In The Garden

It was a glorious spring day! The birds had formed a choir and were singing a cantata to the Creator. The sun shone in brilliant waves of joy and the breeze ruffled ones hair with gladness!

           Sibbyll, a golden brown and white puppy of indeterminate heritage was ready to go out to play! “Just a minute Sibby! I’ve got to find my shoes!” Magda tried to explain the delay. Magda was short of stature and small boned. Her blond hair was in a short bob, short enough that it couldn’t be tied back but just long enough to fall in her eyes.

 Sibby was impatient. She jumped and barked and tried to nudge Magda to hurry her up. Just then Magda bent forward to look in the closet, in she tumbled head first. “Ouch! Sibby, wait a minute! Oh, there they are!” Magda extracted a pair of dusty, worn shoes from the closet. Upon examination, she determined that they were sturdy enough of sole to push a spade so she put them on. She removed her gardening apron from its hook, tied it around her waist and smoothed it on her hips. She checked to see that the small tools, gloves and other necessary items were in place. Then she removed her wide brimmed hat from the top shelf and tied it on so the breeze would not blow it away. When everything was finally in place she and Sibby headed for the garden.

           Magda tied Sibby to a tree so she wouldn’t wander off while she was rototilling the garden. Magda dragged her rototiller from the shed and pulled the rope to start it. After a few pulls the rototiller droned into action and away they went, around and around and back and forth in the small garden plot.

Meanwhile, in the way puppies do, Sibby was soon tangled around the tree. When she could no longer run or jump at the end of her rope, Sibbyll lay down in the grass and watched the birds and the insects around her.

           As Magda was making the last pass around the garden, she felt the rototiller strike something solid. She stopped the machine and bent down to look but didn’t see anything immediately. “Must have been a rock,” she muttered. Magda finished her job, then she untied Sibby before she put the rototiller back in the shed.

           When Magda returned from putting the rototiller away, Sibby was digging in the garden. “Come Sibby”, Magda called. She turned to go back to the house but Sibby was still digging. “What did you find?” she asked as she bent over to take a look. Something shiny caught her eye. What was it? Magda tried to remove the shiny object with her fingers but it wouldn’t come. She went to the shed for a spade and returned. After some digging she discovered that there was a shiny box but it appeared to be held in place by a tree root. Back to the shed she went again and found a small saw. Finally, she was able to extricate the ring box from the root and the ground. Inside was a diamond ring. “What’s this?” Magda was surprised.

           Back at the house, with a glass of lemonade on the porch and Sibby at her feet, Magda examined the box and the ring. The box was dirty and dented but the ring inside appeared to be in fine shape. But where had it come from and to whom did it belong?

           Magda had bought the house and moved in the previous fall when she got a teaching job at the school. So she had no idea of the history of the house or where the ring might have come from. As she sat there contemplating what she should do, her neighbour, Isabel peeked over the fence and called to her. “Hi Magda.”

           Magda looked up, “Hi Isabel, come over here for a minute please.”

           When Isabel arrived, Magda handed her the box and said, “Look what Sibby and I found in the garden.” Isabel was suitably surprised.

“Wow! That’s quite a find? Whose is it?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. It must have been there for a while, a tree root was grown around it so I had a bit of trouble getting it out of there. But I’ve only been here for a short time so I have no idea whose it could be. What do you know about the history of this place?”

           Magda got Isabel a glass of lemonade and sat down beside her on the porch swing. Isabel was deep in thought. “When I moved here five years ago,” she mused, “there was an old man living here. He passed away a couple of years ago and the Stones, the couple you bought from, came here. They left last year to move closer to their grandchildren. Let me do some investigating and see what I can find.”

           A few days later, Isabel called Magda. “Are you free this evening? There’s someone I would like you to meet. He might be able to answer your questions about who lived here previously”.

           “Sure thing”, Magda replied. “Do you want to bring him over here tonight?”

           Later that evening, Isabel introduced Magda to Mark. “Mark works at the municipal office.” Mark was in his late thirties and was average height and build but it was his eyes that Magda found remarkable. They were deep blue and Magda thought they were the kindest eyes she had ever seen. Just then Sibby decided that she would like to meet the new man too. She barked and jumped up. “Down Sibby!” Magda commanded.

 Mark squatted down to Sibby’s level. “Who is this cute little animal?” She sniffed his hands and he began to pet her. 

“This is Sibbyll or Sibby for short. Please come in everyone, so we can talk”

When everyone was seated around Magda’s kitchen table, she had served them coffee and cookies, and Sibby was curled up at Mark’s feet, Magda asked Mark what he could tell her about people who might have lived there before. “You see, I found something in the garden and I thought I might try to return it to family or something.” She looked a little flustered as if she didn’t quite know where to go from there.

“Well,” Mark began, “As you know, the Stones lived here just before you, and before that there was only one man to own this property, and that was my uncle, Edward Johnson.”

“Did he have any other family?” Magda asked.

“No, only my dad. Uncle Ed never married so he had no children and when my Mom and Dad were killed in a car accident, that left me as the only remaining relative.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Magda covered her face with her hands.  “How terrible for you.”

Mark smiled, “It was hard at the time, but I’m okay with it now, it’s been a while.”

When they had finished their coffee and cookies, Magda produced the ring box that she and Sibby had found and explained how they had found it. Mark opened the box. “The mystery ring!” he exclaimed. “I wasn’t really sure it existed! You see, Uncle Ed was in love with a woman named Inga many, many years ago when he was young. It seems he asked her to marry him and she turned him down. He had told my dad that he had bought her a ring and was going to ask her to marry him. But when the marriage fell through, no one knew what had happened to the ring. Uncle Ed never mentioned it again. He must have thrown it away.” Mark sat silently for a moment. “Thank you and Sibby for finding it.” He said finally and got up to leave.

“You are welcome,” Magda smiled as she pushed her hair behind her ears, “Glad we could help solve a mystery. Please come again”.

Mark and Isabel took their leave. But that was the beginning of a friendship between Mark and Magda and Sibby.

In the weeks that followed, Mark called on Magda and they went out together, discovered the surrounding area and learned much about each other.

 A year later, Mark called on Magda. It was again, a warm spring evening. As Sibby wandered sniffing through the grass, Mark suddenly dropped to one knee beneath the tree where Sibby and Magda had uncovered the ring box. Mark produced the ring box from his pocket and holding it out to her he said, “Magda, will you marry me? I would love to give this ring back to you officially!”

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “Yes! I will marry you!” Mark enfolded her in his arms and kissed her. Sibby, fearing she was missing something, came to stand between them and barked as if to say, “What about me?”

Mark laughed, “Of course, Sibby, you too!”

And that is how Magda became the official owner of the ring she and Sibby had found.