Lost Wedding Ring

Posted on March 1, 2003 in Partnership Possessions

Lynn lost her wedding ring. Just after we finished watching The Road to Perdition, she sat on the stairs and looked at her finger. It was gone. She thought that it must have been on her finger when she washed her hands in the bathroom during a break in our viewing. “I am very fastidious,” she said. “I wash every inch of my fingers and I am always careful to wash around the ring.” She did not see it missing then, so she figures it must still be in the house.

But where?

We’ve torn apart cluttered corners and looked under furniture. I’ve dropped my ring to see how it rolls and bounces. It does not go far. When I drop it, it falls straight to the floor and stops. Even on the rug it bounces only slightly and rings as it hits. How could hers have disappeared so completely?

I wonder if it was lost outside the house.

The heart-breaking thing for me is that Lynn thinks she is a failure, that the loss of the ring shows that she has failed in her love for me. “What can I be counted on for if I cannot keep track of the most precious thing I own?” she cries. “I know you still love me,” I told her. I sent her to bed two hours ago and now I am looking for it near the desk.

Damn it, St. Anthony. What has happened to it? I don’t like her talk of getting cheap substitutes for “the time being” and her tears. I want the symbol of our troth. Won’t you aid us? Or are you pissed that we had a Quaker instead of a Catholic wedding?