The Ring

• Peggy Jean Higginbottom, Grade 8, Riverside Girls High School
• Short Story
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'Unleashed 2022' competition

As I look through the camera at her smile I feel the rush of familiar sadness roll over me. What I would give to have her mother here today. She would be so proud of the little girl we brought into the world dressed all pretty and pink. Wearing her mother's necklace. All I see when I look at her is the love of my life. She mirrors her beauty. CLICK. The camera captures the moment and wakes me out of my stupor. I say goodbye and usher her into the school gates.
As I walk across the school parking lot I am still distracted by my thoughts. I am barely conscious as I drive home engulfed in memories of her. As I enter my house I know exactly where I am going. I reach our room and go into her closet. It looks identical to how it was 6 years ago except for the open jewellery box on the floor. I sit down and search through it looking for the object that will forever bond us together, her wedding ring. We went and picked out the gold bands together and engraved them with an infinity symbol and our initials. Even though I have my own, I love to touch hers as if her spirit lives inside the ring. As I’m looking through the jewellery box I cannot find it. It is not in the spot it usually is. Maybe I misplaced it. I tip the box upside down and the contents fall onto the floor. Anxiety courses through my veins. It’s not here.
An hour later I am falling into a panicked spiral. I feel like I have searched every corner of her closet and I still can’t find the ring. In the silence of my empty house, my head is flooded with memories of her. The one I dread most of all plays on repeat in my brain. The day our daughter was born, when she traded her life for our baby girl’s. Her anguished cries through contractions echo through my head, the final deafening cry replaced by an echoing silence. I was too distracted marvelling at our new baby girl as the nurses sprung into action fighting to save her. I was unaware that’d be the last time I’d ever see her again.
Enough! I shake myself awake from my stupor. I continue to look for the ring.
The rest of the day flew by full of desperation and chaos. The house is a wreck by the time I leave to pick up Lulu from school.
As I arrive at the gates I see her rushing out to greet me. I spot something glistening on her finger.
“Lulu, what’s on your finger?” I ask.
“Mummy’s ring,” she responds cheerfully. “I found it in her jewellery box. I wanted to look like her today.”
My heart melts as I see the look on her face. I reach for her hand and together we walk home. All is restored.