Kate had been scared of pregnancy, but hers was easy, as those things went. She opted for a home birth with a doula, after watching a documentary about the corporatization of hospital births. The midwife brought in an inflatable pool, which she filled with water and wedged between the TV and the sofa. Kate didn’t like the sensation of her belly floating there, so they moved her to the bed.
Sixteen hours later, just after sunrise, as she stared out her bedroom window at the familiar brownstones and the blue awning of the bar across the street, Ava came into the world. Yes, it was painful, but afterward there was this rush of joy that they said you never got with an epidural. The doula placed Kate’s daughter on her bare chest, and Kate felt overcome with gratitude. It was the same bed where Ava had been conceived, and something about this felt profound. Kate had discussed it with plenty of her friends in Brooklyn, and they all understood. Her sister and mother thought she was nuts.
“Giving birth at home with no drugs is like rubbing two sticks together every night so you can boil water for dinner, while meanwhile there’s a Viking range in the next room,” said May, who had gone three for three on the C-sections.
“Hey Olivia,” Kate said now. “Speaking of borrowing stuff, I was wondering if you might have borrowed the ring from the windowsill in the kitchen. It’s fine if you did. I’d just like it back for the wedding.”
“I didn’t take it!” Olivia said, indignant. Clearly, she had already been questioned by May, and possibly Mona, too.
“Okay,” Kate said, lifting her hand. “I believe you.”
There was only one possibility she could fathom at this point.
“Hold on, girls, I’ll be back.”
She went inside and found the jeweler’s card at the bottom of the red bag. Kate was almost positive she hadn’t left the ring at the store, but she figured a phone call couldn’t hurt. What if it was all as simple as that—he’d pick up and say that yes, he was holding it for her, come on out and get it.
When he answered, Kate introduced herself.
“I met you a few days ago,” she said. “Jeff and Toby’s cousin.”
She wished now that she had been more friendly at the time, but he seemed happy enough to hear from her.
“What can I do for ya?” he said.
“One of the rings isn’t here,” she said.
“It wasn’t in the box?”
“No. I mean, the box isn’t here either.”
“But you had two boxes when you left.”
“Did I? Okay. So I guess it’s lost then.”
He paused. She could picture him debating whether she was a thief or just crazy.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “Isn’t the wedding tonight?”
“Yes.”
“I hope it turns up,” he said. “It’s kind of strange, actually. That ring’s been lost before.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well. Everything in my store is an estate piece. I collect from estate sales and private collections, sometimes police auctions. Your cousin’s ring came from one of those.”
Kate had no idea why he was telling her this.
“Don’t worry,” he continued. “I don’t buy anything that comes from a horrible crime scene or anything. That one just got left in a cab and was never claimed. On second thought, don’t be telling your cousin I said that. It might ruin the magic.”
She wondered if he had Jeff mixed up with someone else.
“You made their rings,” she said, trying to jog his memory.
“Right.”
Kate shook her head. “Thanks anyway. Have a good weekend.”
Back out on the porch, the girls were whispering.
“What are you talking about?” Kate asked.
“I might know where the ring is,” Olivia said in a low voice. “But don’t tell my mom, because it’s a secret.”
Kate’s chest tightened. So she did have it. No sudden moves, she thought, as if Olivia were heavily armed.
“Where is it?” Kate asked, in a casual, just-making-conversation tone.
“I don’t know.”
Kate squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten. “Please,” she said.
She was now begging a five-year-old.
“I’m telling the truth, I didn’t take it,” Olivia said. She looked back down at her dolls.
Kate considered her options. Clearly she needed to call in the big guns. But she couldn’t bear how harshly her sister treated her kids when they misbehaved. She hated witnessing it.
From inside the house, there came a crash that seemed to go on forever, followed by the sound of Max’s cry.
In the bathroom, the blow-dryer stopped. Kate braced herself as she heard the door swing open, and May screamed, “What the hell was that? Leo!”
Her sister stomped toward the boys. Kate’s whole body tensed up, as if she were the one in trouble. She went inside, and the girls followed. At the foot of the staircase, Leo and Max lay tangled in a heap.
Mona appeared at the top of the stairs.
“What on earth?” she said.
“Did you guys fall?” Kate asked.
“He pushed me!” Max said.
“Leo!” May pulled him up roughly by his shirt. “Go sit in the car until it’s time for us to go to the wedding!”
Leo started crying now too.
“Max pulled me down,” he said. “I pushed him, so he grabbed my leg and pulled me down after him.”
“Are we supposed to feel sorry for you?” May snapped. “I would have pulled you down, too, if you pushed me. Why did you push him? You’re the oldest. You’re supposed to set an example.”
Leo stamped his foot. Kate’s heart raced. Her sister was lousy at defusing tension. She only managed to rile them up even more. May was average height, and, like Kate, weighed all of 118 pounds. But her children were terrified of her, even Leo, who would probably tower over her in a couple years.
“I wanted to try the Mongolian finger trap once, and he wouldn’t let me.”
“What the freak is a Mongolian finger trap?” May said.
“Show it,” Leo commanded.
