Found it! Some of my writing

It's a little rough. I wrote it 10 years ago. Still, I wanted to share it with you all. This may just be the book I end up finishing. Fingers crossed and all that...read on.

Rough hands shook her arm.

“Beth, wake up!”

Bolting upright from the couch where she had fallen asleep, Beth paused at the sight of her mother sitting next to her.

 “How long was I sleeping?” Beth asked rubbing her eyes. As she raised her hands to her face, she noticed the ring on her finger. It was her good friend Elsie’s present to her. She looked at the ring closely for the first time. A vision of a man putting a ring on a beautiful, long-haired brunette’s finger flashed before her eyes. She closed her eyes trying to remember the dream in more detail.

“How you can doze off like that in the middle of the day is beyond me,” her mother chastised. “I was knocking on your door for 10 minutes before I let myself in.” 

Opening her eyes, Beth noticed the pile of mail her mother placed on the coffee table in front of her.

“I’m sorry mom. I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she replied absently, looking through the stack of envelopes. The silver of the ring seemed to wink at her in the lamplight. She must have incorporated the ring into her dream she thought distractedly. The whole thing seemed so real.

“Are you ready to go?” her mother interrupted her thoughts.

“Go?” Beth questioned.

“Have you forgotten already? I talked to you yesterday about shopping for your sister’s engagement present. Tom gave me the most wonderful idea. Did you hear where he took your sister last weekend? When are you going to find a man like that?”

Beth’s mother rattled on about her sister’s fiancé as if Beth hadn’t already heard how wonderful he was a thousand times already. It was a sore point between Beth and her mother. Beth could never date a man her mother approved of. Tom was her sister’s first serious boyfriend and Beth’s mom couldn’t say enough pleasant things about him. It grated on Beth’s nerves even though she loved Tom like her own brother.

“I’m sorry, mom. Give me ten minutes to get ready and I’ll go with you,” she interrupted.

Walking into the bathroom before her mother could start again, Beth turned the water on and rinsed her face. Grabbing a towel to dry off, she caught the glint of silver in the mirror. Sliding the ring off her finger, Beth inspected the antique. For the first time, she noticed an inscription on the inside.

“Fan Liom Go Deo” it said.

Running out into her living room, she picked a book off her overflowing shelf. It was a book of Gaelic phrases from her long obsession with everything Irish. It took her only a moment to find the phrase from the ring.

“Stay with me forever…” Beth read from the book. “How sweet. You must have meant a lot to the girl that wore you,” Beth said as she held the ring up to the sunlight peaking through the shades on the window.

“Beth!” her mother interrupted. Taking the book from Beth’s hands, she returned it to a spot on the bookshelf. “We are already running late.”

Beth slipped the ring back onto her hand and sighed.

“Please change into something more attractive,” her mother said eyeing the sweatpants and worn t-shirt Beth was wearing. “There will be people in the mall. What if you meet someone there?”

Rolling her eyes at her mother’s back, Beth dragged her feet towards her room. Changing into a jean skirt and baby-doll t-shirt, Beth slipped on a pair of sandals to complete a “man-catching” ensemble that would make her mother proud.

Grabbing her purse and keys, Beth walked back to the kitchen where her mother was inspecting her dirty dishes.

“I’m ready.”

Ignoring the grime in Beth’s sink, her mother smiled in approval at the transformation her daughter had made. Stepping closer for a more complete examination, the smile faded.

“No make-up?” her mother implored.

“Ugh!” Beth groaned and marched back to her bathroom.