Short Stories

The Ring

This is the fourth month of the first year she's been diagnosed.

This is the fourth hour of the last day she'd be with me. But I didn't know that till the sixth hour.

"Honey, what are you thinking about?" She asks me.

I force a smile and place my hand over hers.

"Nothing, mom."

She chuckles and squeezes my hand. "I know it's not nothing. Come on, what is it?"

I take a deep breath and force the tears back.

"What's gonna happen to you?" I whisper.

She smiles sadly, about to reply when I ask the question that bothers me most.

"What's gonna happen to me?"

Her smile slowly fades and I see her gaze off and stare at the wall.

"I know what will happen to me. I know that God is calling me home. I can see it." She says. Her eyes glisten and I see her trying to hold back her tears. For me. "I know that my time has come. But for you?"

She looks back at me, a real smile, proud and happy, plastered on her face. "You don't know anything but what your future will be. I don't either. Except the fact that it will be good. Good in the sense that it will be so much more than what you can imagine."

She stops and sighs. "Maybe your future won't just be good. Maybe it will be even better."

I smile at my mom's words. She always says things like that. Things to make me think and ponder and yet also feel grateful and at peace.

"You make the most of your life, okay?" She says, her eyes pleading.

I nod.

She sits back and fumbles for something on the bedside table.

Before I can reach out to help her, she's sitting back, holding a velvet box.

"Open it." She urges, giving the box to me.

I take the box and open it.

A diamond ring. With verses etched into its inner part and three diamonds on the outer.

My mother's wedding ring.

"It's yours now. As are all my things. You deserve more though. So please find someone to take care of you, eh?" She asks with a little teasing.

I laugh. "Oh, mom. We'll have to see what God has in store."

She nods and agrees. "Now, that ring is just a ring until you put value on it. And people are just people to you until you learn to love them. So wear that with value. With memories, reminders, and love. And go out and love people like your Heavenly Father from above."

I laugh again. "Mom, you just rhymed. And made a poem."

She laughs with me till her chest hurts and she has to force herself to stop.

"I guess I did. And that's rare isn't it?"

I smile and hug her. "Yes it is. But thank you. For everything. Every little thing."

She holds me tight.

We talk about memories, specifically from my childhood. And in two hours, when the sixth hour strikes, I hug my mom, about to say goodnight. But when I let go, so does she. I feel her fall past me, meeting with Jesus in eternity.

It's ninth hour of the day, and I'm still here. Sitting on a chair in the hallway, head in my hands, tears staining my cheeks.

How could good memories leave so quickly? How can good people leave so fast?

For four hours, I've been sitting here. The seventh hour was spent with nurses and a doctor in the room trying to bring her back. But I knew they couldn't and they never would.

She's gone.

And I'm an orphan.

I am loved by the one true King. But I have no physical, human parents. Not anymore. And what am I to do?

She said everything she had, which is the house and everything in it, is mine. But it's not. Not really.

She said to live well and make the most of my life. But how can I?

A light tap on my shoulder jolts me out of my thoughts and I look up.

My eyes meet happy yet concerned eyes, as blue as the ocean.

"What do you want?" I mumble.

He smiles softly. "I believe this is yours."

He says, handing me a velvet box. I grab it and open it, seeing the ring glisten in the light.

"You left it in the room and the nurse asked me to give it to you. They have another patient coming in." He explains.

I nod indicating I understood but that I didn't want to talk.

***

Funny thing is, after a year, I'm sitting across the man I didn't want to talk to and I'm talking to him about that day and all the other days we spent together.

"That was a year ago? Wow. It feels like years ago." He says with a smile.

"Yeah. But it also feels like a month in the sense that s-she... she's gone." I say.

He puts his hands over mine and gently rubs my hands.

"I know. I know." He whispers.

I always gaze off and enter another dream when I talk about her. Or rather, I enter the same dream, that last minute I was with her. Before she fell into a forever sleep.

After finishing our milkshakes, we head out, his arm over my shoulders, our smiles bright.

"Let's go for a ride shall we?"

We get into his car and he drives off heading to our favorite place for a short road trip.

The beach.

I throw my hands into the air and laugh. Then I see the sunlight shining on the diamond ring.

I lower my hand and smile sadly at the little ring that's just a ring but means so much more.

As an eighteen year old, no one in our little town wanted to adopt me. And everyone discouraged anyone from trying to.

I'd always find refuge in the big city where the hospital is, and where I met him, and where the church is.

The car suddenly stops, and I look around.

"We're here." He says.

I smile widely and get out of the car, walking to the little cliff that seems to touch the line where the sky meets sea.

I turn around to look at him and tell him what I see. But what I didn't see was what surprised me the most.

"Will you marry me?" 

His smile is so wide, his eyes are bright, and with him down on one knee, I can only think of one answer. One that God has been telling me was right.

"Yes."

***

We drive back to the city where I now live in an apartment but will soon live in a house with my husband.

My husband!

I laugh and throw my hands up in the air as we head down. The sun shines once again but this time on two rings.

I may be an orphan, but I am loved.