Sands Of Time

Ten

Tara was sitting in the hush of her thoughts when Jaemin's door creaked open and let in a strong new source of light from the hallway. Tara jumped back into reality and shot her nervous eyes onto the door. After tonight, Tara just couldn't relax. Jaemin wavered into the room with Henry stumbling along beside him, slamming the door shut behind him with a buck of his foot, and then led him through the room and over to the bed. He brought Henry's arm around from his shoulders and then pushed him down onto the bed next to Mark. Henry snorted and, rolling over to face Mark, lapped his tongue noisily upon the roof of his mouth. Tara was amusingly surprised to see the two of them wrap their arms around each other and snuggle up together like love-buddies. Jaemin scrunched his nose up softly and then turned around with a shake of his head and walked over to Tara; it was then that Tara noticed he was carrying the red bag that contained the Emerald Heart.

Tara carefully pushed herself up into a sitting position and then slipped her feet down onto the floor. Jaemin stopped in front of her and held the bag out to her. She looked up at him and he raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"It's yours. Take it." He scoffed.

Tara looked back down at the bag and took it from his hand. He walked around the table and removed his damp, dark jacket and hung it over a stool in the kitchen when he entered it. As he began opening and closing cupboards, Tara narrowed her eyes down upon the red bag and slowly unzipped it. She was so quiet as she slipped her uninjured hand into the bag and felt around for a specific treasure. It was as though her own single breath, if it were loud enough, would make it disappear from existence. She finally felt the cold, silver chain and, closing her fingers around it, pulled it out and held it up so that it dangled down in front of her. A distant, dreamy smile tweaked in the corner of her lips and she brought it down to cup the silver ring that hung from it within the grooves of its fingers.

Tara smiled.

Tara walked down the autumn-kissed street with one hand holding onto that of a beautiful, tall woman with red, straight hair that came down to the middle of her back. The breeze was fresh and the afternoon sun smiled down at them both. Tara felt her thumb rub against something and pulled her mother's hand closer to her face. The squinted her innocent eyes in concentration and suddenly smiled as soon as she knew what it was she had felt.

"Where did you get this ring, mom?" She asked.

Her mother blinked and looked down at Tara "My ring?"

Tara nodded and smiled up at her "The emerald one, here."

Her mother smiled one of her beautiful smiles and chuckled "Why, sweetie, that's my wedding ring."

"Wedding ring... did you get that for your wedding then?" She asked with interest.

Tara's mother giggled softly at her six year old "Oh, sweetheart... A wedding ring is given to a husband and wife to show that they are married. It represents ever-lasting life, just as love it ever-lasting That's why the circle never ends."

Tara's eyes gleamed dreamily "Daddy gave it to you."

She nodded and came to a stop at the end of the pavement to check for any cars before she crossed over with Tara "Yes... daddy did. And I gave one to him, too" She glanced down at Tara as she heard her sigh happily "You shall have one, too, one day darling."

Tara gasped excitedly and looked up at her "Daddy will get me a ring, too??"

Tara's mother smiled knowingly and used her other hand to brush a lock of auburn brown hair away from Tara's cheek "... Something like that."