The Day I Found The Ring

This is a post about something that happened between Shivam and I a few months ago. It still makes me giggle so I thought I would share it with you all this week.

I came across a random ring on my bedroom floor. It was a piece of costume jewellery and definitely not one of mine. Sukh told me he had found it inside our bed earlier that morning and had placed it on the floor next to the bed, as he was still snoozing.

I wondered aloud whom the item could belong to. I asked Shalini if it was hers but she said she had never seen it before either. Shivam heard our conversation and what ensued was the funniest exchange we have had for a while.

“Mummy, I know where the ring came from.”

“Whose is it?” I asked. At this, Shivam decided to perch on my bed. He looked so serious, yet there was real mischief in his eyes.

“The ring is Daddy’s girlfriend’s”. I giggled to myself and Sukh, who was within earshot, came hurriedly into the room. Shivam has been winding me up about this ‘mysterious girlfriend’ of Daddy’s for a while now. Apparently they met in LA a couple of years ago when both boys had gone to see family.

They had gone for a day out to the Wild Card Gym, where boxer Manny Pacquio trains. Both Sukh and Shivam are fans of Manny and after one of the biggest bouts in boxing history between Mayweather and Pacquio, visiting the gym where the latter trained was a must-do.

So as it goes, this ‘girlfriend’ asked Daddy to take a photo of her and according to Shivam’s imagination, they kissed right there and then in front of him. He told me months ago that he felt sad when this all happened. He didn’t want a new mummy.

I’m not in the slightest bit concerned about the incident, nor do I find myself questioning Sukh over these allegations. Shivam is a wind-up merchant and I love him for it.

So the conversation continued. “How did the ring get into the bed?”

“While you were away Daddy had a sleepover”. I often go away for work and recently I was abroad for nearly two weeks. “It was Daddy’s American girlfriend. It’s her ring.”

“What was she doing here?” I asked. Sukh was laughing out loud at each and every word that came out of my Shivam’s mouth. I, on the other hand, was really intrigued as to just how far his trail of thought would take him.

“They were snogging all night – and they were naked. And she gave Daddy the ring to remember her”. I knew if it went too far I would stop him talking but this was still harmless. It’s not as if eight-year-old boys don’t know about things like kissing or being naked with things like Eastenders or Modern Family on in the house. Not to mention the things kids pick up from one another in school.

I felt like this conversation could comfortably continue as I was enjoying it immensely.

“When does she come to the house?”

“Every time you are on a work trip, she comes to stay with Daddy”.

I probed further. “Where were you?”

“I slept in Shalini’s room”. His room was being decorated at this point so he had been bunking in with us for a while. Obviously with ‘Daddy’s girlfriend’ being over, he had had to vacate his usual sleeping spot.

He continued. “I don’t think Daddy’s girlfriend should meet Grandad because he might like her more than he likes you.” Shivam knows how good a relationship I have with my father-in-law so he’s obviously given this a lot of thought. I’m a 10 out of 10 in this department so this imaginary girlfriend would have to be at least an eleven!

“What shall I do if Grandad likes her more than me?”

“Run away”.

“Why should I run away?”

“Because Daddy cheated on you. Daddy doesn’t love you anymore”. This was all a great joke for both Sukh and I and we were literally laughing so hard by now. I knew we were egging Shivam on a bit but he’s just so hilarious sometimes that we couldn’t help it.

“Then you won’t have Daddy’s name anymore…you will have to go back to your other name’. I couldn’t believe how much he had thought this through.

‘But what would happen to you?’

He told me he and Shalini would be coming with me but that they would still have the same surname as Daddy. Daddy would have a family with Selina (oh yes, suddenly she now had a name). I didn’t probe into why that name or where he had heard it.

After he said this, he went off to play with his toys. Wow, I thought. What an intense, humorous and intriguing conversation we had just had – and just like that, he ended it and off he went.

Since that day, we’ve laughed about all of this with Shivam so many times and at least once every couple of weeks, he will remind me Daddy has a girlfriend called Selina. He tries to wind me up about it all the time and I just play along. Funnily enough, Sukh has just gone to Las Vegas for a few days for his cousin’s stag do. I knew Shivam’s mind had been working overtime all week and as Sukh left yesterday, Shivam had a parting shot for him. ‘I know you’re going to see Selina.’ Again he had me and Sukh in stitches. What an imagination!