He looked around his seat and up and down the aisle, growing increasingly frantic. No sign of it. It was gone. Cenac felt terrible. His mother had bought it for him, and was decorated with his graduation year (class of 2000) and the name of his school - which his parents had founded. His name, Dwight Cenac II, was engraved inside in tiny letters. There was no replacing it. Cenac, who was then pursuing a career in acting, went on to Los Angeles to make the movie, but the loss of the ring bothered him for years, he said, like a pebble stuck in his shoe.