The Tale of the Lost Ring

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This one needed its own entry as I go into "tale" mode . . . so after Cheryl, Brian, and I left the horse races, cold, tired, and no richer than when we arrived, I realized something terrible. I took off my gloves at the grocery store while Brian ran in to pick up house supplies and realized that one of my rings was gone. Now, most of you know I wear a ring on almost every finger. But this ring had particular significance as it was one that my father gave to my mother when they were first dating. It only fits my pinky, but I love it, and although my parents are now with my wonderful new family, Michael and Margaret, it reminds me of the two people who created me and the love that brought me into this world. In the cold weather, all of my fingers shrink, and at some point in the abyss of the horse races, the ring had fallen off. Now, the horse races are about a twenty minute drive from home, and we’re all cold, hungry, and exhausted, so I begin to call the horse race office in the hopes someone has turned it in. No luck, but they’ll keep looking. Now when the lady says, “we’ll keep looking” I flash back to my days of working at Rowland. If someone called in and said, “Hey I lost an earring,” and we said we’d look for it, that meant that if we happened to sweep it up, and we happened to notice it wasn’t trash, then we would give them a call. At this realization I began to cry. Not full on tears of loss, but small tears of letting go and realizing it was something material and I’d live.

At this point, Cheryl began to rub my shoulders and Brian began to tell me that maybe some young man would pick it up and give it to the woman he was seeing, and they would have one of the greatest loves that life can offer. I basked in the comfort and began to let it go until something occurred to me. Right before we left I took my gloves off to wash my hands. So maybe, just maybe, the needle in the haystack would be somewhere in the second floor bathroom and not in the abyss of the race tracks. Although drained past their limits, Cheryl and Brian decided they would come with me to search. After scanning the ground the entire walk in I began to lose hope. Things were already swept to the side and there were still people hanging around drinking. If it was somewhere visible that could be found, someone surely had already found it and kept it as their own.

But sometimes there ARE happy endings, and some day I will tell Brian what he told me to comfort my tears. A young man DID find that ring, and he gave it to the woman he was seeing, and they hugged and kissed and sang outloud with joy. And the love that had already began seemed to glow a little more at the success. And then after hugging Cheryl as well and thanking her for coming to help in the quest, Brian slipped the ring back on my finger, and the three of us went home for dinner. THE END

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Comments

[Cory P. Boyd]

sniffle...
That is just awesome. I'm tearing up over here, for serious.

[Roy]

Wow...
Smooth Brian...VERY smooth!