The Ring Chapter 14

 

MARGO LOUD STENER

NOT A SPEAR of asparagus nor a drop of bearnaise sauce was left on either Hans-Peter’s plate or hers. The waitress, dressed in a traditional dirndl, walked over to the table. “Coffee?”

They nodded.

“Dessert?”

“Nein bitte,” spoken together.

When she left, Hans-Peter leaned back in his chair. “I don’t think I’ll ever eat again.”

“Until tomorrow.” Margo fell back on their old verbal traditions.

She remembered the restaurant from when she and Hans-Peter had lived nearby. It was located between the airport and where they later lived and Hans-Peter still did on the edge of Stuttgart.

The only thing that had changed was the waitress, replacing the old woman who had worked there a decade ago. Instead of driving to his place when he’d picked her up at the train station, he suggested they eat here.

Bethany had caught a train to Tübingen saying she needed to go directly to her lab.

The walls of the restaurant were wood panels. The blue check curtains matched the tablecloth. A deer’s head was over the fireplace. Put the details together and it could be called a stereotype of a German restaurant, except it had been owned by the same family from the mid-1800s, making it a model for stereotypes.

The weather wasn’t quite spring warm, making eating outside almost but not quite a choice. A fire was dying in the fireplace.

“Do you ever miss Germany?” Hans-Peter asked Margo.

“Sometimes. The thing is with my work I don’t pay much attention to whatever country I’m in. I’ve created this studio that doubles as a nest. You’ve seen it.”

“And it’s so you.”

Then she thought of the ring that she and Heather had fought over and told him the story. She also told him of all the things that went wrong whenever she wore it.

“If I believed in curses, I would think my grandmother or mother put a curse on it. This broken ankle was the last. Maybe I can sell the ring.”

“That may be a little hasty. Most societies have some type of curses.” He didn’t agree or disagree as he used to do. “Why not give it to Bethany?”

“Give a cursed ring to our daughter?”

“Dumb idea.”