Gemotions

The dingy pawn shop, smelling of dust and desperation, swam into focus. Sarah’s vision blurred. Before her, in a tarnished glass case, rested the diamond ring. The ring her grandfather had given his wife on their wedding day. The ring she had treasured, hearing stories about.

She’d thought it gone forever, lost after the fire at her family home. Her head reeled. She felt a tremor run through her body, starting at her toes. She wanted to yell, to scream. She wanted to be sick.

She approached the counter, her legs unsteady. The woman behind the counter, her face lined with a perpetual frown, asked if she needed help. "That ring..." Sarah started, her voice catching. "I... I need to buy that ring." Her mind raced, calculating how she could obtain the funds.