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The Ring and the Crown
By Daniel Perkins AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2016 Daniel Perkins
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5246-3949-5
CHAPTER 1
Lizzy and her husband, Steve, were newlyweds who lived in a house made from red brick and wood shingles.
Beautiful grass covered the front and backyard, and a flower garden provided a boundary along the fence.
In a far corner of the backyard under the lilac bush, there was another house. But this house was not made from brick and wood. It was built out of dirt. It housed millions of worker ants and a queen who was sad.
The queen's name was Jan. She had felt sad for many years because she didn't have a crown. The workers had tried to give her many crowns, always seeking to please the queen. They made a crown from a cigarette butt, but the queen said it smelled. The workers designed a crown from flower petals, but that crown wilted. One night, some workers even brought home some small twigs and made a crown, but when the queen tried it on, she got splinters in her head. Finally, the workers made a crown from a plastic soda top. But when Queen Jan tried it on, it didn't fit.
Four years passed, and Queen Jan still did not have a crown. The worker ants had a party in her honor, but that didn't cheer her up. The workers gave her all kinds of presents, but that too did little to cheer her.
While the queen's discontent grew, Lizzy and Steve became happier and happier. They loved their home, and every weekend during the spring, they worked in their yard. They planted flowers and put in a small vegetable garden in their backyard.
One warm spring evening, Lizzy and Steve worked late into the evening, mowing the yard and trimming the bushes. After they were done, Lizzy washed her hands and noticed that the diamond to her engagement ring was missing. Lizzy rushed outside with a flashlight. Steve joined her when he saw Lizzy through the kitchen window, looking around the backyard with a flashlight. "Oh Steve, I lost the diamond from my ring!" Lizzy cried.
"We'll find it," Steve said, trying to comfort her.
They looked for an hour but could not find Lizzy's diamond. It was getting late, so they went to bed. But Lizzy could not sleep for a long time. Some worker ants from the colony under the lilac bush were looking for food during the night when they came across the diamond. At first, they thought it was food and tried to taste it. But as the clouds moved across the sky, the moon appeared, and the diamond shone brightly against the night. "It's beautiful," said one of the workers.
The worker stood, looking at the diamond, amazed at its beauty.
"Let's give this to our queen as her crown," said the worker.
The ants agreed. They tied grass ropes around the diamond and dragged it back to the colony.
When the ants got the diamond inside the nest, the colony's finest craftsmen quietly measured the queen's head while she slept. Then they made a crown to hold the diamond.
In the morning when Queen Jan woke, she saw the crown next to her bed. The diamond glistened in the morning light. A rainbow of colors splashed against her sleeping chamber wall.
Queen Jan placed the crown on her head, and for the first time, she truly felt like a queen. When she walked out of her chamber, millions of worker ants stood outside, waiting to see her. All the ants cheered as Queen Jan walked proudly into the hall. As she walked by, each worker ant bowed in awe of how she looked in her new crown. It was just what Queen Jan needed.
Throughout the day Queen Jan walked around her ant kingdom, inspecting the tunnels, the nurseries, and her soldiers. Wherever she went, a rainbow of colors shone from her crown and brightened everything she saw. All of the workers were happy because the queen was happy.
That night Queen Jan went to the royal chamber to sleep. She did not want to take off her crown, and she dreamed only good dreams. In one dream she dreamed that her workers found plenty of food. She dreamed that a hill of sugar appeared just outside the entrance to their kingdom.
In another dream she dreamed that an endless supply of ladybug pies was lined up on a table as far as the eye could see, and she dreamed that there was peace among all of the ant colonies in the backyard.
The next morning a bunch of worker ants burst into Queen Jan's chamber and told her that water was flooding the colony. They would have to move. They quickly rushed her into a dry tunnel, but in Queen Jan's haste, the crown fell off her head and tumbled into a tunnel that was already filling up with water. Queen Jan started to run after her crown, but one of the worker ants stopped her and rushed her to safety.
Above ground, a puddle of water formed in the backyard. Lizzy saw it from the kitchen window. She walked into the backyard and watched the puddle become a small pool. Lizzy walked back into the house and called a plumber.
When the plumber got there, he looked at the pool of water and told Lizzy that a water pipe had burst and that his crew would have to dig up the backyard.
Lizzy stood and watched the men digging up her beautiful backyard. The grass that Steve had worked so hard to keep green was now covered up by dirt and mud.
Deep down in Queen Jan's colony, they felt the ground around them shaking while they worked to escape from the water by digging new tunnels.
Once the plumber and his crew had dug down to the leaking pipe, they started working to replace it. Lizzy walked over to watch the repair. As she stood by the mound of dirt and mud, she looked down and saw something sparkle. It was her diamond! She quickly picked it up. She noticed a metal ring around it and pulled it off. She was puzzled by how the metal had gotten attached to it, but feeling happy that she had found what she had thought was lost forever, she soon forgot about that small detail. Lizzy smiled as she held the diamond in her hand. It shone brightly in the sunlight.
By digging a new entrance to their colony under the lilac bush, a group of six workers ants made it to the surface. They saw the twinkle of the diamond in the midday sun and watched as Lizzy walked toward the house.
"We have to get the queen's crown back," a worker said.
The worker ant went back to tell Queen Jan what had happened to her crown.
When Queen Jan heard that Lizzy had taken her crown, she cried. The worker ants felt sad for her, but they did not know what to do. So they dug out a brand-new sleeping chamber so she could sleep for the night.
That night as Lizzy got ready for bed, she felt happy that she had found her diamond. She put the diamond on her nightstand, kissed Steve good night, and fell fast asleep. She rested comfortably in her bed and dreamed about her ring. In her dreams Lizzy saw herself standing in a giant room with hundreds of ants. In the center of the room was a very sad queen ant with a crown on her head, but the crown was missing its jewel. Lizzy realized that the space was just the size for her diamond.
Lizzy walked forward to meet the queen and bowed before her. The queen took Lizzy's hand and said, "Please return my diamond."
A few seconds later, Lizzy woke up. She didn't know why she'd had such a dream, but she felt peaceful. Then she fell back asleep.
But in the ant colony under the lilac bush, some of the worker ants were restless because they were worried about their queen. They got up and wandered through the endless maze of tunnels, thinking about how happy the queen had been wearing her crown. Other ants slept soundly because they were so tired after they dug the brand-new tunnels to escape the leaking water pipe.
Queen Jan tossed and turned through the night. She didn't sleep well, and like her workers, she dreamed about her crown and how happy she had been wearing it. While she dreamed, she heard a voice say, "Return the diamond on the day after the first frost."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Ring and the Crown by Daniel Perkins. Copyright © 2016 Daniel Perkins. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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