The woman who had bid so high for the gold chain thought nothing about the money. She saw the gold chain held up on stage from afar and knew that she wanted it even though her vision was now poor and could barely see it. But even at a distance she could see it was something valuable and worth of being coveted, and she usually got what she wanted.

She sat there with her god-son and his wife and children. She wanted them to take her to the dinner function, though he was busy with his work and could hardly afford the time out.

People called her a dragon-lady behind her back because she was not a very nice person. She was really not a happy person. She had no children and her husband had died a decade ago and she was the second wife of a very successful businessman who had left her with three large homes on the island.

The first wife left her deceased husband two sons but they were not very clever and were not able to take over the business, so that his entire business enterprise ended up in the complete control of a business partner. Her Godson managed her business for her, and she allowed him and his family to stay for free in one of her homes, while she lived with a maidservant in the other.

Actually she was illiterate, and so she could not understand a lot of the legal documents she had to deal with and didn't trust lawyers. Her Godson was dependable and was the only person alive that she could trust. She had used a lawyer once before to settle her husband's estate, and she felt that he had somehow cheated her out of a lot of money, and had even tried getting a house from her, if she hadn't at the last moment gone to seek the advice of another solicitor.

She did not worry about spending money on anything she wanted, but she was very stingy with her money and would pinch every penny when it came to the management of her rentals.

She was ashamed of her illiteracy and a few years back had taken an English course to try to overcome the problem, but it didn't help much and she soon grew tired of the work and the classes.

So now she lived mostly alone and had no friends, and went and bothered her Godson and his family almost every day. After the dinner had finished she went up to write a check for the gold chain and collect her prize. She took it out of the box and admired its beauty and was happy she had decided to attend the dinner after all.

She had gotten into religion more heavily and worshipped the Sai Baba at her home. She had been planning to go to India to attend the Sai Baba's ashram with a few other disciples but was afraid to go so far away.

One day she was returning to her home in her car. Her maidservant had the day off and so she was alone. As she pulled up in the drive way and young Chinese man came out from the bushes behind the car. He had a knife in his hand. She quickly rolled up her car window and locked the doors. She was frightened to death as he threatened her and hit the window and told her to open the door.

Finally he broke the glass by hammering it with the end of his knife and the glass shattered and hit her in the face. He reached inside the car and started to cut her arm, and told her to hand him her purse. She did and he took off running. She was frightened and didn't know what to do as she sat there bleeding in her car.

Since then she was afraid to be alone at her home and that was why she liked to spend her days at her Godson's house or going out shopping or walking the shopping center.

When she got back to her home with her maidservant she went into her bedroom and put her new gold chain with the rest of her jewelry. It was by far the most outstanding and strangest piece of jewelry she possessed. She decided she would take it down to the gold shop the next day where she always did business and have them assess its value for her.

The next day she drove down with her maidservant to the gold-shop. She couldn't find a place to park near the shop so ended up parking on another road a little ways away from the shop. Because it was hot out she decided to take a lanchang who was peddling by. She had hardly ever rode in a trishaw but this old man's trishaw was polished and exceptionally clean. She got in and bargained with him over the price as he rode the short distance to the gold-shop around the corner and just down the street.

She told the lanchang to wait for them and they got out and went into the shop. After about half-hour, they emerged from the shop. She had the necklace in a plastic bag in her hand and another plastic bag with another gold bracelet she had bought that she had tried to match with the necklace as close as possible.

As they were going back down the road the maidservant noticed some silks hanging in a shop window and they decided to stop the lanchang and go inside, taking their bags with them. Soon they emerged from the shop with an armful of more bags and got back into the Trishaw, who peddled them back to their car. They were talking so much about what they had just bought and seen at the material shop that neither of them noticed that the bag with the gold chain in it had slipped out of the dragon lady's hand. It had fallen down on the side of the seat of the trishaw cart.

They were so busy talking the rest of the way home that it wasn't until they got to their house and were taking the bags out of their car that they realized the gold chain was missing. They guessed what was happening and frantically drove back downtown to where they had taken the Trishaw but could find no trace of him. They asked around about his whereabouts but nobody knew him or where he came from. They then drove around the town for over an hour but still could see no trace of him. They saw a lot of trishaws, and even a few old men who at first looked like the man, but they didn't know where he was.

She thought about going to the police to file a report, but she didn't trust the police either since the incident with the robber, because it looked to her they weren't really interested in what had happened to her.

She came back down to town to look for the man again the next morning, but still couldn't find him. She looked like that for two more days but to no avail. Finally she gave up on ever finding the man or of regaining her lost necklace, and she consoled herself that the bracelet she had bought to go along with it was almost as nice. She went back down to the gold shop to buy another necklace that perfectly matched her bracelet. It was not the first loss in her life, and was liable not to be the last.

Blanket Copyright, Hugh M. Lewis, © 2005. Use of this text governed by fair use policy--permission to make copies of this text is granted for purposes of research and non-profit instruction only.