The Empress’s Ring by Nancy Hale, 1953
The magic trick:
Referencing the woman who gave the narrator the ring as a gift
N is for Nancy.
Sweet and simple slice of memoir fiction today from Nancy Hale. The narrator recalls the memory of her 8-year-old self loving a gift so much that she lost it in a sandbox. The plot lays a bit flat, to be honest. But I loved the reference to her childhood admiration to the woman who gave her the ring. It’s a brief description, but it is touchingly relatable and sets up the story’s stakes.
And that’s quite a trick on Hale’s part.
The selection:
It was given to me, I think on my eighth birthday, by a family friend whom I called Aunt and who was herself so erect, so blond, so high-voiced that I thought of her privately as a princess. I was told that she had bought the ring in an auction room in Vienna and brought it home – all for me.
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