The Ring

Chapter 2

I'm right in the middle of the huge fight scene between Captain Hook and Peter Pan when our phone rings.

"I'll get it." I tell grandma. I can tell she's at a great part in her book to, because she barely even blinks at me, but she nods lightly in agreement. I chuckle to myself because I also know that's grandma's nice way of saying, "Don't bug me please go away."
I place my bookmark into my book and jump up to grab the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey there Addie! It's Mrs. Smith, is you grandma there?"
Mrs. Smith, one of grandma's very few living friends; the only close one at that. While my grandma, Mrs. Smith,and all the rest of their friends grew up in Montana, those who hadn't passed away all left their family ranches and retired to Florida. Mrs. Smith and grandma are the only ones who stayed and kept their familie's ranches running. So while grandma gets a postcard every few months and maybe a phone call here or there from the friends in Florida, she sees Mrs. Smith almost twice a week.
"She is, but she's reading." I tell her. She is the only other person besides me and my grandpa, who passed away a few years ago, that's knows when grandma's reading, it's better to leave her alone.
"Of course she is, Bethie always has her nose in a book. Always has, always will." She laughs. "Well, I'll just have to call back later then."
"OK, sounds goo---." I start but am interrupted by my grandmas voice. I jump a little, completely surprised that she is standing right behind me. I didn't even hear her get up.
"I finished the chapter honey, is Sylvia still on the phone?"
"Yup, she sure is." I say. "I take that back Mrs. S. She's right here."
"Oh splendid! Thank you so much Addie, dear."
"No problem Mrs. Smith, you have a good day"
"You too sweetie." She tells me.
I smile and hand the phone to grandma, who covers the end of the phone and says, "Addie, you wanna go check on Pansy.? She looks as if she's ready to pop. If you notice any change, come get me right away, OK?"
"You got it, Grams!" I tell her.
She smiles and starts her conversation. "Sylvie! How are you? We must get you over here this weekend---" Grandma goes on and on talking a mile a minute. I guess that explains why I talk so fast. My mother did that too. I smile at the memory.
"Try not to blow up our phone bill Grandma!" I joke, knowing if she could, she'd talk for hours.
She turns to me and laughs and shoos me away. I throw on my boots and step out the door into bliss. The weather is amazing today. The sun's shining brightly, kissing my face with a warming glow. There's a breeze blowing over the tall grass, causing it to gracefully sway back in forth, imitating the movements of waves and making my own little ocean, as I used to say when I was a kid. No matter how old I get, I know that this ginormous patch of green will always be my ocean, my little corner of heaven. Carried with the breeze is the scent of grandma's lavender bushes. I throw my head back, take a deep breath in, and enjoy one moment of pure peace and relaxation. The sudden booming of Chippy's barking snaps me out of my little trance. I look down and he's carrying a stick in his mouth, thinking I had come out to play with him.
"Later boy." I smile at him and pat his head. You can almost see a wave of disappointment in his eyes, but it is gone as fast as it came. He drops the stick and starts to run in circles around me, barking happily. I start to jog with him over to the pasture. I notice Jed and Pansy aren't in the fields and my heart takes a little leap. Maybe Pansy's in labor! Crap! I dash to the barn, Chippy in tow, only to find the two munching on their food. I breathe a quick sigh if relief and try to slow my heart rate. There's definitely a change in her though, I can tell. She's more quiet than usual, and slower walking up to me. That's my other hint. She's walking she never walks to me. She always runs up to me. She finally reaches me and just hangs her head down. I scratch her between the ears and she nudges up against me. "You're ready, aren't you girl?" I ask her. I get Jed out of the barn and close the door. What girl would want that many witnesses to her agonizing child birth? Me and grandma are already going to be here, add Jed to that and she's never push. I gently push on her backside to try to get her to lay down, and she doesn't hesitate. I run to the phone hooked up to the barn wall and luckily I catch Grandma right after she hung up with Mrs. Smith.
Good, at least I didn't interrupt her.
"Grams, she's ready." I tell her.
"On my way! Now you should probably get Jed ou--"
"Already done." I tell her.
"Oh. Well now get Pansy to lay---"
"Done too." I smile into the phone.
"Fantastic! Now don't move, I'm on my way!" Then she hangs up the phone. Not even three minutes later I hear our four wheeler coming down the hill. I go out to meet grandma and help her carry in her supplies. I'm excited. This is my first time helping grandma with an animals birth! I was only up here for one, when I was around five, but my parents and grandparents made me stay out of the barn. But I did get to help bottle feed the baby llama and I got to name it! I named her Skittles. I named and called everything Skittles when I was little, everything from stuffed animals to pencils. Everything was also a girl to me, because I had this weird thing with boys. I found out a few days after Skittles was born that she was actually a he. I flipped out! But I still loved him so much, and kept his name. We left a week later and I cried the entire trip home. I obviously couldn't bring Skittles to live with me, considering we lived in a small neighborhood in Wisconsin. I tried to convince my parents that I could keep Skittles in my room, but they didn't go for that. So we left him behind, but grandma and grandpa knew how much I loved him. They sent me pictures every week, and when my parents finally convinced them to get a computer I even got to video chat with him a few times. Hey, I was five, video chatting with my llama had a lot of meaning to me. When I turned eight, Skittles died. I cried for hours, but ended up making a scrapbook with all the pictures I had of him, and my parents had recorded all of our chats so they made me a dvd. I almost tear up at the memory, because the dvd and scrapbook were destroyed in the fire.
