The Ring Cycle: An Opera in Four Parts

Part the First: Exposition and Opening

I am A (young, angsty, teen) girl named Zelda. I have decided that I would like to commemorate my young angsty teenage years by ordering a high school class ring. I promise my cautious mom that I will be very careful with said ring, as it ain't cheap. The ring is silver with a clear red stone. My legal name is engraved on the inside. Zelda is written on one side of it, with a dragon below (shut up, dragons are cool). The entire company sings a celebration song of youth and its foibles and baubles, complete with a maypole.

Part the Second: Complication

Although I, A (deep, worldly, college student) girl named Zelda am very careful with my ring, one day I lose it in an airport after going through security screening. This is pretty upsetting - I sing a dramatic aria to close out the act. But being a deep worldly college student, I am too nervous to tell my mom I lost the ring (um, so I guess this is actually the first time I'm telling her that. Sorry mom! eeeep)

Um.

Intermission. Of six or seven years.

Part the Third: All the Rest of the Plot and Climax

I am A (jaded, twenty-something, New Yorker) girl named Zelda who has all but forgotten the young idealist with her shiny shiny ring. I get a message on facebook from someone I've never met. She describes my ring to me - clear red stone, legal name engraved inside, Zelda on the side (she leaves out the dragon) - and says that her daughter found it years ago and that she had put it in a drawer, and only recently rediscovered it. She then tracked me down on facebook, after having failed to locate me through the high school or my parents. She also tells me that once when she lived in New York, her apartment was robbed and all her jewelry taken, including her class ring, which she ne'er saw again. My jaded twenty-something New Yorker heart is touched. We sing a haunting duet about mothers, daughters, and lost treasures found again.

Part the Fourth: Denouement

I am A girl named Zelda with a shiny shiny ring. The ring looks just like it did all those many years ago (ugh, I feel a bit old), with neither tarnish nor stain. My ring is restored, my idealism is restored, and I lead the entire city in a rousing grande finale as we all stare toward the future (aka the fourth wall aka the audience) with renewed optimism.  Things can't be so bad after all, right?

Also,

But we know the world didn't end, ... 'cause ... check it out. - Oz, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Becoming: Part Two"