One day she whiled away a quiet afternoon by perusing the
pretty things offered for sale by the fanciful but dangerous dragon known as
The Internet. She had spent many, many, many, many, many hours thus engaged
before but had not been tempted by the dragon’s wares. This day, however, was
different.
This day, she stumbled upon the most beautiful adornment she
had ever seen. A ring. Possibly the most perfect ring ever created. A ring, she
believed, created just for her.
A large, deep purple, rectangular amethyst sat above a wide band of
silver. The stone was secured to the band by heavy yet delicate swirls of
silver at each corner. The design was simple and whimsical, delicate and strong…like
the girl. The dragon’s price was dear, but not so dear that it was beyond possibility,
if she played her cards right and did not order delivery pizza too often.
She desired the ring. The desire sprouted deep in her heart
and grew like Jack’s beanstalk until it leapt out of her mouth. “I will have
this ring!” she declared.
Being a mostly-responsible girl, she put the ring at the
very top of her wish list. And she wished. She wished for a fairy godmother to
drop the ring into her lap. She wished for a handsome prince to place the ring
on her finger. (Sometimes she just wished for the handsome, or even
not-so-handsome, prince, but that is a different story.) She wished for a
windfall. She wished for a magically low power bill that would leave just
enough coins in her pocket to pay for the ring. (She did not, however, stash a
leftover coin or two away on the rare occasions that she had a coin or two left
over. Mostly-responsible, yes. Hugely gifted with foresight and a desire to
save, not so much.)
Alas, her wishes did not come true. As the months passed,
the girl occasionally tiptoed (tip-fingered? finger-tipped?) back to the site of her beloved
ring, creeping quietly so as not to wake the dragon, and sighed as she gazed on
the ring’s beauty. “Someday,” she whispered, “someday you will be mine.”
Then the mournful day came when she revisited the site only to find
that the ring was gone. Vanished into thin ether(net). She searched
frantically, googled hither and yon, certain she could find her darling ring
hiding among the treasures in some other dragon’s lair. But it was as if the
ring never existed.
She mourned.
Months and months and months went by. The girl was enticed
by other charming jewels, even other rings, but she never forgot the swirled
beauty. Even today, years after discovering the perfect ring – and years after
losing it, probably to somebody's foolish stepsister with big feet and a sugar daddy – she searches for
it. She knows that she will never find it but she also knows she will never be
completely complete without it.
Life goes on and the girl goes with it. Other things make
her happy and she has mostly accepted the loss of the ring she never had. But
sometimes, when the moon is bright and the need to surf silently among the
dragon’s merchandise is strong, she sighs and longs for the ring.
The moral of the story is this: When you find something you love,
really, really, REALLY love, you must buy it. Now. It might not be there tomorrow.
