“Oh, no, he swallowed my ring.” I jumped out of the bed, screaming the words I never thought I’d utter. Randall had woken up a few minutes earlier and had started playing with my rings just as usual, by taking them off and putting them back on my fingers time after time. I wasn’t alerted when he put one of the rings into his mouth. We always thought he was not the type that would swallow such things.

But he did. By accident. He was lying down on his back, and the ring slid into his throat. He gagged, and for that one second I was hoping he would cough the thing out. But it was gone. He swallowed it.

Randall seemed just fine as we rushed to emergency room, probably just wondering why we had taken a taxi trip without his schoolbag. I was so scared that I even avoided searching google, usually the first thing I’d turn to whenever something new came up with my son. The online results could be comforting, or could be worrying. Then there came a relief when the nurses at the reception laughed, “he will pass it out”.

He would, the doctor confirmed, after the Randall’s first X-ray pictures showed that the ring was in his stomach. Sunday morning, as I was going through his fourth poop diaper in two days, I got my ring back.