THE TOGETHER RINGS
By M. Alice Chown

The hood of Anna’s parka bounced against her backpack as she raced across schoolyard to her mother.

“Look, Mom!”  Anna yanked off her mitten.  “A ring.”

She wiggled her fingers and the crimson gem glinted in the November sun.  

“That looks real,” said Mom.  “Where did you get it?”  

Anna brushed away a wisp of blonde hair, which had strayed from beneath her knitted toque.  

“Nipinder’s great-uncle came to my class today,” she said.  “He gave all the girls rings.  Not the boys.  Only me and Nipinder got real ones, ‘cause we’re best friends.”

Mom’s eyebrows made question marks.

“Nipinder’s great-uncle gave us the rings for Diwali.  He has a dollar store.”

“Ah, how nice,” said Mom, taking Anna’s hand.

As they waited for the crossing guard to stop the traffic, Anna lowered her voice and said, “The rings are magic.  Nipinder’s great-uncle said so.”

“He did, did he?” said Mom, her whole face making a question mark.

“Uh-huh.”

“Do they give you and Nipinder superpowers?  If so, you could use them to clean your room.”

“No,” Anna shook her head.  Why did grown-ups always have to stress over messy rooms?  “And they’re not for fighting off sharks or bad guys or aliens either.  They glow when me and Nipinder put them on at the same time.  Her great-uncle said they have ‘together’ magic.”

Anna kept talking as she and her mom crossed the road and turned down their street.  “Nipinder’s great-uncle told us a story about some Indian god, who made the rings out of two moons and threw them into a river.  Then there were these twin princesses, who got separated when they were babies, a long time ago, I think, because of a war or something.  When they were teenagers, one princess found one of the rings in her goat curry…  I ate goat curry at Nipinder’s house one time.”

“Really?”  Mom said, “Well, since you like to try new things, maybe I’ll make tofu—”

Anna interrupted, “I’m going to Daddy’s house for dinner tonight.  Remember?”  

“Yes, of course.  It’s Tuesday,” said Mom.  

“Anyways,” Anna said before her mom could bring up the dreaded topic of tofu again.  “I was telling you about the twin princesses.  A crow brought the other ring to the other princess.  The princesses stopped what they were doing and put on the rings at the same time.  Then they went out of their castles and they found each other.”  Anna took a breath and went off on a new tangent.  “Mom, Nipinder has pierced ears.  Can I have pierced ears too?”

“Yes,” said Mom.  Anna held her breath, because most of Mom’s ‘yeses’ were really ‘maybes’.  “When you’re in junior high.”

A ‘maybe’.  Anna calculated the number of years between grade three and grade seven.  Four years!  Didn’t Mom know that was a lifetime?  

“You can show me that you’re ready for pierced ears,” Mom went on, “by taking care of the jewelry you have.  I found your Pamela Princess-Warrior necklace in the cat’s dish this morning.”  

Mom raised her eyebrow.  Anna thought it was strange that only Mom’s left eyebrow ever got annoyed.  Not liking the direction the conversation was taking, Anna went off on another tangent.  

“Nipinder’s great-uncle has a gold tooth.”

Mom offered some boring explanation about dentistry in the old days, which Anna tuned out.  While Mom fished in her purse for her house keys, Anna pushed her tongue into the space where her front tooth had been, wondering if a gold one would grow in its place.

#

Anna had never known such utter sadness.  It had been ‘Daddy’s night’ and she’d had such a nice dinner at his house.  He’d made pizza and they’d had chocolate ice cream with sprinkles for dessert.  But when he’d brought her back home, her ring was nowhere to be found.  

“What’s the matter?” said Mom, putting her arms around Anna.

“I— lost my— ring— in, in Daddy’s car…”

“Oh dear,” said Mom, drying the tears with the heel of her hand.  “I know how much it meant to you.  It’s really dark outside.  Maybe your dad will find it in the morning.  Okay?”

Anna snuffled and nodded, her tears abating.

“Hey,” said Mom, “maybe your magic ring is going on a little adventure in Daddy’s car.”  Anna knew this was one of those ‘make-you-feel-better’ things adults said; nevertheless, it worked.  “And you know what?”  Mom said, “Nipinder’s parents have invited us to see the Festival of Lights the day after tomorrow.  Won’t that be fun?”

Anna remembered Nipinder saying that kids got lots of sweets during Diwali.  Her sadness melted away.

#

At school the next day, instead of telling Nipinder the truth, Anna kept her hand out of sight so that her friend wouldn’t notice that the ring was missing.  Nipinder didn’t notice.  She was too busy giggling and telling secrets with Cherise.  

At lunchtime, Anna waited for Nipinder at their usual table, eating her honey and banana sandwich one-handedly.  She couldn’t believe her eyes when Nipinder walked right by her and sat down three tables away with Cherise.    

Anna shoved her unfinished lunch in the trash and said, “Nipinder, you’re not my friend anymore,”   

“I don’t want to be your friend anyway, Anna Banana,” Nipinder said over her shoulder.  Cherise stuck out her tongue.  

