TWELVE DAYS OF REIGN

THE RING

The room broke out in a shouting match. Strangely enough, it was the other daughter that came and took me out of the room. She set me against the wall, glanced at her hands as if they were dirty now that she touched me, and shook her head.
    "What a mess!" she exclaimed rolling her bluish brown eyes. "What a mess!"
    I agreed. I hadn't been in a mess like this since the wife of one of my John's caught him with me in the backseat of his car. She had a gun and everything. On the scale of messy, that was the worst, but this was right under it.
    The preacher's daughter looked a bit like Joseph. The same broad nose, and full lips, but she had high cheekbones and sandy brown hair like her sister, though her complexion was nearly as pale as Reuben's. She was thin and athletic, completely different from her sister. I could see the lean muscle of her arms through the sleeves of the white shirt she wore.
She glanced down at my hand and spotted the ring. The sight of it made her eyes fill with tears.
    "Give me my mother's ring," she demanded.
I lifted my hand up a little looking at the aged ring. I hesitated to obey. I had worn the ring every day for the past two years. I even slept with it on. I only took it off to wash dishes and shower. It was precious to me, even though it was tarnished and needed fixing. It was my wedding ring. I had believed the preacher had got it from a pawn shop. At least that was what he told me when he gave it to me two years ago. I had no idea it belonged to his late wife.
    I slowly took the ring off and handed it to her. I watched in silence as she stuffed it in her purse and began to pace back and forth again. My hand ran down my arm and my eyes lowered eyeing the floor as I realized that this was the first lie the preacher ever told me.
The door snapped open and one by one the preacher's kids and grandkids filed out.
    "Come on, Monica!" Debbie called her sister. She cut her eyes at me, sneered at me as she sized me up. "I never want to see you again, hear me? Stay away from my father!"
Debbie snatched her two kids' hands and marched away with her husband. Monica, her husband, and daughter followed behind Debbie. Then Reuben and his wife and two kids came out. Then the youngest, Benjamin. Joseph was the last to leave the room. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets and his head down eyeing the floor. He paused and stood in front of me. The shine in his eyes had disappeared and was replaced with a dull dark brown hue.
    "My father wants to see you but first I want to apologize for my family's behavior," he said.    
    This is all so—shocking."
    I nodded done with it. I needed to see the preacher just like he needed to see me. I needed to know why he lied to me. Joseph walked around me and leaned his back against the wall.
    I'll be waiting here," he informed.
    Without a second's hesitation, I went in and shut the door.

______________

"Reign," the preacher smiled as if seeing me for the first time, "Come over here and have a seat."
     He patted the edge of the bed just like before. I went around the bedside table and sat down beside him. His arthritic dark hands gathered mine up, gleaming that bright smile of his at me as if we were about to go to one of our nighttime restaurants.
     "Preacher, why did you lie to me about the ring?"
    Jacob's head rolled away from me facing the black screen of the TV mounted on the wall. His frail chest heaved getting his thoughts together.
    "I had bought that ring for my wife fifty-nine years ago. Back then I had to work two jobs and work overtime to get that ring. But it was worth it to see the look on my wife's face when I asked her to marry me," he reminisced. "Boy, did she love that ring."
    Jacob turned himself back around, looking me in the eye.
    "I'm an old man now, Reign. I couldn't work hard to buy you a ring. I'm on a fixed income and I only get an allowance from that. I worked hard to add the best to my wife. All men should work hard to add and give the best to their wives, so I gave you her ring because I worked hard for it when I could," he added, "and you are my wife, Reign, worthy of the best that I can add to you."
    My frustrations had melted away into something I could not name. I had felt it a few times before with the preacher, but this time it brought with it a tear. I had fallen into a silence I could not explain. I'm sure even the preacher could not understand me either. His words made everything I just endured with his family, of no consequence. I turned my head to the left allowing our gazes to not meet again as the tear I choked on trickled down my face against my will. It rounded the corner of my chin and fell on my shirt.
    Will you come back tomorrow to see me?" he asked
    I nodded, wiping the streak of wet away, got up and left the room.
    Joseph pushed himself off the wall and smiled at me as if there was a reason to. I was beginning to think smiling was simply in his DNA.
     "Will you come back tomorrow?" Joseph asked.
     "Yes."
    "Good. I'm glad," he added. "Listen Reign, I can't handle my family right now and frankly I would rather avoid them all together until all of this blows over. So, if it is ok with you, can I pick you up early tomorrow around seven or seven thirty in the morning to avoid my family?" Joseph asked.
I nodded.
     "Yes. Anything for the preacher."