Frank stepped back and looked up at the oak, trying to see if he could eye the ring up there. It was a cloudy day, and there wasn't a lot of people in the park, but the few people that were there had been watching intently while Frank climbed the tree and back down. He didn't really care. He had to do this.
He remembered his father climbing that tree 15 years ago, when Frank was just a boy. Things were very different then. Not just with Frank, but this whole place was different, as if to accentuate the changes that had taken place with the family. Back then, this had all been part of an estate belonging to his dad. The oak was his dad's favorite tree. "Your grandfather planted that tree", he would tell Frank. "It was meant as a replacement for the loft beams in the dining room, which will be dangerously old 300 years from now." Looking at the beautiful oak, with the fields spreading out in the background, it was hard to imagine that the tree was planted for mere utility reasons. Frank didn't know if his grandfather appreciated the tree for more than the lumber, but he knew that his father did.
One day, Frank's mom was gone. He remembered how his dad took him out in the back, sitting on the porch overlooking the oak and the fields. "Your mom won't be back", he said. They sat there for hours, without speaking much. After a few days, Franks dad received the wedding ring, along with an exhorbitant divorce claim. Frank didn't know much about how the divorce proceedings went, except that it all but ruined his dad. But the wedding band was ceremoniously placed at the very top of his dads beloved oak tree.
Frank knew that the city had bought the family estate and made it into a city park, although he didn't go there. He went there once, after the park was established, to make sure the oak was still there. He was happy to see that it was, but his heart sank at the sight of the missing house and garden. He had no desire to go back, until his father died. His father was still wearing the wedding ring from his first and only marriage, and Frank knew how much his mother meant to him. He figured there was only one place where the ring could go, one last thing for him to do for his father.
Now that it was done, he could finally stop looking back.