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An attractive bloodstone fob hung from the center chain, directing the gaze from silver button to silver button, then downward still.

Except during the hand-washing that has taken on its own ritual qualities during the pandemic, she never removes her mother’s lucky bloodstone signet ring.

Her jewelry hangs there—slices of agate on long chains of raw crystal beads, collars set with moonstones, deep green bloodstones strung together, and an opal pendant, bright as fire in the sunlight.

The cover of this cunning little almanac is made with, among other things, bloodstone, glass, gold, woven textile and braids of hair, along with the initials A.C.

His eyes are bloodstones, those green gems sprinkled with red jasper, less shiny than the fluorite crystals embedded in our children’s faces, but no less spectacular.