The jewelry box was standing in its usual spot, right below the arched mirror. It stood proudly on the skillfully carved and gold-inlaid aristocratic table, showing off all of its outer beauty to the world, hinting that its contents might be even more beautiful. It was the emerald green of a cat’s eyes, embroided silk box, inlayed with rubies at the gold corners and lock. The embroideries took the shape of brilliant flowers, crowned with a ruby, or diamond. Upon being unlocked, its front wall would glide down, like a drawbridge to a castle full of treasure, to reveal a set of drawers, filled with the brightest and most expensive necklaces and bracelets in town. The top lid of the box revealed another selection of ornaments entirely; ornaments of elegance, class, and charm. The lid itself was framed in gold, rubies, and emeralds, and carried a mirror, in which one could see themselves trying on what lay below. Earrings and rings of a vast amount of shapes, sizes, and materials were laid in their own special compartments. There were gold earrings, silver rings, accessories with diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires. Any ring a young lady would want illuminating her bare and dull finger was there. Any earring that could make her face look more splendid was there too. Any jewel a girl could want lay in this magnificent, compartment-filled, box.
It was on a lovely summer eve that the ball was taking place, and the charming daughters of this home’s mistress were running through the rooms, so dimly lit by the last rays of sun that crept over the ledges of the imperial windows. These streams of stealthily creeping gold stirred the dust in the ancient air and made the entire room come alive. Light danced off of mirrors as if practiced to do so daily, it mingled with the servants as they were finishing that day’s duties, it smoothed the mistress’ face as she regarded it with strictness in the mirror. The light dusted out the velvet seats in the imperial living room and reflected off of pots hanging in the kitchen, creating hundreds of more rays of this playful, luminescent character, that the inhabitants of this household were so used being called on by on these monotonous evenings. It joined the mistress and her master for late afternoon tea to shine off of the gold lining of the ornamented tea cups. It tangled in the daughters’ hair as they laughed and played with their sweet dolls on the velvet couch below the closed window through which the light shone so brightly, the golden silhouettes of these two beautiful creatures we all that their parents could admire.
This evening looked much like another would in this household, but this night, the two young girls were going with their parents to a ball. They ran through the rooms in their colorful dresses, but one was always ahead of the other. Her hair was a golden yellow and was all tied back -with the exception of her innocent, childish bangs- with bows and pearls into a gorgeous mop of curls. Her eyes, an elegant, predator-like emerald color, showed no sign of innocence unless they specifically desired it. Her dress was a light blue color at the corset, which was then ornamented with white embroidery, while her white skirts were wide and veiled in only a slightly darker blue. Below the veil on the skirts were embroided pearls, pink and clear diamond, and sapphires. On her hands were elegant, elbow-length, white silk gloves decorated at the ends with tiny clear diamonds. In other words, this young girl looked like she was going to her first ball and knew exactly what was expected of her and what she wanted for herself. The sun illuminated her lean figure as the two girls skipped past. She was not at all like her sister.
The beautiful creature’s sister looked rather plain, even though the gorgeous bone structure of her face would contradict it if she knew what she wanted for herself. She ran timidly behind the skirts of her sister; her gown, a pale green color, was rather flat and plain, with only few embroided vines completed with emeralds on the corset. As with her sister’s dress, there was no belting, but this skirt only barely lifted itself off of the girl’s skinny body, while her sister’s skirts seemed to float from her hips in fantastic curves. The young girl looked almost like she could be the beauty’s handmaiden. Her dark blonde hair fell straight to her shoulders with only few pearls that her mother convinced her were required. Her eyes were brown, so innocent and plain unlike her sister’s. But both were going to the ball and both were told by their mother to open the magical box filled with the family’s inherited jewelry, which had been expanded by the additional pieces bought by newer generations. The women of the family had by nature exquisite taste, and only this box would satisfy their sort of appetite for luxury. It contained everything that these two girls could want; or at least everything one of them knew she could ever want. The other had no idea what her desires were, and even though she was older than her sister, she had yet to learn the difference between what she wants and what is better suited for her; a concept her sister understood perfectly.
They skipped through the apartment’s historical rooms, their sound of their shoes muffled by the grey, plush carpet. The light tangled through the curls of the beauty’s hair, and it only managed to push itself across the outside of the full, straight hair of the plain one to give it at least somewhat of a glistening outline. Their figures glided through the apartment, and came to a halt by the table with the jewelry box; the lean figure hidden behind the full skirts of the other. The figures sat on the two stools by the table with the arched mirror, the full skirted one on the stool in the center, the lean one slightly on the side.