But I shake it off. I need to focus on Pansy. After about a half hour of coaxing her we finally got her to push, and within another hour we welcomed our two newest family members, Gunner and Tami. I named Gunner and grandma named Tami. We let Jed in and I could tell form the way he rushed over to where Pansy and the babies were laying and put his head over them that he was going to be a great dad. I grab my camera out of grandma's bag and snap a few pictures. Thank God she remembered to bring it! I'm always taking pictures.
We lock up the barn and head to the other animals on the four wheeler. We feed them and head back to the house for lunch. I realize how sore I am from leaning over a llama for the past two hours and fall onto the couch. I find myself drifting off to sleep when the amazing smell of lunch hits me. I sit up and look over to the kitchen where grandma is making grilled cheese and tomato soup. I walk over to her and start to stir the soup, but she grabs the spoon from me.
"Addie, you did amazing today, I'm so proud of you! I know you're probably sore and we had an eventful night, leave lunch to me and got rest on the couch and watch some tv."
"But--" I start to protest. I feel so guilty that she's doing all the work.
"Nope, you deserve it! Now scooch on out of my kitchen." She taps me with the spoon.
Feeling guilty, yet grateful, I plop down onto the couch once again. I turn the tv on and start flipping through the channels. Great, I love how we have a million channels and there's not one thing interesting on! I decide on Drake and Josh, although I've already seen every episode about 10 times. Half way through the episode where they go sky diving, Grandma calls me to the table.
I take one look at the food and realize how hungry I am. I'm so glad grandma never picks on me, because I finish my sandwich in about three bites and drink my soup like I've never seen a crumb of food in my life. I thank grandma and offer to do the dishes. When the dishes are done we both head to the garden. After a few hours of weeding and watering, my hands are full of blisters and I can feel the sunburn on my cheeks and shoulders. I realize it's time to start putting the animals away for the night. Grandma heads back to the house with Chippy and I head towards the chicken coop.
The one thing worse than collecting their eggs is putting the away at the end of the day. We have about twenty chickens and none of them want to get back into the coop. As soon as they see me they start clucking and running around in circles.
Here we go.
I yank open the door and rush after them. Feathers are flying everywhere and my head starts to pound from their endless clucking. My arms are going in all directions trying to coax these stupid chickens into the coop, with no such luck. 45 minutes later, I'm covered in feathers and sweat, I have a massive headache and my arms are all scratched up but the chickens are FINALLY inside.
You'd think I'd be used to their shit by now, but it seems to get worse every day.
By the time I get the goats into their barn, I feel like the walking dead.
Thank god I took the four wheeler tonight, I would take forever walking back to the house.
I stumble into the house and sit at the table, where grandma had already put my dinner out for me. Still steaming hot chicken and mashed potatoes with carrots greeted my taste buds and like my lunch, I was done fairly quickly.
I wash my dishes and thank grandma, then I trudge upstairs to take a shower. By the time I'm done, my bathroom is full of steam and I feel renewed and relaxed. I slip into my pj's, my favorite sweats with a tank top, and walk downstairs to join grandma in our evening ritual: read in front of TLC. I grab my copy of Peter Pan and sit on the couch while grandma sits in her chair and flips the channel to TLC. Tonight, Cake Boss is on. I don't care for the show that much, but it's just for background noise. Getting comfortable I open my book and for the next two hours am lost in the magical world of pirates and flying children.
"I'll always believe in you, Peter Pan." Wendy says.
As soon as I read the very last line of the book the clock strikes 10 PM. I close my book, as does grandma, and we stretch and yawn. Grandma shuts off the tv while I get the lights. We walk upstairs together and she kisses my forehead goodnight.
"Goodnight Addie, if you need me, come right on in and get me, ok?"
"Thanks Grams, I will. Love you."
"Love you to, hun."
With that we go our separate ways into our rooms. I let Chippy in before shutting my door. He wastes no time claiming my bed as I bursh my teeth and go through my nightly routine.
Brush teeth, check. Open window, check. Set alarm, check. Check mom's ring..... CRAP!
I run over to my dresser on the other side of my room, stubbing my toe in the process. I always get scared when I do this. I'm so afraid one day I'll open my box and her ring will be gone. I grab my key that's tapped under my dresser and unlock my jewelry box. A picture of my smiling parents greets me on the cover of the box and I pick up the tiny black box that sits inside. I carefully open it and let out a breath when I see the familiar shine of my mother's ring.
