Three Rings

Singapore, 12 February 2013

“I found a ring on the floor this morning. If you are the owner of the ring, please contact me at 9327 4188.”

***

Peter and Anna read the paper pasted next to the lift. Anna murmured, “The owner is very honest.” Peter nodded and smiled, “Maybe there’s this guy wants to propose his girlfriend on the Valentine’s day. Too bad he lost the ring.” Anna laughed at him, “Wow, your imagination…”

***

Lea read the paper pasted next to the lift and smiled bitterly. She glanced at her own ring. Well, her friends have asked her to take off the ring. “You can’t wait for him anymore,” even her daughter said so. Lea did not care. She just knew that she should keep the ring to remind her about her husband who left her ten years ago. She knew why.

***

Emily woke up that morning and thought, “Well, what’s next?” She was not the same Emily as the day before. “Morning…” said the ‘husband’ as he yawned and smiled at her. It’s still very weird for Emily to take note then from now one, she will refer to John as her ‘h.u.s.b.a.n.d’. She whispered at his ear, “Did I kick you last night?”

***

Anna put her shoes on the shoe rack.

“Hi Cath!”

Her housemate, Catherine, was washing the dishes. Catherine washed her hands and dried them quickly then ran to Anna. She paused for a second, and whispered, “Anna!”

“Eh…what? Your kids behaved well today and no parents made noise today?”

Catherine shook her head quickly and showed her left fingers to her. Anna noticed the shiny diamond ring and half-screamed, “Catherine!!!! Congrats!!” She hugged Catherine very tight then she stepped back,

“Wowww. When-where-and-how did he propose??”

“Well, don’t laugh, okay?”

Anna nodded but she already giggled even before Catherine explained the story. Catherine took a deep breath,

“At McDonalds this morning!”

“WHAAAT??” Anna burst out laughing. She calmed herself down and asked again, “How come?”

“Well, we met for the first time at McDonalds seven years ago. I ‘found’ him on Friendster. Well, you know, last time we used Friendster. He was my secondary school friend, so I just proposed that we met up that time.”

“Hahaha. I don’t know you are quite aggressive.”

“I’m not aggressive, I was being pro-active. The rest of the chasing part was initiated by him.” 

Anna laughed again, “Well, I’m so happy for you! Looking forward for the wedding invitation. Finally!! My roommate is getting married.” Anna looked at Catherine’s blushing face and smiled. Yeah, she knew how long Catherine has been waiting for this. In Anna’s eyes, Tony, Catherine’s boyfriend – oops, fiancée – is the typical-young-generation-man. He wanted to build his career first, he wanted to save enough money to buy a car first, he wanted to ‘enjoy life’ whatever it means for him. Catherine was ready for the commitment since 2 or 3 years ago, but Tony was not.

***

Lea put her shoes on the shoe rack.

“Hi Mom.”

“Hi Aunty”. Kim and Anthony, her boyfriend, greeted her at the same time.

“Hi. You eat already?”

“Yup. We went to Holland Vi today and had a Japanese ramen there. Oh Mom, you should try it out next time!”

“Is it that good?”

“Oh well, you have high standard.” She looked at her boyfriend and said in sarcastically, “My ex-dad was a chef and my mom has been waiting for him to come back and cook all of the love recipe again.” Lea was not in the mood to quarrel with her daughter today and not in front of Kim’s boyfriend. She ignored her daughter and walked to her room as Kim said again to Anthony, “You know, sometimes I think my dad must have put some love poison in his cuisine so that my mom does not forget him even after 10 years of neglect.” Anthony felt uneasy and talked softly,

“Kim, don’t talk like that please.”

Lea turned and smiled at the 18-year-old guy. Her lips made a ‘thanks’ then she closed the door behind her.

After a while she had learned not to cry anymore. Her thought flew back to her wedding day, the day when she felt that she was the happiest woman in the world. However, at the back of her mind, she remembered that her mom had told her that love is not a fairy tale or even a Barbara Cartland’s novels in which the husband would kiss the wife and carry her to their bed. 

Lea closed her eyes. She knew that her husband was so special. He was nice, he was kind, and he just adored her. He had also been patient in taking care of Kim and he did not complain about it. However, after Lea’s second unfortunate miscarriage, he changed. The first loss of the baby happened when Lea worked overnight for a few days when she covered the news on election. The second happened after Lea and her husband quarreled when her husband asked her to change her job.

Lea always told herself. It was not only his fault, but it was her fault. There had been so many times her friends asked her to talk to him in the early stage of the problem. There had been so many times her friends asked her to change her job or at least just work part-time, but she just loved her job as a reporter. She indeed enjoyed her work and she thought, “Things will work out well.” She had made mistakes and she did not want to make a new mistake. She did not believe in divorce and if the last things that she could do were to take care of her daughter and forgive her husband and herself, then she let herself do it.

***

Emily’s mom used to say that Emily slept like a ‘fan’. She would turn and turn for one round so that she would kick her mom when she slept with her mom. That’s why the first thing that she asked that morning was whether she had kicked her husband. 

One week before their wedding, Emily had prepared a list of weird things that might surprise John.

1. I have OCD-like-symptom that all hangers must be hung in the same direction

2. I hang my undergarment in the bathroom in the evening till the next day before I hang it somewhere else

3. After my alarm rings, I will wake up and move to sofa to sleep again for 15 minutes

4. I kick people when I sleep, beware!

John insisted that she should stop at point 4, so that “I do not call off the wedding because of other weird things that you do.” 

Apparently that morning Emily did not move to the sofa. One of the reasons was the bed in the hotel felt so nice and comfortable and she enjoyed staring at John sleeping next to her. She wished every day would be like this, but they could not. They had limited budget, so they would only stay in that hotel for one night and that very day they would move to John’s parents’ house. Their unit would only be done two years from now because the government only started to build the new unit after they were engaged. They did not have enough money to make down payment earlier because both of them pursued their Master’s immediately after graduation and they refused to wait until their unit is constructed to get married. 

That evening Emily ‘officially’ moved to John’s parents’ house. She read the paper pasted next to the lift and smiled to John.

“Well, my wife would kill me if I ever lost my wedding ring,” said John calmly.

“No la. My husband is more precious than the ring mah.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Mr John. Stop forcing me to say sweet things, you’ll have diabetes later.”

***

Singapore, 14 February

Anna looked at the lift in front of her and told Peter, “Oh no. The paper’s gone! Maybe no one claimed the ring.”

“Hahaha. It’s okay. Maybe the owner has claimed the ring already.

“Or maybe the guy has bought new ring already because he wanted to propose the girl on Valentine’s Day.”

***