To Find a Ring
by Joseph Bernstein
From when I dropped the ring, it took one hour, eleven minutes, and fifty-three seconds to realize I lost you.
Three seconds to claw for it in the air, in the sink.
One minute to fret.
Two minutes to find and twist a coat-hanger out of shape.
Ten minutes to fish through the drain.
Five minutes to find the toolbox.
One minute to figure out the right tools.
Six to remove the drainage pipe.
Fifteen to clean up the spillage.
Ten more minutes fishing through the drain.
One minute of relief with the grimy gold band in my hand.
Twenty seconds to tally how much time I’ve spent retrieving a symbol of our love.
Ten seconds to tally how little time I’ve spent on the love itself.
Twenty seconds to wipe the grime and tears away.
Twenty minutes to write down this apology and request:
Sorry for losing our love in the mundane of the day to day. Its retrieval will be a tedious and muck-filled process. I don’t care how much time it may take to do, so long as you’re also willing. Take all the time you need to decide.
Joseph Bernstein is in the middle of a two year program in Israel, after which he will resume his normal state of affairs as a software developer located in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a lifelong pianist and an avid juggler in addition to his love of writing. Check out more of his creative work at jpbauthor.com.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “To Find a Ring”? I wrote “To Find a Ring” during a four hour writing stint in my grandparents’ attic. The story popped into my head in the final ten minutes of a particularly dreary and dull session. (I almost decided to ignore the idea, eek!) From inception to final edits, the entire project took about an hour, which is the shortest personal time ever taken to complete a story from start to finish.
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