Because Of The Ring. Stella Bagwell

      “Aha! You got dizzy,” Liz repeated with confidence. “See, there’s a physical reason for this. And I’d say it was stress. Or it could be hormonal. Maybe your body is trying to tell you that you need a mate.” She studied Claudia with renewed thoughtfulness. “Did you recognize this man?”

      “No.”

      “Hmm. How strange. Was he nice?”

      Claudia forked a piece of meat loaf to her mouth and chewed automatically. She didn’t want to think about the man. Or the incident. The whole thing had been completely out of the ordinary and totally frightening.

      “What do you mean by ‘nice’? I’m not so far gone that I tried to talk to the man, Liz!”

      Her friend waved an impatient hand at her. “I meant was his image appealing or did you get the feeling he was not someone you’d want lurking around you?”

      Claudia’s head tilted to one side as she considered Liz’s question. “I was too stunned to think much. But I guess he was…nice. Not evil.” She shook her head and groaned with disbelief. “What am I doing? I’m a science teacher! My job is to teach students about logical reasons. For instance, the shamrock is green because of chlorophyll, not because some Irish elf painted it that way. A rainbow is created by refraction and reflection of sunlight in raindrops. It’s not some magical guide to a pot of gold. And a vision—well, there’s always an explanation for them, too.”

      “Well, I’ll be hanged,” Liz said with exaggerated disappointment. “I guess I must have had too many absent days in science class. Here I’ve been chasing after rainbows, believing I was going to find some gold at one end.”

      “This isn’t funny,” Claudia snapped.

      Claudia’s testiness caused the other woman’s brows to arch. “I wasn’t trying to be funny. In fact, I feel sorry for you, Claudia.”

      Claudia’s mouth gaped open. Sympathy was the last thing she expected from Liz. “Sorry! I don’t want that, either! I want—” She made a frustrated gesture with her hand. “I want explanations!”

      Liz popped a cherry tomato into her mouth and chewed with pleasure before she replied, “Look, Claudia, one of these days you’re going to learn that there are mystical, magical powers at work in our lives. And they’re something that can’t be analyzed or reasoned out in a science lab.”

      Claudia huffed out a breath. “Well, you believe what you want. As for me, I’m sticking to my science lab. Or a doctor’s office!”

      A week later Claudia walked out of the doctor’s office and headed home without a prescription or a concrete explanation for the vision she’d had or the ones that had subsequently followed these past few days.

      Physically there was nothing ailing her, the doctor had assured her. He’d went on to suggest that she take a long vacation to rest her mind from the stress of her job and later, if the visions continued, she could always make an appointment with a psychiatrist.

      A psychiatrist! Was she really becoming that emotionally unhinged? There wasn’t any reason for it! She was an average young woman with a normal life, she reasoned with herself. Except that she spent odd times out of the day looking at a man she’d never seen in her life. And to make matters worse, the images were growing more detailed. The man appeared to be wearing some sort of uniform with a tie. Several times she’d pictured a stretch of water and a boat. There had also been a big white house with a widow’s walk. None of it seemed to tie together or to make any sense.

      Inside her apartment, she went straight to her computer and logged on to the Internet. She was going to take her doctor’s advice and buy plane tickets to Cancun. A few days’ rest might be exactly what she needed.

      A few days with a man is what you need, Claudia.

      The words zinged through her head so quickly she didn’t know where they came from. But the suggestion sounded suspiciously like something her grandmother would have said to her.

      Dear Lord, was she starting to hear voices now along with seeing things? she wondered wildly.

      Shaking her head, she glanced down at her hands resting on the keyboard. Betty Fay’s opal ring was still there on her hand and for long moments Claudia studied the piece of jewelry as though it was a piece of bacteria on a microscopic slide. At one time she’d believed the ring had led her to Anthony. She’d believed it so strongly that she’d refused to give up on their rocky relationship. It had taken proof of his infidelity to finally make her see the light. But by then she’d already endured a great deal of pain and humiliation.

      Claudia would be a fool to think the ring had anything to do with her visions. To even consider it would be admitting that she still believed the piece of jewelry carried some sort of magical power. And she didn’t believe in such things! It was pure hogwash!

      But the first vision occurred the morning after she’d starting wearing the ring again, she argued with herself. What would happen if she took it off? Maybe that would fix her problem. Not a vacation in Cancun!

      A week later Claudia smiled happily at Liz. “I’m fixed! I’m cured. No more visions.”

      “I wondered why you sounded so chipper when you picked up the phone this morning. And I didn’t have to do much begging to get you to come over for a swim.”

      The two women had already made a few laps around the in-ground pool in Liz’s backyard. They were now stretched out in lounge chairs and sipping iced lemonade.

      “You can’t imagine what a relief it is to know you’re not losing your sanity, Liz. I wasn’t relishing the idea of getting on a psychiatrist’s couch.”

      “So what happened?” Liz asked. “How do you know you’re cured?”

      The hot sun was seeping into Claudia’s muscles, relaxing them from the workout in the cool water. For the first time in days she felt like a whole person again. “Because I haven’t seen him anymore. Not since I took off Gran’s ring and that’s been a week ago. Before, I was seeing him on a daily basis.”

      Frowning, Liz sat up and swung her legs over the side of the lounge. “You mean to tell me that taking off a ring stopped your visions? That’s hard to swallow. Even from somebody who chases after rainbows.”

      “I’d be the first one to admit it sounds farfetched, but I can’t dispute the facts. No ring, no visions,” Claudia told her.

      “Hmm. Could be coincidental.”

      Now it was Claudia’s turn to frown. “What is this? You sound like you don’t want me to be cured.”

      “It’s not that. I’m just wondering—aren’t you the teeniest bit curious as to why this ring makes you see things? Looks to me like you’re just avoiding the problem. Not curing it.”

      Claudia groaned loudly. “Oh, brother! Why should a person go around asking for trouble? School has just ended. I have the summer ahead to relax. I don’t want to spend it having some strange man pop up in my vision at any given moment.”

      “It was only two weeks ago that you were telling me that as a science teacher you liked to have reasons and explanations. Well? Don’t you want them now?”

      Claudia glanced at the pool of cool, glittering water. “No. I—I’m perfectly content to let things be. The visions were…” She swallowed and glanced back at her friend. “Frankly, they were too disturbing, Liz. There was something—oh, I don’t know—intimate about the whole thing. I kept getting the feeling that this man knows me. In here.” She tapped the middle of her chest, then shook her head. “It was eerie. I—I’ve decided the best thing for me to do is to get rid of the ring. So far it’s brought nothing but misery to my life.” Liz gasped. “Oh, no, Claudia! It’s a precious memento of your grandmother’s. Besides, without it you might never figure out any of this.”

      “Figure it out?” Claudia repeated in disbelief.