The Lost Earring

Returning to my college hostel after the 10 day spring break I shifted from wearing my usual gold stud to a small silver earring. It was a simple but pretty piece of ornament.(No, not the one you see above. I downloaded that picture from the internet.) Though it had oxidized a bit here and there I still loved it. And not been much of an ornament wearer it was the only pair I owned. Two or three days later while sitting and chatting with my batch mates in the front veranda, one of my friends noticed that I was wearing only one earring. As you can imagine my hand instantly went to my ear lobes and felt the disappointing absence of my right earring.Frowning to myself I quickly went back to my room carefully scanning the path as I went. I searched my bed, tried sweeping the floor, looked into drawers, cupboards, bags and even inside my tea cup but to no avail. So I removed my other earring and for the next week went about earring less till the second Saturday when I went back home. My mother started the usual talks. You know the one you pretend you are oblivious to. She went on about my carelessness, her fear of even imagining my future, the value of that earring etc while I went on flicking the channels on the television. Anyways I came back to hostel with my usual gold stud and was careful to tighten its screw every now and then. After some months while rummaging inside my clothes case I saw a glint of light in between the clothes. And it was my lost earring! (Smug and Happy!!) Feeling triumphant and thinking about my mother's wasted speech I quickly called her and complacently declared the good news. After she hung up I had this immense urge to try it on. And then I realized I couldn't remember where I had kept the other earring. During the confusion of losing one earring I had carelessly placed the other one somewhere. Here we go again, I thought.