Another "Crisis"

When His father died in January, one of the very nice, very sentimental bits that Master inherited was a lovely gold man's ring set with His grandmother's diamonds.  His dad wore it always, and since January 26, Master has done the same.  The ring is probably of some significant worth just as a very nice piece of jewelry, but the fact that it is His dad's ring, and further, that the diamonds in it came from His grandmother, imbue it with particular meaning and sentimental value that far exceeds the replacement price. 

Unfortunately, it is just a wee bit big on His finger... 

Thursday was the last day for T at her present job.  Her department has been outsourced, and she will be moving to another position within the company.  These last few weeks, as things have disintegrated at work have been very trying for her, and so, when she got home we decided to go out to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate.  We hopped into the car, headed off, got in, got seated, ordered drinks...  and then He NOTICED THAT HIS FATHER'S RING WAS NOT ON HIS FINGER!!!!!

T and I piled out of the restaurant booth and searched -- the floor of the restaurant, the parking lot, the sidewalk, the car.  We didn't find it.  We did check in with the host station in the restaurant, and asked them to let us know if someone, by the wildest chance, might turn it in to them... 

Lost!  The wonderful, expensive, sentimentally priceless ring was lost. 

The food came and it was probably very good, but dinner was miserable.  He was nearly hysterical, panicked, emotionally wild -- unsure how exactly to cope with the potential that the ring might be irretrievably gone.  Some might remember that we have occasionally had similar difficulty with lost knives, but this was so much more earth shaking than the usual and pretty ordinary "knife crisis."  Nothing that T and I could say or do made very much difference, and we nibbled our way through our meals in an uncomfortable, grumpy, despondent haze. 

When we got back home, the search for the missing ring took us to all the places you might expect...  We looked in the pockets of the trousers that He wore to work and the sportscoat that was hanging back in the closet and the raincoat that He'd taken in case of rain that afternoon.  We searched under the bed, and in the bathrooms, and in His briefcase, and in His drawers, and under the couch. 

His panic and sense of misery was increasing minute by minute.  T, who wasn't feeling well, went off to bed.  I was at a loss, but unwilling to give up.  I just couldn't stand the thought that He was going to lose something so important to Him on so many levels.  So, I took one of our brightest flashlights, and I headed back out into the cold, windy darkness.  With the flashlight in hand, I combed every inch of our front walkways and shaggy spring flowerbeds.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, I walked back and forth, back and forth through the grass of our small, postage-stamp of a front yard -- hoping against hope that I might spot the gleam of that ring where it had bounced.  I scanned the breadth of the driveway and followed the contour of the curb out into the gutter -- could it be there? 

Nothing.  The miraculous thing is that no neighbor called the police to report a strange person out in the dark with a flashlight...

In desperation, I went back to the car.  T and I had been all through it at the restaurant, but I was out of ideas.  There was no ring in the trunk.  It wasn't on the floor in the back either.  I opened the driver's side door and leaned it to try and look under the seat, and as I did something glinted in the corner of my eye.  There.  Lying on the floor right beside the driver's seat was ...  THE RING!!!

I could feel myself exhale -- as if I'd been holding my breath for hours.  I snatched it up, clutched it tightly in my hand, and practically danced back into the house to give that wayward ring back to it's rightful Owner.  His face lit up and He grabbed me up into a big, tight hug that spoke all the thanks and praise my heart could want.  Another "crisis" averted.

swan