Trisha exhaled deeply. "It's not easy to explain. You probably won't believe me anyway."
"Trisha," I said, taking her by the shoulders. "Nothing you tell me could be weirder than what this ring can do."
"OK, here goes," she said. "It was a few months ago." I felt some kind of dream sequence coming on. "Oh, snap out of it and listen to me," she said.
"Sorry."
"As I was saying," she continued her story. "It was a few months ago. I was walking down the street past that block of little shops and convenience stores on 4th Avenue. An old woman came out of one store carrying a bunch of bags. She looked like she was struggling with them, so I went up to her and offered to carry one for her. She thanked me for being so kind, and just asked me to help her across the street to the bus stop."
She continued, "So I took two of her bags and helped her along. The bus stop was just on the end of the curb on the other side of the road." I started to wonder. Was that the same place I had met the woman who gave me the ring? For the life of me I couldn't remember. She kept telling her story. "We got across the street and the bus came, oh, I guess about a minute later. She thanked me for her help, and assured me that she could manage from that point. But she kept talking to me. I told her she was going to miss the bus. She just ignored me when I said that."
"What was it that she told you?" I asked.
"The strangest thing I had ever heard," she said. "Up to that time. She said that one day soon I would find the person I was meant to be with. She went on to say that I would know who this person was, because at first he would try to push me away, and would then tell me that he had plans for me, which he said would be a plan for revenge."
This was scary, I thought. She ignored my thought, if she was paying attention to them, and kept going. "To be honest, that wasn't the part that really worried me. She told me that this person would soften, in that he wouldn't treat me bad or be cruel to me. And, most importantly, she told me that I would be able to read this person's thoughts. I don't know if she meant it literally or not. She might have just meant that I would be able to know what he was thinking. Either way, I'm pretty sure that I've found that person."
"Yes, it would," I said. "But...I don't understand any of this."
A voice said, "Then I'll have to tell you myself."
"Huh?" we said in unison, turning to find who else was in the room.