A vignette of sorts.

This can't be happening. Not now. Anna Marquez thought as she frantically searched her living room.

It was all her fault really, she should not have been so careless last night. But the combination of good friends and lots of alcohol had been more than enough to make her lose track of her Important Item. When she had awoken that morning to find it missing she immediately retraced her steps. The last place she had vaguely remembered seeing it was in the living room. At some point during the night she had been showing it off to her best friend.

Stupid, stupid, stupid why did I have to go and show it off? Why do I have to feel like I always have to impress everyone who walks into my house?

Her bright blue couch cushions and assorted Gossip and Home and Garden magazines were now haphazardly strewn across the floor as Anna searched the cracks and crevices in her couch where her Precious Thing might have fallen. A muffled noise could be heard under all the rubble, her cell phone of course. Probably one of her friends wanting to arrange another get together soon. It would be so easy for her to pick up the phone and ask someone to help her, but for some reason she couldn't. As much fun as it had been showing it off last night in her hazy state, now she just couldn't help but feel as if this Thing was too important to trust to anyone else.

After about a half an hour of frantic searching Anna finally sat down amoungst the rubble that was essentially her life. Her knees where tucked under her chin and a few tears slid down her cheaks. For all the world at that moment she looked like a lost little girl in need of her mommy or daddy. There was a knock at her door and she could hear the deep bass of her best friend's voice calling out to her, but Anna couldn't bring herself to answer back.

Just go away. Leave me alone please.

Almost as if he had heard Anna's silent wishes her best friend suddenly stopped pounding on the door. She was once again alone, feeling exhausted she fell back onto one of the couch cushions letting her arms stretch out. As she did so her right hand brushed against something familiar. It was of course the Thing she had been looking for all morning. Her had clasped reassuringly around the heart shaped locket her fiancee had given her before he had joined up with the Underground.

Several months had passed since he had last contacted her. For all Anna knew he was in some penal colony on Mars or something. But as she felt the cold weight of the locket resting on her collar bone she could at least pretend all was right with her world. Things seemed to be a little less bleak down on Earth.