The Scarab Ring Mystery.

Here is the story I have written recently to enter a competition at my local library. (sadly I didn't win) It is a fictional mystery/romance story about lost and found and chance meetings.  I'm a great believer of fate...

Its also inspired by The Red Notebook which I thoroughly recommend.  Another mystery which centres around a lost handbag and the contents which help the hero to find the owner.  I won't tell you more otherwise it won't be much of a mystery. There are some references to Egypt in that novel too!


Short Story

It was just over a year ago today when I made a discovery that would change more than just my life.

I was in Gordon Square Garden – a peaceful gated green space surrounded with mature chestnut trees, in the west end of London, waiting for the Bloomsbury Theatre to open so I could start my shift working in the box office.  I sat down on a bench bathed in the late afternoon sunshine and almost straight away something shinny caught my eye next to the bench.  When I looked down I could see it was an Egyptian scarab ring.  I looked round for a possible owner but the green was empty apart from myself and some pigeons feasting on a half-eaten panini nearby. The scarab which was 1cm wide, made of a lovely blue stone and set on a disc of gold with a scattering of small diamond chips set into it and this was mounted on to a thick band of gold – the hall mark showed it was 18k gold and there was an inscription on the inside of the band which read ‘My forever Nefertiti’. 

I didn’t know where the nearest police station was, and as it was a Sunday afternoon the nearby university buildings were all closed. How would I find the owner?  A romantic notion occurred to me – I decided to leave a note fixed to the bench. In my satchel I had; a roll of sticky tape that I used to wrap a friends present the previous day; an old faded shop till receipt; and a pen which was still working luckily.  Maybe if I left the note and prayed for the rain to stay away the owner would return and contact me.  I placed the ring securely in my wallet and wrote ‘Nefertiti I found your ring - come to the Bloomsbury Theatre Box office and ask for Mike’. I then taped this to the back of the bench and left the green to start my shift.

Later that evening after clocking out and since no one had asked for me, I returned to the green but of course I forgot the gate was locked at 7pm every night.  I couldn’t get in.  I’ll come back tomorrow’ I thought. ‘I have a free day so I’ll browse in Foyles bookshop nearby in Charing Cross Road’.

The next day started off wet – there had been a scattering of rain in the night and I was worried that my note would be waterlogged. Before setting off I grabbed a small note pad, pen and poly pocket (the kind you put A4 sized paper documents in with hole punches for ring binder folders).

By the time I got to the green it was late morning– after battling through the summer holiday hoards on the underground, tourists with rucksacks jammed into your face as you struggle to get out at your stop and gloomy looking business people glued to social media on their phone.  I emerged into the smoggy sunshine coming out of Goodge Street station on Tottenham Court Road.  The puddles were starting to dry up thankfully and I hurried up to Gordon Square again. 

The green was much busier than before, the elderly gent with his morning paper sat on a bench at the far end, a dog walker scooping up little ‘presents’ her dog left behind, and a group of students  (I guessed they were anyhow!) engaged in a heated discussion about the merits of a University education in today’s society.  When I got to the bench at the far side there was no note or even any remnants or bits of sticky tape.  Ok this time I’ll put it in the pocket and tape it down with lots and lots of tape and mark ‘For Nefertiti only’.  So that’s what I did. I wrote ‘Nefertiti I found your ring - email me’ I added my email address (but not a telephone number as I didn’t want to get calls from crazy people in the middle of the night). As I left the park I asked the old man if he had seen anyone take a note off the bench that morning but he hadn’t.  Nothing left to do but go off to Foyles. 

After an interesting morning reading up about Egyptology in the bookstore I found out that there was a museum dedicated to Ancient Egypt nearby in the grounds of University College London, called the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.  Perhaps the owner of the ring visited the museum that day. It’s worth investigating I thought!  I found the entrance to the museum after googling the address– it was an understated entrance one could easily have missed it. It’s not apparent from the outside that thousands of years of history are kept within. I climbed up the dusty stairs –I peered into the museum with dimmed lights and a slight musty smell.  There were cabinets and glass cases crammed with pots and other artefacts, and on the walls too were beaded necklaces and amulets. It astonished me to discover how many different kinds of clay pot there were and how the style of pot was the clue to its’ date.  I found a kindly old silver haired gentleman sitting quietly next to a rack of books about Egypt and a cash tin with the key still in the lock.  He looked above the rim of his glasses at me “can I help you sir?”  I explained about the ring, where I found it and about the note, and asked him if he knew anything about it or who the owner might be.  The answer was negative, unfortunately he couldn’t tell me.  Just then a young attractive woman popped out from behind a cabinet; she had been eavesdropping; “I can tell you about the ring”. My heart jumped in excitement as I thought the ring was hers.  It wasn’t though.

