The Drive (Part Three)

"Let's not talk about it until we leave." He looked pale.

"ok." I figure he is bearly holding on. If it were me. I'd be useless. You'd have to take me in and out of there on a stretcher with marionette strings on my wrists and mouth so I could conclude the transaction. I'd at least have to wear a diaper.

Caleb was doing much better than that. He was intense. keeping busy. looking around. We puttered around the showcases pointing and muttering while waiting for that alchemist-looking-guy on the other side of this short sort of wall to finish doing WHATEVER he was doing.

On the other side of that counter-thing was, all sorts of machinery, lights, magifying glasses, scales, a kilne, it was messy but organized i'm sure. and a really really big safe. He wore a thick leather apron, gray hair in that brill-creme sort of way, he definitely likes his elvis. Very welcoming in manner, Obviously very happy with his place in life. I'm sure he likes making jewelry and more than that he deals with people at their happiest and most excited all-day, every-day, all year-round.

Finally he came over and showed us the ring. White gold and ten perfect little diamonds. It was something else. Then it dawned on me. "Girl, your going to be a woman soon." I pictured in on her finger and all the sudden, though she's ten years my junior, she was about to be much older than me. Married... with a ring and everything. Here's the ring there's no denying it. nuts. I've noticed every experience worth a damn is always two-part it gives something and it also takes something away. Wow. Am I ever far from getting married. There's a little piece of emptiness for ya.

But how classy is this. He gets a ring MADE... ok ok ok let's do this from the beginning. He makes his mind he wants to do this. Jeesus I can't even say it! For those of us that have never done this, that's an inconceivable step. Am I Right? Then he looks at jewelry on the side without her knowing and HAS ONE MADE! with diamonds and gold from a pro. I was there, this is no bull-shit story. It takes a month to make a freaking ring... a MONTH! I can't keep my mouth shut for 3 hours let alone 30 days! Man! of course this is why he didn't tell me which he was all apologetic about when we were out for a drink after, but come on. DON"T TELL ME. I would probably yell at him "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TELLING ME. I'm going to hemerage. I'll have a fucking STROKE trying to keep this in."

For a moment I felt like I was in the men's club, that mysterious place I keep hearing so much about, not the boys club of dirty jokes, cigars and poker games but the men's club, it was as he told us all the wisdom of the moment:

"Here let me wipe the finger prints off it. She won't like to see any finger prints." He eyed the ring greedily. Caleb handed him the ring. It was then realized how precious this ring was.

As he worked over the ring with a cloth he said, "She should be the first one to touch it, you guys, that's ok, But she should be the first woman to touch it."

He rinsed it off and continued to work it over. "I don't understand these guys who come in with there friends and they're girls. A woman's first instinct is to put it on."

He eyes the ring still holding it in the cloth then fits it back into the box. "No. Your girl should be the first one to put it on, if she knew, another woman had it on first. She would be savage."

I pick up the box and give it one, last, good look.

He watched us look at it. He smiled proudly. "Look at it under that light." he said pointing to a light over the show case. "It should really dance under that light."

It did. Sort of awed by it, I thought to myself "I'm a long way from buying one of these." There was a time when I was much closer to buying one of these. That seems like forever ago now.

Caleb trades a big stack of hundreds and fifties for this little black box with another littler black box in it that has a little piece a metal with little stones stuck in it. BIG little little little.

"I bet you didn't know he was carrying all that money with him when he walked in here."

"Hell, If I knew, he wouldn't have walked in here."

We all laughed and the tension finally started to fade. Caleb was all smiles and now looked more like he was kicked in the head rather than in the guts. Dizzy rather than winded.

He crammed the box in his pocket. It was huge and square. We walked away from that little shop as if we got away with a crime, smiling and excited, like thieves or vandals, unsure of what to do next. So much attention was focused on and in that moment, that a void followed it. We were a little lost. The change in pressure, the relief, it stunned us. So, of course, we went for scotch.

Today's Song of the Day is 'Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes' by Paul Simon off his 1986 album 'Graceland.'

Crazy Fact: Graceland became his biggest-selling solo album and won him another Album of the Year Grammy. CRAZY!

njoy