The Missing Solitaire Part III

Was she a serial loser? This is not the first time! An incident flashed before Pam’s eyes as she drove back home. It was the beginning of 2012. She had returned to India few months back. It was for good this time. She was putting up a brave face. She was trying to feel settled, but everything felt unsettling. Every day was a struggle. She hated most of her everyday experiences. The dust and fumes outdoors, the tasteless water indoors, the constant honking of vehicles on road. Her throat and nose stayed clogged most days. The flat on tenth floor, devoid of a balcony, had a large window along one wall in it’s dining area. The clotheslines outside this window with a rather wide sill and overhanging eaves were the only place in the flat where the laundry got dried.

One afternoon, she put her towel out to dry. She got to her room, combed her wet hair and joined the family for lunch. Post lunch she realised that she had lost her emerald ring. The ring had been adorning her right little finger for the past fourteen years. The ring had a history and many associations.

She was feeling miserable. Her logical mind told her that the ring could have slipped off her finger while she struggled with the towel and cloth line post shower. If it did, it would go straight down ten floors. However, it was likely to stay inside the complex premises. She went down to look for the ring. She looked around. Two Security personnel were enjoying their siesta on their respective seats. No people. No sign of the lost ring. Narrow drains with perforated covers circled the base of the building to drain out excess rain water. It would be impossible to find the ring if it had fallen ten floors down and bounced into one of those drains. Possibility? Anything and everything was possible.

Disheartened, Pam returned home. Next morning the maid arrived. Pam described to her what went missing and promised her a reward if she found it while sweeping the house. She did so with utmost care, but to no avail.

In the evening, an elderly relative staying close by paid a visit. She was narrated the story of the lost ring. She wanted to go down to look for the ring herself. Pam joined her. They returned empty handed. The relative then suggested a remote recovery mechanism. She said, you know what we did when we were kids. We murmured a short poem while tying a knot on a piece of cloth when we lost our belongings. The poem was addressed to the good spirits and they, in return, helped us locate the lost article.

A drowning man (and woman) will clutch a straw. Pam complied the poem.

A day went by. Nothing happened. The hope died. Household discussion on the missing ring, however, stayed alive. The next evening a random thought struck P. She casually picked up the intercom and dialled the flat number just below theirs, on ninth floor. She told them she was from the tenth and lost her ring which flew out of the dining window. She was just enquiring if they had found any ring. Just in case. No we haven’t. If we do we shall inform you. Thank you.

She then called up the flat two floors below. Eighth floor this time.

-I am Pam from the flat two floors above you. I think my ring fell off my finger from the dining window couple of days back. Have you found anything?

-What color is the ring?

-it’s a gold ring with a green emerald in it’s center.

-I think the maid found something the other day. Let me check first and then I shall call you back.

He hung up.

Her heart was thumping. How was that possible? How could a solid piece of metal fly out of a window on tenth floor, defy laws of gravity, acquire a parabolic trajectory and enter through a window two floors down? The gap between the two windows that were exactly on the same vertical plane would have been at least fifteen(15) ft, if not more. What sort of a miracle could make such an impossibility even remotely possible?

The phone rang. She jumped off her seat and grabbed the receiver.

-Hello. Is this tenth floor?

-Yes I am P.

-I am calling back from eighth.

-Yes I know.

-Our maid found something two days back while cleaning the house. Can you please come over to check if that’s yours?

-Right away.

She didn’t have the patience to wait for the lift. She galloped down the stairs, two steps at a time. Pressed the bell. And voila. Her neighbor held out her favorite emerald ring set on gold, her first and only piece of astrologically influenced jewelry which she had always believed shaped her life. It was intact. The neighbor said to her, we found it but couldn’t fathom how it got here.

She couldn’t believe her eyes, and also her ears. She thanked them. And thanked them. And returned home. She managed to almost absorbed the absurdity of the course of events by next morning. She looked for the cloth and untied the knot. She learnt from her own maid that the maid of eighth floor was a full timer. She went downstairs and pressed her neighbour's bell again. She said to the lady of the house, I was kind of dazed yesterday after getting my ring back. I couldn’t react. If you permit I would like to give your maid some cash as a reward. The mistress of the house firmly said, no. It is not required. She did what she was expected to do. Pam sent across some fruits and sweets to eighth a few days later.

Pam registered two things that day.

First. The contribution of the knot. Would she be able to write it off as a superstition if she experienced something similar in future?

Second. The City of Joy, after all, wasn’t such a godforsaken place she had labeled it to be. It had lacked many things but had people with big hearts.