The Ring in the Flour Tin

Two hours before Sunday's family lunch, Talia's grandmother realises her wedding ring is missing. It always sits in a small dish by the bathroom sink, every single night. The house fills with quiet panic. Drawers are opened. Coat pockets are checked twice.

Dua jam sebelum makan siang keluarga hari Minggu, nenek Talia menyadari cincin kawinnya hilang. Cincin itu selalu diletakkan di piring kecil dekat wastafel kamar mandi, setiap malam tanpa kecuali. Rumah pun dipenuhi kepanikan yang senyap. Laci-laci dibuka. Saku mantel diperiksa dua kali.

Talia's first thought goes straight to her cousin Ezra. He arrived from out of town the night before, and everyone jokes that he has a habit of borrowing things without asking. She doesn't say this out loud, but she watches him more closely than usual while he sets the table. She half expects to catch him looking guilty.

Pikiran pertama Talia langsung tertuju pada sepupunya, Ezra. Ezra tiba dari luar kota malam sebelumnya, dan semua orang bercanda bahwa ia punya kebiasaan meminjam barang tanpa izin. Talia tidak mengatakannya keras-keras, tetapi ia mengawasi Ezra lebih ketat daripada biasanya saat sepupunya itu menata meja. Ia setengah berharap memergoki Ezra tampak bersalah.

By the time the guests start arriving, the ring still hasn't turned up. Talia's grandmother is trying, not very successfully, to pretend it doesn't matter. "It's probably somewhere obvious," she says, in the voice adults use when they don't quite believe their own words. Talia notices her hands are shaking slightly as she stirs the gravy.

Ketika para tamu mulai berdatangan, cincin itu belum juga ditemukan. Nenek Talia berusaha, tanpa terlalu berhasil, berpura-pura bahwa itu tidak penting. "Mungkin ada di suatu tempat yang gampang terlihat," katanya, dengan nada yang dipakai orang dewasa ketika mereka sendiri tidak sepenuhnya percaya pada ucapannya. Talia memperhatikan tangan neneknya sedikit gemetar saat mengaduk kuah daging.

It's Talia who finally finds it, almost by accident, while helping measure flour for the biscuits her grandmother makes every week. Something small and hard clinks against the metal scoop at the bottom of the flour tin. She lifts it out and brushes off the white powder. She holds up the ring, hardly believing what she's looking at.

Talia-lah yang akhirnya menemukannya, nyaris tanpa sengaja, ketika membantu menakar tepung untuk biskuit yang dibuat neneknya setiap minggu. Sesuatu yang kecil dan keras berdenting di sendok takar logam di dasar kaleng tepung. Ia mengangkatnya dan mengibaskan serbuk putih yang menempel. Ia mengangkat cincin itu, nyaris tak percaya pada apa yang dilihatnya.

Her grandmother laughs so suddenly that she has to sit down. She explains that she always takes the ring off before baking, so the dough doesn't stick to it. She must have dropped it into the tin instead of the usual dish without noticing, distracted by the phone ringing at exactly the wrong moment.

Nenek tertawa begitu tiba-tiba sampai-sampai harus duduk. Ia menjelaskan bahwa ia selalu melepas cincinnya sebelum memanggang, supaya adonan tidak menempel. Pasti cincin itu terjatuh ke dalam kaleng, bukan ke piring seperti biasanya, tanpa ia sadari, karena perhatiannya teralihkan oleh telepon yang berdering di saat yang paling tidak tepat.

Talia thinks about how close she came to saying something unfair to Ezra. He had done nothing wrong at all, except arrive on the same day as a very ordinary accident. If she had said anything to him earlier, the whole afternoon would have felt very different for both of them. When he walks past a few minutes later, she bumps his shoulder with hers. She doesn't explain why, just glad she never said anything out loud.

Talia memikirkan betapa dekatnya ia dengan mengatakan sesuatu yang tidak adil kepada Ezra. Ezra sama sekali tidak bersalah, kecuali karena tiba di hari yang sama dengan sebuah kecelakaan yang sangat biasa. Seandainya ia mengatakan sesuatu kepada Ezra lebih awal, seluruh sore itu akan terasa sangat berbeda bagi mereka berdua. Ketika Ezra lewat beberapa menit kemudian, Talia menyenggol bahunya dengan bahunya sendiri. Ia tidak menjelaskan alasannya, hanya lega karena tidak pernah mengatakan apa pun keras-keras.