A slim band, carved of pale ash wood.
It is a ring.
It is her ring.
The gift she made to the dark that night.
The gift he scorned, and turned to smoke.
The image conjured in a seaside church.
But if it is an illusion now, it is an exceptional one. Here, the notch where her father’s chisel bit a fraction too deep. There, the curve rubbed smooth as stone by years of worrying.
It is real. It must be real. And yet—
“So, we’re, like … married.”
“Are we?” She held out a hand before her, studying her splayed fingers. “I don’t see a ring, Athalar.”
He nipped at her toes, earning a squeal from her. “You want a ring, I’ll get you one.”
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Lydia and I were always fighting. She was a flirt and it irritated me. When we ate out I was sure she was eyeballing some
man across the room. When my male friends came by to visit and Lydia was there I could hear her conversation become
intimate and sexual. She always sat very close to my friends, positioning herself as near them as possible.
10
“Do Atlantians recognize the tradition of rings when they propose?” I asked.
“We do.”
“Then how believable is it that we are engaged if I don’t have a ring?”
“Good point,” he murmured.
“I want a ring,” I announced. “I want an obscenely big one like I’ve seen some of the wives of wealthy merchants have. Their diamonds are so large they look like they should weigh down their hands.”
He angled his body toward me. “I will find you a diamond so big it will enter the room before you do.”
“Good.” It took me a moment to realize that I was smiling.
" Children, as we all remember, are the ones most impaled on the sharp
recognition of jealousy. If love and comfort are combined to mean a sort of
ring of safety, then anything that endangers that safety, like a sister or
brother or parents all dressed up to go out and leave us all alone, will clot
our innocent, childish, valentine natures with murderous rages. When my
parents first brought my one-week-old sister home from the hospital, I, aged
three, declared, “Throw her in the waste-paper basket.” They thought it was
funny. But I knew what I meant ... "
Sayfa 27 - COUNTERPOINTKitabı okudu
It is a ring.
She wears it on a leather cord around her neck, a delicate band, the wood ash gray, and smooth as polished stone. He carved it when she was born, made for the girl she’d one day be, and Adeline wears it like a talisman, an amulet, a key. Her hand goes to it now and then, thumb running over the surface the way her mother’s runs over a rosary.
Part 1 - Chapter IIIKitabı okudu