The lean figure muttered, “Emily, could you perhaps move over a little bit?” Emily did not wait to respond for long, and even giggled at her sister’s seemingly preposterous plea, “Oh, don’t be silly, Jane, you should have been faster. I was here first.” Emily’s delicate fingers carefully unlocked the box with the smooth, delicate, golden key she had received from their mother. The front wall fell forward to let the girls see the multitude of drawers and options that lay within. Emily’s fingers carefully slid to the top lid of the jewelry box and opened it. They have seen their mother put on jewelry from this box so many times, they both knew exactly what it contained. The necklaces in the compartments were so different in numerous ways; they could go with any dress imaginable. Any gown, be it for the day or for an evening ball like this one, could be accessorized with the jewelry from this box.
Emily shuffled through the rings and upon discovering one to her liking, lightly removed the glove on her right hand. She slipped the ring on a pale, delicate finger and watched the light glitter upon its reflection in the mirror. Her hand looked more beautiful with the ring, as if the ring gave it some of its royal air. “It is sad I can’t wear a ring for my gloves,” Emily sighed. “Then don’t wear the gloves, that ring looks delightful,” Jane suggested heartily, happy she might be of use to her sister. “Oh don’t be silly Jane, the gloves are meant to be worn with this dress, mother said so. Besides, without them I might catch a chill in later on, when the evening gets cool.” Emily’s cold response made Jane quiet. She proceeded to try on a few more rings before slipping on her glove. Emily then tried the earrings, each pair making her face sparkle more than it already did by nature. She then progressed to searching through the compartments, each holding a matching bracelet and necklace.
“Which one will you take?” Questioned Jane in a meek voice. Emily did not take long to decide; after all she knew exactly what was in this box and knew what would look best with her dress no matter which one she might have personally liked more. “I want the pearl necklace with a bow clasp -that one there that is decorated with the pink diamonds- and those pretty pearl earrings. How about you, Jane? Have you decided yet?” Jane foolishly took Emily’s question as a sign on concern or regard. She replied with cheerfulness and hope in her voice. “No, I suppose I haven’t. I thought, well, the pearls would look pretty nice with my dress. I suppose I don’t know what I should take.” “Well decide already. Mother isn’t going to wait for us forever. And I will not be late,” Emily snapped with only a quick, disgusted glance towards her older sister.
“Now, now, dears, what is the quarrel?” The voice was their mother’s, a beautiful, middle aged, lady. Her tired skin was so pale it became almost transparent when the light from the windows attacked it with no restraint. Her walk seemed more a glide and her talk more like a song. Her dress was elegant and beautiful; the lace corset was ornamented with rubies and the skirts jumped off her hips following the designing of the corset. Her hair had been made unto a bun and clasped with a diamond rose centered with a pearl. Her silhouette was outlined with the slowly fading traces of their recently present visitor.
“Jane can’t choose which jewels she wants for the ball,” Emily said, getting irritated with her sister’s inability to make a decision. But then Jane’s eyes had caught something that would go magnificently with her dress. It was a stunning, emerald pendant, framed in silver vines. The chain was plain, leaving all the beauty of the necklace to pendant. But in yet another compartment lay a necklace that drew Jane’s attention. It was plain, the chain kept simple, the pendant only a small flower centered with a pink diamond. It wouldn’t work with her dress at all, but she could not take her eyes off its charming, delicate beauty. Time was short and the household’s master was waiting for the girls and their mother at the door.
“Jane, choose any, I’m certain that pearl with emerald veins on the chain would look lovely,” the mother said hurriedly. Emily walked out of the room at the urgent call of their father to depart. Jane still could not choose which of the magnificent jewels she would have decorating her pale neck, but her mother had had enough, “We will be late, Jane! No, we are already late, but if you take so long, we will arrive even later! We might as well not go at all then.” Jane heard her sister whine from the other room, begging her father to leave without Jane, but he would not hear of it. Emily had been looking forward to this outing for weeks.
Jane searched the through the jewels once more and still found nothing she could settle upon, and when she was about to take the gorgeous, emerald pendant, her mother had decided that this was the jewel she wanted decorating her own gown. She trapped her neck within the thin, silver chain, and all Jane could do was follow her mother out the door, in her plain, simple dress, with not a jewel to give her dull figure sparkle. The girls walked behind their father, Jane treading in the shadow behind Emily. As their mother closed the door to the room with the jewelry box, the light pushed through to shine one last time on that wonderful treasure before it would be left to wait for another occasion to come along; and the two sisters to skip from one room to another, to seek council from it. The jewelry box would wait for Jane too, until she would have the strength to walk in the light outside of her sister’s shadow and choose what she really wants before it is too late and it gets snatched away.
