When I was younger I owned the most glamorous silver charm bracelet. There were 10 different charms representing different things that I loved and enjoyed and my name was engraved on it. It was a bracelet my mother had given to me before she died and ever since, the bracelet had become a definition of who I was.


One day in the sixth grade I was on the playground at school during recess and I looked down at my wrist and realized that my bracelet wasn’t on my wrist! Ever since my mother had placed that bracelet on my right wrist five years ago I had never even thought about taking it off.


I tore the entire playground, the entire classroom, and the entire school down looking for my bracelet. Unfortunately, my luck came up short.


I’ll never forget how much sadness had built up inside of me. All I did for the next week was shed tears. The bracelet was one of the very few things I had left of my mother, and now it was lost.


One day during my junior year I was sitting at lunch with a tray of Chinese food. When I had finished eating, the only thing that remained on my tray was a single fortune cookie. I tore off the plastic and removed the fortune, which said “What was once lost will once be found.” Carelessly, I tossed the piece of paper aside and continue on to class.


A month later, one of my best guy friends, Devin, whom I had known for years, asked me out to prom. Of course I said yes, he had been my best friend for many years.


One date turned into two dates, and then three. Soon enough, I became his girlfriend. We were so happy together and we became inseparable.


On our one year anniversary, Devin told me he wanted to take me to the playground of our old elementary school. “Why do you want to go there?” I asked. “You’ll see”, he said, smiling.


We walked hand-in-hand to the playground and we sat on the swings. It was silent, the only sounds that filled the air was the whispered voices of the wind. “What comes to your mind when you see this playground?” Devin asked me.


For a few moments I just sat there in complete and utter silence, my thoughts drifting back to the bracelet I had lost in the sixth grade. I closed my eyes and thought back to those solemn tears, that deep feeling of hopelessness and emptiness. Soft tears began to stream down my face as I opened my eyes and realized that Devin was gone.


“Devin?” I cried. “Where are you?” I got off the swing and began searching for him. “Come here, Anna”, Devin called out. He was kneed on the ground just a few feet away. I walked toward him.


“Do you remember this?” Devin asked me, handing me a shriveled up piece of paper. I unraveled it and to my surprise, it was the fortune from my lunch during my junior year.


“How did you get this?” I asked him, with surprise in my voice. “You tossed it on the floor when you got up, I went over and picked it up and I’ve kept it ever since”, said Devin. “Why?” I asked, “It’s just some silly fortune.”


“No it’s not, because what it says is true. Remember that bracelet you lost several years ago?”


“Of course I remember it, how could I forget? It meant everything to me.” Suddenly, I began to feel nauseous. I soon became very dizzy, and I collapsed. “Anna! Are you okay?” Devin cried.


Devin pulled out his phone and called for an ambulance, who took Anna to the hospital. Devin followed right behind. A few hours later, a doctor came out and spoke to him. “I’m afraid I’ve got some unfortunate news. Anna had a severe heart attack and has passed. I’m terribly sorry.”


Devin was in shock. Complete shock. “No, you’re lying. Anna’s too young to die of a heart attack. Let me see her. Please!” The doctor walked him to Anna’s room.


Devin walked in and sat down next to his love. “Anna, wake up.” He grabbed hold of her hand and covered his face in her hair, tears pouring down his cheeks.


A week later, Devin went to Anna’s funeral. He walked up to her coffin, covered in roses, and took hold of her wrist and reached down into his pocket with his other hand. He pulled out the charm bracelet; the one Anna had lost years ago, and tied it around her wrist.


“I found it on the playground the day before you died…it had been dropped in the ditch by the tree we used to sit by all through elementary school. I was going to give it to you. Look, I even added a new charm…it’s a fortune cookie.”