I can’t find the ring that Auntie Hannah gave to me for no reason. It was in summertime, and we were outside, standing in the garden – my mom, me and Auntie Hannah. She’s not really my Auntie. She’s my mom’s cousin. My mom says that means she’s my cousin once removed. I call her Auntie anyhow. She gave me this fancy ring. She said she bought if for herself, but it wasn’t right, and she wanted to pass it on.  

It’s golden with a blue stone called an aquamarine. I guess it’s supposed to look like the colour of the ocean. Sparkly. I’ve looked at it from all angles. The stone fits inside some little gold claws and there are two chip diamonds besides the main stone. Maybe it’s worth a lot of money? The setting is kind of lopsided. I’ve stared at it, like close-up, looked at from the bottom. I saw there were some markings on the inside of the circle part, and these tell how much gold, like engraved numbers inside, but I couldn’t read the markings. My friend Rhonda said it’s ordinary. She said it’s only 10 carrot gold and her grandmother’s ring that she has is 18 carrots, and way way better. Like everything she has is better. 

I’m really worried because I can’t find the ring. I took apart my whole sock and underwear drawer and all my other cupboards looking for it. I’ve searched all over my room, under my bed. And of course, on top of my dresser and the white table and everywhere on the floor. And under the dressing-table skirts. Wow, it’s sure dusty under there. There are a lot of old decrepit dolls and puzzles under there. My mom told me to dust. 

Anyhow, I don’t know why Auntie Hannah gave that ring to me. It wasn’t my birthday or anything. It wasn’t a special day. I tried it on my left third finger until Auntie Hannah told me I should wear it on my right finger because the left finger was reserved for getting married. It fit my knuckle just tight enough. 

I wonder where it is. 

I wonder why my mom just doesn’t say anything about that ring. She just let me take it. Like, she was standing in the garden like a statue. 

I gotta tell my mom that apparently, I lost it. But she doesn’t really notice anything except when I almost broke the ring by playing baseball last year. I swung the bat real hard and my finger with the ring on it sort of vibrated against the bat and the ring’s round shape was squished when I took it off. My finger hurt. The stone was loose and more crooked than was usual. My mom took the ring over to Birk’s Jewellery for repairs. When I got it back it looked like the aquamarine was smaller. Anyhow I guess I shouldn’t wear it everywhere and all the time, like I do. 

My Auntie Hannah always wears a brown dress and she looks brown and thin and fuzzy. I mean her hair is brown and frizzy. She’s sort of wrinkled. My mom says that she never did get married. I don’t feel totally easy with Auntie Hannah. She always wants to look at my teeth. I mean her and my mom always get to yakking about how me and my brothers are growing up. And she wants me to come into the living room and visit and answer questions. Auntie Hannah makes me open my mouth and smile. She looks at my teeth as if that’s some kind of proof that I’m doing fine. 

I’ve searched for the ring all over my bedroom. 

See, what I’m totally scared for is this: I’m scared that it might have fallen off at the Co-op store. I was waiting for my mom to re-organize her shopping bags the way she does. She doesn’t like how the cashier lady packs the bags. I was going to buy a pop from the old machine. There’s this antique-style pop machine by the doorway at the Co-op. It’s interesting. I opened up the lid and I figured out that I wanted an Orange Crush. So, I grabbed a bottle and push-pulled it down the long pathway for the bottles. They’re hanging there in the machine, suspended by their necks. You have to pull the bottle you want down a channel and into the pull-up thing. After you put money into the slot, you pull the bottle up. There’s an opener on the outside even though the bottles have twist off caps nowadays. When I was little, I collected pop bottle caps. A guy who works at the store helped me to shake out caps from the opener whatzit thing until I got a mess of ordinary and unusual ones; Cokes and 7-Ups. Dumb collection.  

So, I got an Orange Crush. What I’m totally scared about is that pop machine might be the place my ring got lost. Might have fallen into the cooler, splashed into the ice water that the pop bottles sit in. If it did, that ring is lost forever because last week they took that cooler out and replaced it with a new vending machine that sells cans. If the ring that my Auntie Hannah gave to me fell into the old pop machine, it’s swimming inside and trucked away to the dump or something. 

My mom doesn’t even notice that I’m not wearing Auntie Hannah’s ring. She doesn’t notice much, but I gotta tell the truth. I hope she won’t tell my Auntie Hannah. 

I can’t figure out my family anyhow. Like, I wonder why Auntie Hannah looks so brown. She gives us our Christmas tree every year because she sells them in the parking lot of her business which is a hamburger place that she owns. It’s way way down there on 16th Avenue. She’s a successful businessperson; my mom always says it real seriously. Maybe my mom is jealous, ‘cause she’s just an old married lady. 

It must be good – I mean, not being married. I don’t ever want to get married. I don’t want to be like anyone else. I just want to play baseball and wear my hat backwards and not have Auntie Hannah looking at my teeth. I’m too big for all that nonsense. I don’t want a left-hand diamond ring. But I’d love to have my aquamarine one back – that is if you find it – please return it. Thanks a bunch! I hope it’s not in that pop machine.