The Ring by A. Dacosta Brathway

                                                                                   

[This is the beginning of the first trilogy (set) of stories about Springfield Woods.]



The Ring

 

There is an area in Baltimore, Maryland called Springfield Woods, where an interesting situation happened in the spring of 2012. Sharon and her friend Tabitha had joined a neighborhood clean up group and their assignment was to assist in cleaning up Springfield Woods. Springfield Woods is a wooded area that is separated by a fence from an apartment building complex. Ten feet from the fence is a stream. Over the years the area between the fence and the stream has been used as an area where people have thrown their trash. You name it… Bottles, garbage, some furniture, whatever… The job was messy but Sharon and Tabitha were determined to get that area cleaned up!. The stream was (is) beautiful when not littered! What made the job more difficult was the fact that an under-brush grew in the ten foot space as well, but the girls were undaunted! They were going to get the job done.

The sun peeked through some light clouds and the day was grey looking when the girls started their task. It had rained lightly before they got started so the area was damp. They had their gear on. Heavy leather boots, jeans, water repellent jackets, hats and heavy gloves. They plowed through the garbage and dirt, bagging everything that was out of place. Hours passed and the light was short at this point but the girls had made a dent with their hard work. Sharon had gotten to the stream first and decided to sit to catch her breath. As she sat by the stream, the flow of the water and the sound of it captured her undivided attention. It was like she was hypnotized. As she stared in the water, she saw something unique that did seemed out of place. Sharon took off her gloves and stuck her hands in the water. “Oh my god!” she screamed! “What?” Tabitha responded quickly. “What happened?” Tabitha rushed over to where Sharon was…

“Look at what I found!” Sharon opened her hand and a strange looking object sat in her palm. It was a ring covered in crud and metal was worn from the water. “Look at that,” Tabitha quipped. “That’s a strange looking ring!”  “Yeah,” Sharon answered. “I wonder where it came from?” “I don’t know,” Tabitha answered, staring at it like it had some kind of weird power. Tabitha then snatched it from Sharon’s palm. “What if there is some story behind it?” Tabitha asked. “Story? Please! It’s nothing but a beat up, old ring. Looks like someone just threw it away. It is ugly!” was Sharon’s take. “it is ugly… I think there is something to it! Let me have it?” Tabitha asked. “Go head, I don’t want it!” Tabitha pocketed it and the two girls packed up their stuff and called it a day.

A couple of days later, Sharon’s cellphone rang.  “Girl, I gotta see you. Where are you?” Tabitha screamed into the phone. “I’m on my way home.” “Okay, I’ll meet you there!”

An hour later, Tabitha shows up at Sharon’s apartment. Sharon just happened to live in the apartment building that was on the opposite side of the fence where the ring was found. “Girl, you are not going to believe this!” Tabitha shouted! “Believe what?” “I went online and I found this website called the Smoking Pistol. It had categories and one of them was rings, so I clicked on it. Guess what I found?” Tabitha asked. “What?” “The ring! I found the ring on there!” Tabitha was excited and nervous.

 “The story goes that this ring is a possession from apartment 666. It belonged to a man named Beldar who has lived there since the building was built. His family had some political pull in this neighborhood, back in the day, and he was one of the first people to get a spot in here!” Tabitha crowed. “Okay… What does that have to do with the ring?” Sharon asked. “The story goes that Beldar was a plastic surgeon. He stayed in most of the time.  He was hardly ever seen in the neighborhood!” That’s stupid,’ Sharon replied. “How did he eat if he didn’t come out? He had to go grocery shopping sometimes!” “That where the story gets weird. There was a girl that used to shop for him. When anybody saw her, they would see her go to the store, then come back and not leave the apartment until it was time to go back to the grocery store!” Tabitha explained. “Get outta here!” Sharon responded. “Yeah… it goes on to say that when the girl grew up and got up enough nerve, she left the apartment to go to the store, she took the ring off, threw it over the fence and was never seen again!” Tabitha’s voice lowered. “You got the ring?” Sharon asked. “I got it right here,’ Tabitha reached into her pocket and pulled it out. It was all clean and shiny from Tabitha cleaning it. “We should go to the apartment and see what’s up!” Sharon suggested. “Hell no! I’m not going nowhere near that apartment!” Tabitha responded. Sharon laughed. “Give it to me!” Tabitha handed it over, looking at Sharon like she was crazy. “What are you going to do with the it?’ Tabitha asked. “I’m gonna go to 666 and return the it!” “Are you crazy?” Sharon laughed. “I’m not crazy. I’m just gonna go there and return the ring. I’m sure they would appreciate it.”

Three weeks passed and Sharon had not been seen in school. Tabitha had been to her place only to be told that she is missing. Sharon’s mother has done all that was in her power to find her daughter. It was like she vanished without a trace. There had been reports that a girl that people thought looked like Sharon was thought to be seen at the grocery store but to look at her up close, she did not look like Sharon.

If you think about it, a ring can represent a cycle… IJS!

(c) A. Dacosta Brathway, 2013