FicWad

He found it while cleaning in his room one sunny day soon after the funeral, it's glint catching his eyes while he was looking for something else. 'She must have dropped it while cleaning in here before she got sick and forgot about it.' he pondered. It was in a crack between the floor and the wall on his side of the room. The deep crack was barely wide enough for it to fall into, but after exploring it with his eyes first and then patiently spending nearly an hour and a half fishing it out with a shoestring and a wad of gum, he triumphantly held it in his hand. It was too big for anything but his big toe to wear, and even then it slipped off when he took his first step. Plus the part that went into her ear caught on the floor. So he put it away in his special box, the box that was hidden even from his younger brother's eyes. He explored the hole again, hoping to find the backing for it, but the hole was empty. He covered the crack with his brother's toybox and went to go get something to drink.

Years later, when he was packing to move out, he found the special box containing the now twice-lost treasure. Picking it up out of the box, he put it into his pants pocket. Later that weekend, after everything was moved into his new place, he stopped by a nearby jewelery store and asked to have it made into a gold ring for himself. When he picked it up after the phonecall telling him that it was ready, it didn't look like it had been changed too much, only seamlessly closed on one end. When he put it on his finger, he felt close to her again, for the first time in years.