"Joe, what's going on?" Rachel asked. Her face told me that she was a little worried at what just occurred.
"Well..." I started and trailed off. I wasn't really sure of what to say. "I'd say you wouldn't believe me,
but maybe you will. Do you see this ring?" I asked as I held up my hand so that she could see the ring.
"Earlier today, I helped an old woman on the street and she gave me this ring. She said it would grant
wishes. I didn't believe her, so I wished that a woman on the streets would be naked. And...much to my
surprise, she was."
"What?" Rachel asked with evident disbelief.
"Yea," I said. "She was naked. She started screaming and making a commotion, so I wished that she was
clothed again and that no one who saw anything would remember what happened. And...that worked, too." I
looked at her and found that her mouth hung open. I couldn't tell if she believed me yet or not. "Since
then, I wished that I would be back in my apartment. That worked. I also wished for the apartment to be
cleaned up, once you showed up, so that you'd be comfortable. I mean, I wasn't expecting you to have this
problem."
"Did you make any other wishes?" she asked.
"Yea, I wished for world peace," I admitted. "As far as I can tell, that didn't work. So I think there are
limitations."
"Joe, this is very hard to believe," she said. She touched her hair. "But there's no way my hair dried
instantly. Why don't you make another wish just to prove it?"
"OK," I agreed. "Let's see. Um..." I looked around the room for something easy to do. I settled on the
couch. It was light gray in color. "I wish that the color of the couch would be royal blue," I said.
The ring did not fail and the couch instantly turned the requested color. Rachel almost jumped off the couch
in shock and amazement. Again her mouth hung open in bewilderment. "That's amazing," she said. "You weren't
lying. I mean, you never lie. I should have known you were telling the truth. But this is amazing!" Her
expression changed to a slight smile. "You could do anything," she marveled.
"Almost anything, apparently," I corrected. "That world peace wish was a dud. Unfortunately."
"OK, so almost anything," she said. "That's still a lot."
"I did wish to be on an unlimited paid vacation from my job," I said. "So I can stay here and help you out."
"Joe, you didn't have to do that," she said.
"Why not?" I asked. "I want to make sure you're OK, and it worked, so it's not like I have to worry about
getting fired." Rachel sat back on the couch normally. She didn't say anything but the look of genuine
amazement on her face told me that she continued to ponder the ring's powers. At that point I decided to ask
a possibly uncomfortable question. "Do you want any kind of revenge on Adam?"