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Hunger is consuming. Saoirse raised her long fingers to comb her charcoal hair. Until the palms pressed into her temples. Then she curled her fingers to gather and pull out her hair, if she could. The paid bills kept her in comfort but there are no groceries. The pain of pulling her hair out was no distraction to a pinching stomach.
Saoirse stood centre of her living room. It was Pinterest perfect. There was plenty more to do but she couldn't think on anything. She had to get out. Saoirse grabbed her house keys and sunnies but didn't bother with the purse. She left the house barefoot.
The baking sidewalk and road underfoot were unpleasant distractions. At first, Saoirse didn't know where she'd prefer to be. But soon found herself near the Goblin Forest Walk. A mosaic path ran alongside a nameless, inner-city, creek. It wasn't a particularly 'kid friendly' area.
Saoirse watched her rolling steps, toe-to-heel, toe-to-heel. Moving forwards by taking backward steps. The mosaic underfoot had ugly fairies and elves trying to look playful.
Then, in her periphery, she noticed something shiny in the tufts of spiky grass on the path's edge. Saoirse kneeled to pick up a delicate rectangle of green crystal attached to silver. An emerald ring. Pretty. She put it on the ring finger of her right hand.
Saoirse stopped altogether to look at the shiny ring. It must be a costume jewel though it looked real to her. She raises her sunnies to the top of her head and look closer. The stone looks so clean and very real. She wants it to be real, of course.
While preoccupied, Saoirse didn't notice a mother pushing a pram. Until the other woman cleared her throat to say, "excuse me please."
Saoirse jumped out of her skin and danced off the path for the pram.
"Thank you," says the stranger, pushing past.
Saoirse held her hand up, "I found this," she blurted out.
"Sorry?" said the stranger, looking at the back of Saoirse's upheld hand. Saoirse wished she'd not said anything.
"I found this, do you think I should hand it in?"
"The grass?" asked the stranger.
"What grass?" Saoirse replies.
"Sorry," says the stranger and pushes the pram on and away from the crazy lady.
Saoirse didn't hand the valuable ring to the police and she didn't try selling it either. She refused to take the ring off. She kept floating her hand in front of her face so the glint would catch her eye.
She was so distracted with the ring that Saoirse no longer felt any hunger whatsoever. And when more money came to her she used only a small amount to buy food.
It became Saoirse's hope, the person who lost an emerald ring might have lost something else. She returned to the Walk and traveled the path, start to finish, searching along its edges.
Nothing.
After she had given up and was walking home when she stepped wrong and gasped at a sharp pain in the sole of her foot. Saoirse looked down and saw two glittering rubies. They were set into the path itself as the plump fruit carried by a rose-fairy. Checking no one else walked the path, she kneeled and dug her square nails into he mosaic cement. Until she held a pair of round ruby earrings. The backing had been their anchor into the cement. Saoirse immediately wore them.
Later that evening, Saoirse Facetimed her mother and showed off her jewelry.
"I don't understand," the elderly woman said. "All I see is some sort of red stone."
"Yeah. Rubies," Saoirse insisted.
"No, darling. Not what I mean. Are you eating at all?"
"When I'm hungry," Saoirse replied somewhat dejected. She couldn't understand why people didn't like beautiful things like she did.
Saoirse began using the Walk for all her errands. Any time she needed to walk to the shops or to the post office she traveled out of her way to walk the Goblin Forest Walk. And did it again on her way home.
One early evening, carrying melting ice cream, she saw the glint of something valuable. Like a line of blinking stars ahead of her on the path. Saoirse dropped her shopping bag and forgot about it completely. Picking up the first star, she had picked up a chain of stars and found herself with a diamond necklace. Again, she put the jewelry on without thought or hesitation.
Now, Saoirse convinced herself she needed to go along the Walk everyday and again at night. Yet, she found nothing for weeks. Soon, Saoirse began returning to the Walk every few hours of the day. Returning home for good only when it was too dark for a lone woman to be out in this isolated area. Yet, the hours spent away from the Walk played on her mind and she felt there would be something to miss out on.
Saoirse disregarded her safety and went back to the Walk. And on this particular night, she found right away a golden crown nestled in with a patch of dandelions. Rewarded for her persistence, Saoirse crowned herself.
No one knows what happened to Saoirse. It's doubtful Saoirse understood it herself.
She was found near the entrance of the Goblin Forest Walk. One of the first responders had joked she could've died of starvation. Murder was the assumption: a woman found in the early morning hours in an isolated place. Laid out as straight as an arrow. Grass entwined on her right hand ring finger. Red rocks placed, without bruising, into her ears. White pebbles scattered on her chest. And a wreath of many kinds of yellow flowers worn like a crown.