A Second Marriage to Hold

All I can do is sigh. Lying in the eerie darkness - my surroundings always moving, yet also still - I remain. All these years - I assume it must be years since I landed here - of time drifting by like the creatures that move around me leave me with only more tarnish, but no one to care. Sometimes I dream I am getting closer to the light above, but I know it cannot be true.

I often think of my life before the incident, back when I spent every day with Maryanne. I was there when Maryanne woke up in the morning, when she went to the market, when she cooked Sunday dinner. I was there the day that Maryanne's child was born - David; he used to stare at me while Maryanne held him and rocked him to sleep. I was there the day Charles left for the war and I was there the day Maryanne got the news that he wasn't coming home just fine like he had promised her. I was there for Maryanne to stare at for hours, sobbing, wishing she could will him back into his earthly existence, that, somehow, if she looked into me hard enough, she could make him rematerialize in her very room. I was there for Maryanne even as I got knocked down the bathroom sink, and we waited anxiously to be reunited when the handyman unceremoniously yanked me out of the pipe. I was there for Maryanne every day and every night, watching David grow alongside her. I was there for Maryanne every moment until suddenly I was very far away.

It was nearing the end of Summer, and we were having one of our beach days. Maryanne rarely goes in the water, but that day felt different, and she decided to throw caution to the wind. She didn't bother even taking off her sun hat or shades - or her ring. The waves started picking up and although she was pretty close to the shore, I got jostled off in the movement and I slid down and out into the depths.

I imagine Maryanne realized at least by the time she got back to shore with David, and they searched long and hard, but I was already a world away. I think about how difficult fate is when I think about that day.

//

I see a small clownfish and a blue tang in the distance - an odd sight. Suddenly, I am shocked loose from my sandy bed by some great force and thrown up into the waters, just high enough to get caught up in a school of fish rushing by. I am bounced around off their silver sides for an unknown amount of time. Overwhelmed by confusion, I try to make sense of things when a large net swoops down out of the blue and encases most of the school - myself included.

Moments later I find myself high up in air, in sunshine for the first time in ages. Then I am thrown unceremoniously to the floor of what I can figure is a fishing boat. Slipping through the cracks of my thrashing doomed comrades, I clink to the hard wood and skid over to the side of the boat where I remain for the rest of the day.

When night falls, we are docked, my comrades are being sold at the market, and I am left lying here. Days go by and I come to terms with my new home for the time being. Although no one notices me, the crew seems to be a nice enough group. From the rocking of the boat one day, I slide out a little bit into the walkway. Maybe they'll find me now; what then? Sure enough, before day's end, a young man I've learned is called Tony, steps on me and I stick in the deep grooves of his left boot. He must be in a hurry to leave because he doesn't bother trying to pull me out until he is off the boat and we've walked down the way to a bench near the edge of the beach. He sits down and, with great difficulty, dislodges me from my hiding place. Smiling, he looks directly at me for the first time, wipes my face clean with his shirt sleeve, and puts me in his pants pocket just as a woman and a dog approach. As we begin a sunset stroll on the beach, I learn that her name is Lisa and the dog is Buckwheat (he smells me through Tony's pocket). They seem to be a very sweet couple; they remind me so much of Maryanne and Charles that I almost feel like I'm back in my old life.

When they get back to their house that night, Tony takes me out in the bathroom and cleans me up, working hard to polish me up as best he can. I haven't felt this good in what feels like lifetimes. He puts me in his wallet and keeps me there for quite some time. Every day, taking me out to turn me over a few times in his hands and smile.

Weeks go by, then months, until one day he has already taken me out to look into me three times by midday. That afternoon, he takes Lisa and Buckwheat to the beach again, the place where he first saw me, and he takes me out of his wallet one last time. Tony proposes to Lisa, she happily says, "yes," Buckwheat wags his tail and barks a gentle happy bark, and we start our lives together. I fit perfectly on Lisa's finger. I officially have a second marriage to hold.