Had Anna been less miserable, she might have observed that Nipinder had one hand in her pocket.

#

Nipinder had lost her ring too.  Last night, she’d been practicing a Punjabi dance, called Giddha, with her auntie and cousins.  When she’d started to clap out the beat, the ring had flown off her finger and out of her auntie’s living room window.

Nipinder’s ring had rolled down one street after another until morning, when it had come to rest at the running-shoed feet of a boy, crying over his lost dog.  The boy had wiped his nose on his sleeve, picked up the ring and put it on his finger.

Meanwhile, Anna’s ring, which had fallen out of her dad’s car at a gas station last night, had rolled several kilometers until it had come to a park, where it had bumped to a stop at the paws of a shaggy dog with big, sad eyes.  Just as the dog had curled its forepaw around the ring, it had spotted its boy running toward it with an empty leash and arms outstretched.  

While the boy hugged the dog and the dog licked every inch of the boy’s face, the ring flew off the boy’s finger and rolled northward up the fitness trail, and the ring flew out of the dog’s paw and rolled southward down the fitness trail.  

The rings rolled on throughout the day, bringing people together:  a pair of elderly women who’d lost touch with each other after they’d left boarding school, and a couple of neighbours who’d gotten along famously until one had pruned the other’s cedar hedge.   

And the rings rolled on…

#

Anna trudged along the sidewalks of Little India with her mom, Nipinder’s parents and Nipinder, pretending to get excited about the light displays that set the moonless night aglow and pretending that her former friend didn’t exist.  Nipinder did likewise.  

Nipinder’s mother went inside a shop with rows and rows of candles in tiny pots in the window, where she bought jeans with sequins on the pockets for Nipinder and herself.  In the next shop, Anna’s mom admired some green sari fabric with yellow flowers dancing all over it, remarking that it would make lovely bedroom drapes.  She purchased silver bangles for each girl.  They thanked her with as much enthusiasm as a pair of robots.

While the girls ignored each other, the grown-ups droned on about their jobs, the weather and other uninteresting topics.  But Anna tuned in when Nipinder’s father described how his daughter had cried over a lost ring.

Sure, Anna had lost hers, but at least she hadn’t traded in Nipinder for a new friend to hide the fact.  Anna was about to aim a nasty look at Nipinder, when they came to a table laden with delectable goodies.  

“Ah, some sweets should put smiles on your glum faces,” said Nipinder’s mother.  “Please help yourselves.”   

Nipinder reached for a round pastry, glistening with golden syrup – the last in the bowl.  Anna pushed in front of her and grabbed it.  

“I saw it first,” said Nipinder, stamping her foot.

“Liar,” said Anna, taking a bite, so it had her germs on it.

“Come now, young ladies,” said Nipinder’s father, gesturing toward the next table.  “There’s more gulab jamuns over there.”

Anna and Nipinder ate their sticky sweets in silence.  When it was time to go home, they didn’t bother to say good-bye to one another.

#

All the while, the rings rolled on, bringing people together: a little girl and her mother, who’d gotten lost in a shopping mall; two war veterans who’d become separated at Vimy Ridge; and two brothers who’d played hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs, until one had signed up with the Montreal Canadiens.

The rings rolled on for the remainder of the week until they came to rest at Anna’s front door.  Anna, Mom and Dad, who’d just arrived to pick up his daughter for ‘Daddy’s night’, found the rings lying side-by-side on the welcome mat.

“Two rings?”  Dad looked puzzled.

“Nipinder lost hers too,” said Mom.

Mom and Dad bent, each picking up a ring at the same time.  Anna was quite certain the crimson gems were glowing.  Before she could point this out, Dad slipped one ring over Anna’s finger and Mom went inside with the other.  She came back with the ring sealed inside a sandwich bag.

Mom asked Dad, “Would you mind stopping at Nipinder’s house first?  She’ll want her ring back right away.”  Then Mom, looking sort of wistful, said.  “It’s magic, you know.”

#

“Put on your mitts, Anna Banana,” said Dad, fastening her seatbelt.  “You don’t want to lose that ring again.”  He put the sandwich bag containing Nipinder’s ring in the glove compartment and snapped it shut.  “There’s no way your friend’s ring can escape now.”

“Good thinking, Dad,” said Anna.  “You can’t be too careful with magic.  Nipinder’s great-uncle said so and he has a gold tooth.”  

“He would know, then,” said Dad.

Neither spoke until they turned down Nipinder’s tree-lined street.  

“Dad, can I have pierced ears like Nipinder?”

“Yes… when you’re in junior high.”

Anna narrowed her eyes at him, thinking grown-ups were way too smart sometimes.  “Hey, that’s what Mom said!”  

“Your mom and I have already talked about this.  We may not live together, but we make decisions for you together.”

#

Nipinder answered the door.  She beamed when Anna gave her the ring.  She slipped it on her finger and held it alongside Anna’s.  The gems glowed.  

“Come see my new Pamela Princess-Warrior castle,” Nipinder said, taking Anna’s hand.

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