“No!” Max said. He looked at May with the sweetest eyes and said innocently, “It’s just in my imagination.”
“Liar!” Leo shouted. He turned to his sister. “Olivia, do you know what a Mongolian finger trap is?”
She nodded, somber. “Max almost broke my finger in it this morning.” She held up her left index finger, which looked perfectly fine.
May glanced up at the ceiling. “All right, give it to me. Give it to me right now, or all three of you will have no TV for a month.”
“No!” Olivia said, and she began to cry. Ava joined in, for good measure.
Max sighed. “I’m sitting on it.”
“Then get up!” May said, exasperated.
He did. There on the floor was the velvet jewelry box. Kate felt her chest expand, filling almost to the breaking point with relief. She ran toward her nephew, and scooped up the box as if it might otherwise disappear.
May gasped. “Max Rosen!” she said. “You are in so much trouble. You are in more trouble than you’ve ever been in your life. Josh! Get out here!”
Mona descended the staircase, snapping her fingers in the air halfway down. “Carmen was right! The ring was with the children, in the house. Essentially, in a schoolhouse.”
Kate rolled her eyes.
May put a hand to her forehead. “Do you realize that we have been searching for that ring all day? Do you? You are going to be grounded until college, do you hear me? This is theft, Max. You could go to jail for this.”
“I was gonna give it back,” he said softly.
“You apologize to your aunt right now.”
“Sorry, Aunt Kate.”
“It’s okay,” she said. She knew she should probably be angry, but instead she felt giddy.
“You’re lucky we don’t call the police,” May said.
Kate sighed. Her sister never missed an opportunity
to blow things wildly out of proportion.
“How did it work, anyway?” Kate asked him.
Max approached her cautiously and took the box from her hands. He opened the lid. The ring was propped up a bit higher than she remembered.
“You go up to someone and you ask them, ‘Hey, why don’t you slip your finger into this ring?’ ” He spoke quickly, probably out of the knowledge that May might explode again at any second. “Then when they do, whammo!” With this he snapped the box shut. “Your finger is mine!”
Kate laughed, even though she knew she shouldn’t. It was actually very creative. From now on, she decided, she would refer to all engagement rings as Mongolian finger traps.
May took the box from her son’s hand, and said, “I need a drink. Aunt Kate and I are going out back for a while, and no one better bother us. If you want something, ask your dads.”
For once, Kate agreed with her sister.
They brought a bottle of wine from the fridge, and two glasses. May sank into an Adirondack chair, and placed the velvet box on the side table along with her drink. Their mother followed behind, and sat between them.
“Do you want me to get you a glass, Mom?” May asked.
“No, if I want one, I’ll get it.”
“I’m so sorry about that,” May said. “Boys are seriously the devil. You have no idea.”
“It’s fine,” Kate said. “I feel guilty now for suspecting Olivia.”
“Oh, I think we all suspected Olivia,” May said.
“All’s well that ends well, I guess,” Kate said. “I can’t believe Jeff’s getting married tonight.”
“I can’t believe he’s getting married before you,” May said. “There’s something I couldn’t have imagined ten years ago.”
Kate groaned.
“Marriage is different now, you know,” May said. “You can’t judge it on those terms.”
“What terms?”
May shrugged. She picked up the velvet box again, and lifted the lid.
“Hmm. Pretty gay design, but that’s a honking stone.”
“Is it?” Kate asked.
Her sister made a familiar face that took her a moment to place—it was the same one Olivia had made when Ava asked what Barbies were.
“I think Jeff said each is a little over a carat,” Kate said.
May looked down at her own ring. “I’m gonna need an upgrade soon. A lot of the women in our neighborhood do it on their tenth anniversaries. The original stone becomes a baguette, and then they add a much bigger one in the middle, and a second, smaller stone on the other side.”
“That’s clever,” Mona said.
“I’d love to do my wedding over again,” May said. “I’d do it all differently now. But I don’t envy them that first year of marriage. The first year is the hardest.”
“Really?” Kate asked. She had never heard anyone say so before.
“Oh yeah. It’s scary to realize that you’ve just committed yourself to a lifetime with another person,” May said. “I wonder if Jeff and Toby have a prenup.”
“Of course they don’t!” Mona said.
“Don’t be so old-fashioned, Mom,” May said. “A lot of couples get them now. If you make good money and stand to make even more down the line, it’s a smart idea. Divorce is messy. You know that.”
“Let’s not talk about their divorce on their wedding day,” Mona said.
Kate looked up at the blue sky, and took a long sip of wine.
They arrived at the Fairmount at six forty-five. Jeff and Toby stood in an open-air pavilion adjacent to the ceremony garden. Jeff’s parents hovered nearby. While the rest of the family took their seats, Kate and Ava went to join the guys.
They looked as handsome as ever, standing side by side in their suits, holding hands.
“Ava!” they shouted in unison, when they saw her in the dress.
They were going to make wonderful parents, Kate thought. And when they had children, perhaps she’d feel less foreign in this new way of life.
“You look like a princess!” Jeff said. He looked at Kate, anticipating disapproval. “I’m sorry, but she does.”
Ava got called off by her adoring great-aunt, and skipped across the yard to gather up more praise.
