Mabel Andrews was 33 years old and in a rut.
She worked in a children’s day care center, and she loved her job, but she felt like she could be doing more with her life. She had majored in early childhood education, but for some reason just was never able to find a job in a school. Luckily, she loved working at Happy Apple Day Care, but she found herself sad having to say good-bye to a crop of children she had grown attached to each year.
Mabel had worked at Happy Apple for 9 years, since she was 24 years old, and had seen more than 100 children come and go in that time. The first group she ever had was now entering 8th grade in schools across the county. She felt a sense of pride having contributed to so many children’s education. But something in her life was lacking.
Mabel had not had much of a love life the past decade. Sure, she had gone on “dates,” but none really went anywhere. Slowly, as she had come to accept she may never find a man, she had let herself go a little. A pretty woman, she was far from fat, but her stomach had a bit of pudge to it, despite her thin face. She kept her mousey brown hair short – not boy short but not even close to shoulder length. And she had taken to more often than not wearing longer skirts instead of jeans or pants, to not draw attention to the weight gain in her rump.
It was on an ordinary day when it happened. Mabel was outside with her group of 3-year-old children as they played on the playground. They seemed so happy and cheerful, she was quite happy with this group, not a troublemaker in the group.
As she scanned the playground, trying to keep an eye on all the kids, something caught her eye. A glint of something – metallic? It seemed to have a purple shine to it.
Mabel approached until she saw what it was. It was a ring! Nothing seemed ordinary about it, just a plain metal circular ring. There was no purple color to it, so she wondered why she thought she saw purple reflected in the sunlight. She picked it up and studied it. Seeing nothing unusual about it, she tried it on.
It fit! What a coincidence! Admiring it, she decided to keep it.
Mabel went back to watching the children, completely oblivious to the changes about to happen in her life.