The Sapphire Ring Of Destiny

Chapter 2: The mysterious gold coins!

When Sophie got home, her spunky excitement and high spirits met a serious reverse as she was confronted by her mother. She was not only berated but also scourged by her disappointed mother. Sophie almost rued the day because that was the first time she saw disappointment written on her parent's face with the blame resting on her. Five spanks on the buttocks and a dirty slap was enough to make that day her worst but the day at that time was her most memorable day, having the best moment of her life.

Later that evening, the great loss was compensated by the favour that followed and flowed from Sophie's generosity. Anthony and Melissa lived a subsistence lifestyle; they farmed, fished and even bred livestock with the ultimate aim of keeping food on the table not gaining coins in the market― although a few portion was sold to the market to generate funds for Sophie school fees and have some money at hand.

After Anthony was done with the fishing, he made for home. He was only able to get five fishes into the net. Worn-out from the tiresome activity, he took his catch home to avoid the sunset― he hadn't given up; the sunset had forced him to go back unsuccessful to his family. Getting five sardines on a fishing expedition that was subsistence-driven was nothing to be down about but Anthony had the heart of a commercial fisherman. So without inspecting the sardines as he usually does, he handed them over to his wife for the night's meal. They were to be eaten with bread he instructed.

Melissa was washing the sardines when Sophie and her father heard her exclaim. Curious to know whether it was a good or bad exclamation, they both hurried for the kitchen. There, their chef and chief manager of the house, Melissa, stood puzzled in awe as she withdrew a gold coin from the mouth of a fish.

'Did you just take that coin from its mouth?' Sophie's father was still asking when Melissa withdrew another coin from yet another fish.
Sophie and her father watched as Melissa collected a coin, one by one, from the mouth of all sardines.
'This is still a mystery!' Anthony declared, thinking of the meaning of the strange occurrence while they sat at the dining table, eating bread and sardines.

Sophie, on the other hand, remembered that it was the same bread and sardines that the granny had eaten and concluded, with her utopian mind, that the granny had somehow magically put the coins into the mouth of the fishes. The sum amount of coins gotten from the mouth of the fishes was the exact amount of coins she had given the granny, and this, more than any other thing, reassured her that the granny had something to do with the mysterious coins.

Sophie's mother, Melissa, shared convictions that weren't far off from her daughter's. She believed especially because the money her daughter had thrown away was the same money found in the mouth of the fishes. However, she didn't have childish imaginations of a granny putting coins in the mouth of fishes that her husband caught. No, it was God's miracle and way of identifying with Sophie's generous heart, Melissa believed. She apologized to Sophie after dinner that night for scolding and spanking her mercilessly, having sensed that it was Sophie's munificent effort to help that brought about the mysterious coins.

Sophie had favour in a lot of things but that didn't include championing her class in school. She was bright and brilliant but always ended up as runners-up. With the end of elementary school and commence of high school, Sophie hoped to turn things around.
'Let's have a revision on the parts of speech?' Ms. Prudence announced to the classroom.

'Now, who can tell me which part of speech is 'her' in the sentence: 'She left her bag'?' The English teacher continued. Five hands sprouted from the desks but a voice was quicker as it answered unwisely.
'It is noun.'

All the students laughed at Edward while their teacher rebuked him for speaking when not instructed to do so. Sophie, although she had joined to laugh a little, understood Edward and admired his bravery. Edward only managed a pass to get to high school and carrying the class while doing so. He was determined to be better and improve in his studies.
'It is a pronoun.' Sophie answered as instructed.

'Do you agree with Sophie, Robin?' Ms. Prudence asked.
Robin was the diva of Sophie's class. Together with her friend, Shirley, they gave Sophie a hard time at school; not merely because Robin was always the best student in all of the previous academic years, but particularly because they were pompous girls obsessed with competition and rivalry. The rivalry, and at times enmity, between Sophie and Robin started not merely because Sophie was Robin's closest rival but because Sophie had rejected membership with Robin and Shirley association and instead chose to keep company with Edward and Constance, Sophie's classmates and friends which Robin referred to as the 'small fry'.

'Well, I will if prudence isn't exercised, but since we must answer with prudence then the accurate answer should be a possessive pronoun.' Robin replied while Shirley clapped for her leader sparking some rounds of applause for Robin even when the answer hadn't been approved by their teacher.
'Thank you little Robin Hood but the next time I ask you a direct question just answer with either a yes or no. Is that clear?' Ms. Prudence said to Robin.

After class, during their break, Sophie and Constance sat together for lunch. A seat was still empty and that was the seat at which Edward usually sat. As Edward was heading their way with his studded tray of food, he ran into the class bully―Big tough Bobby.
Bobby knocked down Edward's tray of food and spilled his cup of water all over his clothes. And though he made it look like a mistake, Edward and everyone in the cafeteria knew it was intentional.
'Hey watch were you are going, Head turd!' Bobby said as he shoved Edward to the ground.

Robin and Shirley made fun out of the incident and that infuriated Sophie as she stood from her seat and yelled at Bobby. Edward, very much embarrassed stood up from the ground clumsily. Listening to the jest of laughter from Robin and Shirley and listening to Bobby whistle nonchalantly as he swaggered to Robin's table without an apology while he reorganized his tray with the amount of food he could salvage, made him want to retaliate but he just couldn't; he dared not with a big, tough bully like Bobby.

Authors notes:
We have come to the ending of this chapter.
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