Mother's ring

Joy picked up his mother's ring and smiled. It had been so long since he had done that. Ever since the "unfortunate" incident, Joy seemed to have lost all joy in his life. Everyone praised his father for doing such a great job at raising a little boy all alone despite such a difficult time in his life.

Joy could still remember everything like it was yesterday. The woman who was the centre of his universe - his mother. She was like sunshine, always smiling. He felt like the world began and ended with her. Wherever she went, he went with her, hanging onto her hand by her lovely ring.

The ring. She loved it almost as much as she loved Joy. He had heard her tell him so many times how her mother had given it to her on her wedding day as a sign of her love. She never left home without the ring on her finger, often touching it with affection during idle times.

That's why when the world told him that she had left him and his father for another man, Joy just couldn't believe it. How could she leave without him? She had told him so many times that she would always be with him, love him, protect him. And what about the ring? She couldn't have forgotten her mother's ring too! Joy had picked up the ring from her drawer and decided firmly in his heart that he would find out what happened.

Joy's father did everything he could to give him a normal life. Joy himself grew into a strong, intelligent young man whom everyone liked. The only thing missing was his joyfulness. Soon, he had a family of his own and moved off to another city.

A few years later, Joy suggested to his father that he should move in with Joy and his family and sell off their old home. His father agreed, selling the house to a friend of Joy's and moving into a motel for a couple of days . Everything worked out smoothly, except for one. The day his father was to leave, the police arrested him for his wife's murder.

The trial was over in the blink of an eye. Joy's mother's body was found in their backyard, along with a gun that was used to shoot her, with his father's fingerprints on it. It had been found when the new owner had dug up the backyard to prepare it for a vegetable garden. Joy's father was convicted.

Joy slipped on his mother's ring. He thought about the day as a teenager when he had decided to clean up his backyard and set up a small experimental lab in his backyard while his father was away at office. He had wanted to remove the unnecessary piece of landscape first. As he was about to dig it up, his father came home and almost had a fit! For the first time in his life, Joy saw his father's anger. And that day, he knew. He felt the pleasure coursing through his body when he called up his friend who had bought the house, and innocently suggested how the backyard would make a terrific vegetable garden after some digging and change of soil.