Emotional Talismans

I have a few talismans. Though I know, technically speaking, most people wear talismans around their neck, I tuck mine in pockets, or stick them places where, when I am rummaging through my purse, I will come across them once in a while. In my spiritual way of looking at the universe, I am always convinced I will run across them when I need them most or need a reminder.

My favorite talisman was once lost to me for two entire decades. The short version is my old boyfriend bought my deceased grandfather's old car. My grandfather kept the key on a serenity prayer key chain of two praying hands. That key chain was a familiar sight to me my entire life, so familiar that I don't think I thought much about it. My boyfriend and I eventually broke up on amicable terms. He moved to Japan. He then went to Fiji. Then South America, wandering, it seemed, for years. Somewhere along the way, I got married and moved about four times. Got divorced. Then he got married. And we vaguely kept in touch once in a blue moon. Then one day, out the clear blue sky, I got an envelope. The handwriting kind of looked familiar. Inside was a note. "I found this as I was preparing to move to Oregon. I thought you should have it." Inside was the key chain. I immediately burst into tears. It was the most wonderful gift I had ever gotten in my life. And now, it's around. Where I can see it when I need strength.

I think every character should have one or two external emotional talismans. Something on their desk. Game ball from a Yankee game. A paperweight that looks like a rock but is actually a turtle that a child made (I have one of those . . . it actually turned out not to be a turtle but an EAGLE, so go figure). A picture is too easy. So instead a coin. A . . . something. Something unique to the story. In the world of symbolism, the talisman should express a hidden emotion that the character cannot.

My key chain expresses a secret fear that the people I love most in the entire world will one day die and I will be completely and utterly alone. An orphan. In the natural order of things, my parents will die before me. The idea leaves me feeling so alone that I shove it away. And when I see the keychain, it's both the loneliest feeling in the world and the most grace-filled. Which is I suppose how feelings often are. Not one thing or another but some jumbled mess.

In Magickeepers, Koyla wears a key around his neck that grows hot and has actually imprinted a scar on his chest. The greatest delight of the cover for me is if you look close, you can SEE the key around his neck. But it's rather like an "Easter Egg"--you'd have to know it's there and look close to see it. The talisman expresses how he feels about his mother, a person he cannot remember. But instead, throughout the book, he says she "is there in the spaces" between he and his father.

So what is your emotional talisman? And do your characters have any?