The Black Opal Ring

Angry and helpless, Lakshmi ran back home as fast as her feet could carry her, away from the screams of the child.

 Earlier that day her friend and neighbour, Meha, had called her to say she suspected the maid’s daughter had stolen her opal ring. Meha had come out after her bath and found the ring missing from her dressing table. The eight-year old girl was the only one in the house at that time. Meha was questioning the child when Lakshmi went into her house. The frightened child was protesting ignorance and innocence. But Meha was having none of it. “You tell me the truth and I’ll let you go. Just give me back my ring and I will not inform the police”, she thundered, twisting the child’s ear. The child gave a shuddering sob and said she had not seen any ring. Meha turned to Lakshmi, “See, how devious they are even at this age. She is a lying little thief and thinks I’ll be taken in by her protestations and her weeping.”

“Could she be telling the truth?” Lakshmi ventured nervously.

“Ha! That is what she would like us to think. But I know these people well. They will take anything under their nose that is lying unattended. I pay her mother well, feed both her and this ungrateful girl, but they simply cannot be trusted. Anyway, there was no one else in the house, so you tell me how the ring could have disappeared!” Meha glared. “But I know how to get the truth out of them.”

“What will you do?”

“What will I do? Call her mother first of all. We’ll see what she has to say and then I’ll take it from there”

The ‘thief’ was made to sit in a corner of the kitchen while the mother was sent for. She lived in a shack just across the road and came running immediately. Hearing the accusation, the mother shook her daughter wildly and asked her to tell the truth. The sobbing child stuck to her story and said she knew nothing of any ring. By then her person had been searched and nothing found. Meha was sure she had hidden the ring somewhere or even passed it through the window to someone earlier when she was in the bathroom. Knowing that questioning the mother and daughter was futile, Meha now issued her threat. She would inform her cousin who was quite highly placed in the police department and he would send a couple of cops who would get the truth out of the girl.

 Stunned, the mother folded her palms and begged Meha not to do this. She pleaded that if the girl’s father got wind of this, he would beat the child within an inch of her life. He would go insane with shame and anger. He was always in a stupor, drunk, and no one would be able to reason with him. Meha said that was their problem; she wanted her ring back and the girl better find it.

 Mother and daughter searched the house in desperation while Meha watched them. She finally asked them to stop pretending and wasting her time as they knew it was not anywhere in the house. By this time two policemen had arrived. They took the child out on the verandah to question her. Seeing a police car, a small crowd of local street children gathered in front of the gate. Meha’s gardener chased them away.

 The news reached the father who reeled into the house, thundered at his daughter and finally promised the policemen he would get the truth out of the child. He said he knew how to make his womenfolk obey. The policemen tried to intervene saying it was better they talked to the child. The father bowed to them and said it was his child and therefore his responsibility. She had shamed him in front of his people and he could not excuse that. As he dragged the screaming child away, the mother ran after them shouting to anyone who would listen that he was an animal and would not hesitate to beat his daughter with firewood.

 Lakshmi looked on helplessly and wished the policemen would do something. They shrugged and told Meha to let them know if the ring turned up. If not, they could come by again in a day or two. Meha looked at them skeptically and said she didn’t think she’d ever see that ring again. It was one of her favourite pieces of jewellery and she wouldn’t be able to get another one like that. It was a rotten shame that maids could not be trusted these days. The policemen agreed and left.

 Lakshmi wished she could sit Meha down and talk reason to her. But she always felt helpless in her friend’s forceful presence. The wretched ring had been beautiful and not something you could easily find in this country, even if you could afford to replace it. It always drew attention and comment whenever Meha wore it. Therefore, it had become one of Meha’s prized possessions. She could wear it with almost any coloured sari as the ‘black’ opal took on different hues depending on what you wore and the angle you viewed it from. It seemed to hold fire within it and glinted and glowed with sparks of reds, blues, greens and golds. It was like no other gem she’d seen. It was encircled by tiny diamonds which deepened the gleam. The whole thing was quite breath-taking. It certainly was a loss, but also certainly not something a poor maid could easily sell without getting caught. Wearing it was out of the question.

 Minutes later the screaming announced the punishment being meted out to the child by the drunken father. Lakshmi excused herself, pushed past the gathered mob and almost ran back to her house trying to shut out the cries. She was seething with hopelessness and helplessness. Her futile anger was turned against the policemen who let a child be physically abused by her drunken father. It was also directed at her friend whose feelings were all for the jewel and none for the child. But most of all her feelings of impotence and disgust were directed at herself because she lacked the courage to speak up for the helpless little girl knowing her friend had no right to the ring in the first place.

 She vividly remembered the day when Meha had triumphantly shown her the glowing opal ring which she had found in the cloakroom of a five star hotel . “It must have belonged to some rich foreigner. She must’ve taken it off to wash her hands,” she’d said highly amused by such foolishness.

“Did you ask at the front desk if someone had lost a ring?” Lakshmi had ventured to ask. 

“Oh for crying out loud, must you always be such a goody-two-shoes! Your high-flown principles really irritate me at times. Anyway, these people have so much money, they wouldn’t even notice losing something like this.” “Besides” she had crowed triumphantly, “if she is so careless as to leave it in the loo, she deserves to lose it. I am a firm believer that finders are keepers!”

Rani Rao Innes is the senior partner and lead trainer of Link Communications, a specialized communications skills company based in the UK. She has regularly presented courses and training workshops for private and public business sectors as well as students and teachers in the UK, Belgium, Malaysia, Japan and India. She has also been active in theatre for 30 years and was the director of Canterbury Players in Kent for eight years.