Kate gave Toby and Jeff each a hug. “How’s it going?” she said, feeling excited in spite of herself.
“Everything’s great,” Toby said.
“He’s lying,” Jeff whispered. “You heard his bitch mother isn’t coming? She was supposed to walk him down the aisle and now we don’t know what to do.”
“Honey!” Toby sighed. He turned to Kate. “We had planned it so that Jeff’s parents would walk him down the aisle, and my mother would walk me. But it’s fine. I’m going to walk by myself. I like that better anyway. It’s like here I am, this independent person, about to be joined with another independent person. It’s more mature.”
“Bullshit,” Kate said. “I’m walking you.”
Both men widened their eyes.
“You? The marriage conscientious objector?” Jeff said, but he was smiling. “You’re not going to turn this into a runaway-bride situation, are you?”
Toby squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”
“It’s an honor,” Kate said.
“All right, enough of this lovefest,” Jeff said. “Hand over the rings, so I can give them to the minister.”
She pulled both boxes from the red bag. Toby looked at her in surprise, but didn’t say a word.
A short while later, they lined up for the procession. Kate linked her arm through Toby’s and he whispered, “Thank God you found it. So was it Olivia?”
“Nope. Max.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear that one of May’s sons has a taste for jewelry.”
“It’s not like that,” she said.
“Oh. Darn. Thanks for doing this,” he said. “And for earlier. You’re a lifesaver.”
Before she had time to respond, the music started, and they were down the aisle, with Ava leading the charge, sprinkling pink rose petals wherever she walked.
The cocktail hour that followed was more elaborate than any black-tie charity fundraiser Kate had ever attended. In a field surrounded by mountains stood a beautiful three-peaked sailcloth tent, the sort of thing you’d see in an old-fashioned circus. There were tiny lightbulbs strung around the perimeter, and white Japanese lanterns inside. She knew from one of her many conversations with Jeff that the lanterns were on a dimmer switch, which would be utilized throughout the hour to create various moods.
Kate stood with her sister and brother-in-law, and Dan, who held Ava on his hip. Waiters in tuxedos drifted by them, as if on roller skates, offering trays of champagne, crab cakes, dumplings, chicken skewers, and what seemed like a hundred other things.
As darkness began to fall, she saw Jeff a short distance away and met his eye. He smiled.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, kissing Dan on the cheek.
Kate moved through the crowd. She could hear snatches of conversation, which sounded funny without context: Gluten free is the new vegan, but if you ask me they’re all just a way of covering up your eating disorder.… But even FDR wasn’t FDR. The New Deal didn’t save the economy, war did. And our days of war manufacturing are over. So what now? … She was deferred from the early admission pool, so we have to wait two more months like every other schlub.…
When she reached her cousin, they embraced. They walked a ways outside of the tent to hear each other better.
“You did it,” she said.
“Yes.”
Jeffrey stretched out his left hand, like it offered the only proof.
“Did I ever tell you how our rings were made?” he asked.
“No.”
She wondered how long they would wait to tell him that his ring had been missing all day. It would probably only take a couple more drinks.
“We were looking for two separate men’s rings at
that jewelry shop we sent you to in Stockbridge,” he said. “But I ended up falling in love with a woman’s ring. It was unusual, because it had two big diamonds, equal in shape and size, as well as a bunch of smaller stones all around. I think it was supposed to look like a bumblebee or something. Anyway, I just fell in love with the idea of each of us wearing part of the whole. So the jeweler melted it down, separated the two stones, and made them into two identical rings. Cool, huh?”
She nodded.
“This diamond is probably over a hundred years old. Can you believe that? Look how it still sparkles. Sometimes I wonder who wore it before me. Toby and I even debated whether maybe a used ring would have some bad juju, you know—what if the other couple, or couples, who bought this thing ended up hating each other? What if their marriages were shit?”
She thought of what the jeweler had said about the ring being found in the back of a taxi. She would never tell Jeff.
It was his wedding day and she loved him, so Kate replied, “I think their marriages were good ones. I think this ring will bring you love from the ages.”
He kissed her forehead. “Me too,” he said.
Kate stared into the stone. She wondered for a moment where it had come from, further back than Jeffrey would let his imagination roam. Where had it been pulled up out of the earth, and by whom? How many fingers had it decorated over the last century? Most of its owners were likely gone now, their loves as impermanent as any. She sent a silent prayer out that they truly had been happy, as happy as anyone ever got to be. She took her cousin by the hand and they turned back to the party. A full moon hung over the garden, illuminating the night.
Author’s Note
In 1995, De Beers Consolidated Mines broke ties with N. W. Ayer after fifty-seven years, taking their business to the J. Walter Thompson agency. Ayer was unsuccessful in its subsequent attempts to trademark the terms “4 Cs,” “diamond anniversary ring,” and “A Diamond Is Forever.” The agency closed its doors in 2002.
Mary Frances Gerety died on April 11, 1999, at the age of eighty-three. Two weeks before her death, Advertising Age magazine named “A Diamond Is Forever” the slogan of the century. It is still in use around the world today.
The Engagements Page 45
