The Pink Earring

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The smallest thing can contain the germ of a story.

April 18, 2022 

It was one of those days when spring seemed just around the corner, no longer playing hide and seek. Returning from a walk, with my dog of course, I reached up to put the key in the lock and noticed something glittering on my doorstep. I bent down and picked it up, a tiny silvery earring, light as a butterfly. An oval pinkish drop with a silver dot at the center, there were three rays at the top on either side. It could only be a child’s earring. Probably a surprise found in a chocolate easter egg. Once inside and seated at my desk, further scrutiny revealed it to be the head of a deer, rather Disney-like, with antlers in the form of silvery rays and a nose in the shape of a silvery dot. The silver wire from which it hung would have attached it to the earlobe. It must have had a partner.

The owner was nowhere in sight, but I could envision a small girl sitting on the step while her mother was seeing to her baby brother who was making a fuss. She was so small and her pretty party dress with its ruffles made her feel grown up. She patiently waited and took the little plastic packet she had found in her chocolate Easter egg from her pink purse and opened it. Inside, attached to a card, were two silvery earrings. She smiled and held one up to her ear and couldn’t wait to have her ears pierced so she could wear it. Just then her mother called and said let’s go, honey. She hurriedly slipped the little plastic bag back into her purse, not noticing that it now contained only one earring. She would have been dismayed when she realized that one was missing but that wasn’t till later, at lunch time, and she couldn’t remember where she had lost it.

The chocolate had been eaten, and she had been careful not to smudge her fingers or her dress. But she still had one silvery earring to remind her of this special day.