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The Forgotten Ring
The autumn leaves fell in a swirl of browns, reds, and yellows as the wind swept them from the trees and ground to
circle around the young woman as she strolled along through the park on her daily evening walk. The street lamps hadn’t
come on yet even though the sun had already set.
The young woman, Else,
had a lot on her mind and didn’t seem to notice the lack of warmth or the failing light. As she walked on she came upon
a lovely golden ring. When she tried to pick it up she suddenly felt cold and faint and the ground seemed to rise up to meet
her.
When she awoke she was
still lying on the ground in the middle of the park. The golden ring clutched in her hands. Curiously about the ring, she
sits up and starts to turn the ring over in her hand.
As turning the ring over and over she noticed that words were written on the back of the ring. When she read the inscription
she realized that this was a wedding ring. She felt a flood of sadness as she thought of the poor wife who lost this ring.
When she realized
that she was crying she stopped and tried to figure out why she was so sad. This was not her problem. She decided that she
shouldn’t feel bad, because she could sell the ring and buy herself that new dress that she had been looking at for
her own wedding.
When she got to the pawn shop she started feeling nauseous, but after a taking a moment to collect
herself, she pushed back the sick feeling in her stomach and stepped into the shop. The pawn shop was empty. There was nothing
in the shops. Nothing on the selves or in the cases, save for one single empty ring case. The case was beautifully adorned
with gold threaded letters that spelled ‘Love’ in lovely flowing script.
She stood in front
of this display case for what seemed like years but when she looked up at the clock it only read one o’clock. She heard
a soft creaking and began to turn around to see who was coming, when she felt something hard and cold press against her back.
She froze where she stood and asked who this person was. When no one answered she started shivering. She feared what this
person might want, and in after a moments silence she decided to do something about this.
She jumped forward
turning to face the person, only to find that it was a strange statue of a hunter. She examined the statue closely, but she
would have sworn it hadn’t been there when she came in. “Maybe it’s just the owner playing tricks,”
she said softly to herself, as she let out a small sigh and continued looking around the shop.
Apparently
the hunter wasn’t the only statue that had been placed in the room while she wasn’t looking. She looked around
and saw a statue of a man in ragged torn cloths, a woman in a beautiful flowing dress, and even a young girl with glasses
and a book bag.
She wonder why anyone
would make such bazaar statues, when she started to turn to leave she thought she heard crying. She wasn’t sure at first
but it sounded like it came from the statue. She listened closer and the voice of an old man joined the girls. Soon the deep
voice of a young man and the beautiful cries of a woman joined the procession of tear-filled sobs.
The young girl started
to shake as the cries became more desperate and the sorrow that had been in her own heart started to build and twist. She
couldn’t bear it any more and fell to the floor crying tears of stone. As she realized that her tears were turning to
stone she began to feel stiff and sore. Looking down she saw the horrible sight and understood why this shop was empty and
what had happened to these poor people. Fighting the tears she stood up and let out a scream as she joined the other poor
people lost to the rings curse. Never to be seen again.
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