Coloured Stones

Suddenly I was whisked down memory lane that stung my eyes with salty tears.

I can recall the day with perfect clarity when we went shopping for an engagement ring. How I dragged you through every store, looking at so many plain diamonds in bands of gold, and not one of them really inspiring me. We put a plain little ring on lay away and left it at that. On our way to the bus stop to go home we walked past a fancy schmancy jewellery store. I didn’t want to go in, because it looked much too fancy for the likes of us to afford anything. But you were undaunted. In you went, taking me with you, despite my protests.

With all the rings to choose from, I kept going back to one ring. The first one I tried on as it so happened. How I loved that ring. I hadn’t even thought of looking at coloured stones, which is odd, as I do love them. I guess I was just trying to play the part of the fiancée, and every girl wants a white diamond don't they? But this ring…. This ring was special. It was just under the price range that you had set, although I was still so forgetful when it came to the tax system that I totally forgot that the tax would be added on top of the price of the ring, and that you had given me a total, complete with tax price range. You knew that I hadn’t taken that into account, but you didn’t care. You wanted me to be happy with the ring I would wear for the rest of my life. So we put the ring at the fancy schmancy jewellery store on layaway and went back to the other store and cancelled the plain little white diamond ring.

And the ring we bought? A beautiful ring with a Ceylon sapphire.

I had hoped to wear that ring forever.