Lost Diamond

The broken white lines of the pavement moved quietly under the old car. The highway was all but deserted, its quiet, black solitude broken only rarely by the twin beams of a faraway traveler, there for only a second before disappearing into the night. The trees on either side of the long, straight road bent over on it, covering all below in blackness save for the occasional pool of starlight that somehow had made it through the blanket of leaves. Through the window of the old car, eyes looked up to the sky, reflecting the starlight for a moment before turning reluctantly back to the road. The woman, young lady rather, gripped the steering wheel sleepily, with only one hand. She was beautiful, in a tired sort of way. Her eyes were a deep green, brought out more by the fact that no makeup covered her face; she had been far too busy to worry about it. Purple bags of sleepiness hung below her eyes, one of which carried the sting of black pain. Long dirty blonde locks surrounded her face, falling onto her shoulders and down her back.

Her free hand rolled the window down an inch, letting some of the cool air breeze into the car. She breathed deep and closed her eyes, her hair dancing crazily around her head. A soft murmur came from the passenger side of the car. She looked over to the child curled up in the warm fabric seat next to her. Caught in a silent dream, the girl tossed her head to the side and clutched her blanket tighter. A faint smile crossed her face as the woman’s hand came upon her head gently and caressed her brown hair, pulled into a messy ponytail. Whatever nightmare that had been was erased from the girl’s mind with her mother’s touch. The woman quietly tucked the blanket around her daughter’s body, careful not to disturb the sleeping child. She needed sleep.

She looked back to the road, silent and dark as ever. She needed to drive through the night. She needed to be far away. She would not turn around, not now, not ever. She had finally left, she had finally done what she had told herself she was going to do for so long. She deserved so much, her daughter even more. She looked again at her daughter, smiling for the first time in too long. The child was all she had, and she was all the child had. They had each other, and, she realized then, that was as it had been all along. They would start a new life, somewhere else. Away from all she had known, all the child had known. She smiled again at the thought and looked back to the road.

Just then, a faint twinkling caught her eye. She looked down to her hand on the steering wheel. On her middle finger, battered and old, rested a ring of silver. In the center of the ring was an empty depression where once had sat a brilliant diamond. The diamond had long since fallen out, finally giving into the constant violence of its short life. She looked at the ring deeply, expressionless. Then, slowly and deliberately, she rolled the window the rest of the way down, took the ring from her finger and flung it out into the night. The starlight glinted for a moment off the ring before it hit the ground and disappeared among the wet leaves. The car sped up along the road until the beams of light disappeared over a crest and the forest was thrust back into blackness.