Rolling Stone Ruby

Offering up her craggy face to the sun, Ruby breathed in deeply and tilted her head back, soaking in the luxurious warmth of autumn's late afternoon rays. In the nearly deserted park, Ruby relished the pleasurable feeling of the sun's hot penetration through her disheveled clothing. The sensation was so intense, she thoughtfully pondered a way she could somehow bottle up the warmth.

Her idea was, somehow to redistribute the heat among the homeless, so they, too, would be toasty at night during the cold spells of the various seasons. Ruby even thought she might call it "Street Heat." In a cynical manner, she laughed aloud at the thought of the government passing out bottles of "Ruby's Street Heat" to the country's broken members of society...such as herself.

The sun was moving now so Ruby shifted her meager weight to face the West, not wanting to miss a drop of what was left of the day's warmth. As she turned, the sun made contact with the ring on the middle finger of her right hand.

A burst of shimmer erupted from the diamond and Ruby stared at the ring. At the same time, a flash of a distant memory of Bob Dylan's voice singing "Like a Rolling Stone," seeped into her muddled brain.

Never taking her eyes off the ring, but noticing with a twinge of sadness, how grimy her hand was, Ruby tried to remember a single verse in the song. While she lamely hummed the tune, her mind grappled desperately to recall the first line of words.

With her left thumb and index finger, Ruby desperately twirled the ring around and around. As if the twirling ring unwound, some of the years past, Dylan's words suddenly came clearly into focus in Ruby's mind. As she softly sang his song under the fading sun, the pain of the sheer truth of his haunting words, burned deep in her heart.

"Once upon a time you dressed so fine

You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?

People'd call, say, 'Beware doll, you're bound to fall'

You thought they were all kiddin' you

You use to laugh about

Everybody that was hangin' out

Now you don't talk so loud

Now you don't seem so proud

About having to be scrounging your next meal"

"How does it feel

How does it feel

To be without a home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?"

Ruby was aggravated that she could not remember the rest of the words, but she thought there was something in the song about pawning a diamond ring. She studied the ring and touched it tenderly with her fingers.

The princess-cut diamond, usually stashed in her pocket, was the only material thing she owned; even though any meaning it may have once held faded into the dark abyss of her life on the street now.

As she rambled back to the park's entrance, Ruby slid the ring from her finger, pressed it to her lips and then carefully dropped it into the pocket of her jeans. Because it was not safe, Ruby heeded the warning by other homeless people to get out of the park by nightfall. However, Ruby thought that warning was actually quite silly in reality. After all, she made her home in the streets.

Passing through the entrance, Ruby stopped on the sidewalk. She looked right and then left, trying to decide where to go for the night. Going left, she would enter what street people called a "danger zone" at night. Ruby turned left.

Walking straight into the "danger zone," Ruby unexpectedly remembered some more of the words in Bob Dylan's song. Seizing the moment and not particularly afraid of the dark anymore, she sang out..."When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose...You're invisible now, you got no secrets to reveal...How does it feel..."

This was an AC Assignment, which asked us to write a short story based on a song.

Source:

Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone"