Click here to hear the author read his tale, but pretend he’s a woman, okay:
The Ring
The weak winter sunlight creates vaguely coloured beams as it struggles through the stained glass window below which I sit with bowed head, hands clasped, the bottle of redemption held tightly between them, and I mumble meaningless words to a God I no longer believe in.
My mind drifts back to when I saw Julie, my best friend, my flatmate, my soul sister, greeting Terry, the man I love, the man I hoped and prayed that someday I’d marry, with a wide smile and a hug.
I follow them and peer through the window of Chisholm Hunter Jewellers in the Argyll Arcade, where she slips an engagement ring onto her finger and turns her dancing, evil eyes up to his handsome, treacherous face.
They arrive home much later, giggling like children, she too pretty and he too charming to ever have been trusted.
I wait until they have drunk the coffee, and then I take the card from her still warm dead hand, and read ‘Congratulations, Sis, you two make the perfect couple’, and see the inscription, with his name and mine, inside the ring.
I abandon my prayer, and raise the bottle to my lips.
A brilliant six, what more can I say – other than that dress really suits you.
*slow hand clap* You return to the Six with a most diabolical story, C.E. Good one, sir. Good one.
Oh what imagination and jealously leads one to do. Excellently done SSS.
Hell hath no fury like a woman who believes she’s been scorned.
When did that breakdown of trust first begin?
I can see why she feels she needs that “bottle of redemption” after imagining what she has done. Well told.
(adding to a growing field of single flames in the darkness, appreciative audience eschewing any temptation to employ words, phrases and descriptions to compliment such a Six)
not bad!
Yikes, me thinks, with that much distrust and jealousy it would have never worked out anyway. Great six
Like Doug (and others) said! So well done, CE.
always love coming here. good job and great use of the cue.
So poignant!
Hell hath no fury etc. One of your top shelf pieces, CE. Deserves to find a wider audience.
What a great twist. I also liked how you bookended the six, with the opening and closing paragraphs being about the fallout from that twist.
Ouch!
That twist so expertly set up.
Brilliant.
This was excellent! Nothing else.
I googled the Chisholm Hunter Jewelers and found a fairly good deal on a slightly used engagement ring. 😉