It's here, calm down... everything's fine. I slip the ring onto my finger; it's a perfect fit. I have strong, muscular fingers like my mom, yet the ring somehow made them look slender. I hold up my hand and examine the ring. A wave of emotions tries to drown me every time I see it. Sadness, happiness, hatred, love. I feel my eyes heat up as fresh tear slowly fall to the floor. I sit back on my bed and put in a dvd on my tv on my bedside table.
The tears flows harder at the title comes onto the screen, "Luke and Mary's Engagement". Those were my parents, Luke and Mary. Both born and raised on ranches in Montana, they met in kindergarten. Some boy stepped on my mother's juice box and she started to cry. My dad came along, pushed that boy to the ground, and told him that if he was ever mean to my mom again that he would run over him with his horse. They were best friends ever since. They eventually got married after college and moved out to Wisconsin where they had me.
My dad had one of the waiters secretly film his proposal at their favorite restaurant, 'Mindy's Place'. They first went there a week after moving to Wisconsin and fell in love with their veggie soup and cherry cheese cake. They went there every Saturday for their special date night, but then it changed to every fourth Saturday after I was born. Anyway, knowing my mom would say yes, he had it filmed, and they made three dvds: One for them, one for dad's parents, and one for mom's parents. My parent's copy burned in the fire, and my dad's parent's copy disappeared when they died. My grandma's copy was the only one left. It's my only way to remember their voices, and hear them laugh, and remind me that they're not so far away.
I push Chippy to the foot of my bed and lay down as the movie starts.
"Luke? Are you feeling OK? You look white as a ghost."
"I'm fine Mary, just... thinking."
"Well, you barely touched your soup, it's going to get cold." My Mother laughs.
The truth is, from what my dad told me, is that although he knew she'd say yes, he was still nervous as hell. He told me he sweated buckets and couldn't stop shaking.
"Mary..." my dad started.
"Yeah?"
"I-I uhhhhh, I have something to tell you- ASK you. I have something t-to ask you."
My mother's face clouds over with concern and she puts down her spoon and stops eating her soup.
"Luke.... what is it? Are you okay?" You can tell by the look in her eye that she has no idea as to what is coming. She looks scared. She later told me that she thought someone had died.
My dad walks around the table and gets down on one knee and right on que the band starts playing softly. Everybody in the restaurant turns their attention to them and you can see smiles plastered on everyone's faces. My mother's face, I think, is hilarious. It completely washes over with relief that her fear isn't true- nobody died, but then her mouth is hanging half open and she's also smiling as she finally realizes what's coming next.
"Mary Mae Dickson, I knew from that first day in kindergarten that one day we'd be together. I knew then that I wanted to protect you from anything that came your way and love you with everything I have. You are the most beautiful, kind, funny, sexiest woman I know." I roll my eyes at that part, the same time as my mother does in the film. That's my dad for you, he's gotta throw something like that into everything. The fact that my father used the word 'sexy' in his proposal to my mother is just about the most hilarious thing to me.
"You balance me out, you know everything about me, you the other half to my heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up every morning next to you and know that you're all mine and that I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I want to grow old with you and teach our children and grandchildren everything about life. I want you to be my one and only and I yours. Will you marry me Mary?"
By this time my mother is crying and so am I, but both are tears of joy.
"YES! Luke I'll marry you! You're my one and only and the other half ot my heart! I Love you! YES!"
"KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS!" the crowd starts chanting. Laughing and crying my parents lean in and give the crowd what they want. My dad pumps his fists into the air and comes out of the kiss hollering "WOOP WOOP!!!! SHE SAID YES!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!" The crowd applauds and cheers.
Dad opens the box that holds the ring. It's quite odd for an engagement ring. It's bright pink. But it's my mother's favorite color. She gasps as she realizes what ring it is. She had pointed it out while they were shopping when they first moved there two years eariler. That day my dad ran into the store when my mom was chatting with some friends and put the ring on hold. He made a deal with the store- he would pay the ring off in two years, because it was extremely expensive, and they would hold it until then. The pink stone was a rare pink diamond and was worth a fortune, but my dad was determined. He started working construction, he became a waiter, and started taking pictures of weddings, birthday parties, and other special occasions while he took nature pictures for the magazine he had been working at. For two years he slaved away and finally got the ring a day before the two year deadline was up.
You could see mom's hand was shaking even from a distance. As dad tried to slip the ring onto her finger, her hand had a little spasm and plunk! Into the soup went the ring. They both just stared at the bowl and the whole restaurant went silent. Then, all at once, everyone started laughing. My dad fished the ring out of the soup and the waiter with the camera came and rinsed it off. Finally, the ring was on my mother's finger and the movie ended with my father standing and facing the camera, hugging my mother saying "Meet the new Mrs. Bell! WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!" and then their smiling picture slowly fades into darkness.
QI feel better as I carefully take out the dvd and slip in one of my favorite movies, "Knight and Day." Half asleep, I slip the ring off my finger and set in on my bedside table. With one final yawn and glance at the ring, I fall into a dreamless sleep.