“The beetle is made of lapis lazuli a semi-precious stone and is highly symbolic. In Egyptian art the scarab is the depiction of the god Khepri; the god of creation and renewal.  Khepri renewed the sun every day, rolled it above the horizon then carried it through the other world after sunset only to repeat the process the next day and so on.  Just as the dung beetle pushes its dung ball. Not so romantic in this day and age eh?” She chuckled.  “The sun disc or ‘Aten’ was the symbol of the sun god Re and Nefertiti was the queen of the so called heretic King Akhenaten.  He forsook all other Egyptian gods to worship just Re. Nefertiti is my favourite queen of them all. She was a beautiful woman and whoever’s ring it is must also have been perceived as beautiful by the person who gave the ring. The inscription also says ‘forever’ referring to the Egyptians belief of the continual renewal of the sun.  Of course they didn’t use diamonds in their jewellery. But I would suppose the diamonds represent stars. The ring is not a reproduction of any ancient artefact that I know of though.” 

“That’s really fascinating” I said.  “Although it won’t help me to find the owner sadly.  I’ll have to check my emails and visit the bench each day”

“Would you like me to keep an eye on the bench to save you making a journey every day, although you are welcome to pop in to the museum if you’re passing at any time” she replied.

“That’s so kind of you, OK let me give you my email address and we can keep in touch.  By the way my name is Richard”

“Lovely to meet you Richard” she said shaking my hand. “I’m Laurie, the Museum Curator here”.

After leaving the museum I popped back to the bench – my note was still there this time so I returned home by tube thinking “I hope I see Laurie again”.

Over the next two weeks I heard from Laurie everyday about the progress of my note. Yes it was still there or if it wasn’t she would rewrite the note and stick it down again.  Eventually I had to resign myself to the fact that the owner wasn’t coming back.  Laurie had put up a note in the museum and contacted the Egypt Exploration Society in case the owner was a member.  Over the weeks and months gradually Laurie and I got to know and become fond of each other.  I would visit the museum when I could and we’d have coffee at the University Union coffee shop at least once a week – or when I had an evening shift at the theatre.  Till we realised after a short time that we had fallen in love.  We then planned to get married.

The wedding was a very small occasion with close friends and family at Laurie’s local registry office in Islington.  We still had the scarab ring so thought it would be fitting for Laurie to wear it for the day.  Afterwards we took taxi’s to the Petrie museum to have a finger buffet reception.  All our friends wished us well and everyone was fascinated by the ring and how it had brought us together. One of Laurie’s colleague wrote an article and posted pictures on the Museum Webpage about the ring and its part in our romance.

It was about six months later that Laurie received an email from a lady called Amelie it said “I’m Nefertiti”.  She attached a photo of herself –  where the ring was clearly shown on her hand- her arms were crossed like those of a mummy. We were thrilled the owner had been found.  She lived in Somerset but was planning a trip to London and wanted to check the museum website for upcoming events.  Which is when she discovered the article about her ring. Not long after that we arranged to meet up at the Union coffee shop as she wanted to visit the Petrie Museum as well.

Laurie and I anxiously waited at a table for Amelie. Thankfully the room wasn’t too busy for a Monday morning. Amelie appeared at the door waving enthusiastically.  After passing the ring to her, her eyes welled up and she immediately put the ring on.

“I’m not ever taking it off again.” She said

After ordering three coffees she explained how the ring had been lost;

“A bee stung me on my finger and it started to swell up so I took off the ring and left it on the edge of the bench whilst I searched through my bag for hand sanitiser.  I obviously forgot about it being worried about the sting.  I had planned to visit the Petrie Museum but had to abandon the idea. It wasn’t till later that I discovered it was missing. I retraced my steps the next day and the park was the first place I visited.  I didn’t see a note on the bench.  I had given it up for lost.”

“Wow”, I said.  “If you had found the note on the same day you lost it I would never have come to the Petrie Museum and met Laurie.  I am glad though that I can now return the ring to you. But who is the person who wrote the inscription?”

“That’s my dad” she said “He loved reading about ancient Egypt and commissioned this ring for my 18^th birthday. He used to call me Nefertiti referring to the meaning ‘The beautiful one has come’.  He nicknamed me that on the day of my birth but my mum wouldn’t let me be called that legally. That’s all a long time ago now. Sadly he passed away 4 years ago so getting back the ring means so much to me.  He would have loved the fact that the ring brought the two of you together and especially as you are an Egyptologist Laurie. I like reading about Egypt and reading evokes my memories of him.”

After we finished our coffees we toured the Petrie Museum together and soon it was time for Amelie to catch her train.  We knew that we would be friends forever…

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