed like her shining moment, dressed well, surrounded by wealthy people and
wearing the most beautiful necklace that received countless compliments. Julie was still on cloud nine when her and
her husband arrived home that night. She
kissed her husband and took off her coat when her husband noticed something was
wrong. He noticed that the space on the
necklace that once held a large yellow diamond was now grossly empty.
The couple franticly searched the coat, floor,
car, everywhere they could think of to find the missing stone. Her husband called the venue in hopes that
the cleaning crew had found the diamond, but to no avail. Julie lay in bed completely sleepless as she
thought about what losing this diamond meant for her. There was no way Julie would be able to tell
her friend that she had lost what Julie believed to be the most expensive
diamond Mary had owned. She knew her friend
would never forgive her and she couldn’t face the shame and defame of her
actions.
In the morning Julie set out with
her husband to go to a jeweler to see what could be done about the
necklace. Upon inspecting the piece and
listening to the disheartening story, the jeweler said he would be able to find
another yellow diamond roughly the same shape and size to replace the missing
stone. Unfortunately, the cost would be
great, and the couple knew they would never be able to afford it. Julie’s husband begged her to tell Mary and
see if there was some kind of arrangement that could be made between the two of
them over the necklace. Julie refused,
she would not let go of her pride and ask for forgiveness for her wrong.
That night the couple compiled
everything they had of value and sold it all, including their car. Left with nothing, they still could not
afford the diamond. After much talk
about what they would need to do to find the remainder of the money, they
agreed to get a second mortgage and meet with some local loan sharks to cover
the rest. As Julie now looked on her
once seemingly bright future she knew her life was now going to be hard.
Handing over the money was almost
too painful. When the necklace was
finished Julie held the necklace in her hand and stared at the shining stone
that had crushed her. She placed the
necklace in an envelope and walked to Mary’s house. Julie gave Mary the envelope and refused to
come in and talk about how the party had gone regardless of Mary’s
pleadings. Again, Mary knew something
was wrong. Julie refused to look at her
and seemed to have aged years in the matter of a week. Mary did not push and figured, in time, Julie
would share what was wrong. Julie left the house with no intentions of ever
speaking with her friend ever again.
Years passed and the repaying of
the vast amount of debt had taken a huge toll on Julie and her husband. They never had children because they knew
they would never be able to afford them.
Her husband lost his job and ended up working multiple physical labor
jobs to make ends meet. Julie also was forced
to work. She worked two graveyard jobs
cleaning and spent her days sewing to bring in extra money. She never saw her husband because of their
crazy schedules and the love that once fueled their marriage had all but vanished. Julie had not aged well because of her life
style. Worry lines and wrinkles covered
her once smooth face, gray hair overtook her once golden hair, soft hands were
calloused and a straight spine was now hunched over in fatigue. Over the years Julie had time to reevaluate
her goals and self-worth. Slowly the
pride had been chipped painfully away off her heart and she regretted the silly
headed girl she once was. She could not
change what had been done but she often wondered what kind of life she would
have if she had not been so hard hearted and hard headed in her youth.
One morning, while walking downtown
to the bus stop to go home after a long night’s work, an aged, yet familiar
voice called out her name. She looked up
to see her once close friend Mary walking quickly towards her. Time had been kind to Mary. Soft laugh lines creased her forehead, there
was pep in her step, and she stood tall, shoulders pulled back. Mary was not extravagantly dressed, but she
was definitely not haggard like how Julie felt.
Mary reached her friend and hugged her tight. She could tell Julie had a story to tell, but
did not ask about it, rather she asked where she was headed and if she would
join her for some breakfast. Reluctantly
she accepted the invite and they walked to a small café.
Mary’s bright disposition had only
grown over the years as she kept the conversation flowing pretty much single
handedly. Julie nodded occasionally but
spent most of the meal starring into her mug.
Eventually, Mary could no longer hold in her curiosity. What had happened that had made her friend stop
answering her calls and letters? Why,
after that party, had she cut herself off completely from their friendship? But
also, what kind of life had Julie been living all of these years?
After Mary asked Julie what she had
been up to there was a long moment of silence.
Julie took a deep breath and looked up at Mary to reveal tears streaming
down her face. She slowly started to
tell Mary about that party all those years ago.
She started at the beginning and shared every detail, from the
decorations to the food to the small talk.
She eventually got to the part when she realized the diamond was
missing. The tears flowed faster and she
repeatedly apologized and said how she should have just told Mary that next
day. Mary tried to interject but Julie
didn’t let her. She continued on about
going to the jeweler and coming up with the money to buy the new diamond.
When Julie finished the two friends
sat there in another moment of silence.
Finally Mary spoke to Julie, “My dear, dear friend. I wish you had come to me and told me about
this. The stone in the necklace was a
fake, it was never a real diamond. Even
if it had been, I would have forgiven you because I love you. I am so sorry for all this has done to you.”
