the women inched through the serving line, Liz’s worried stare had Claudia clutching an unwitting hand to her throat.
“What in heck is wrong with you?” she asked.
“Me? Nothing. Why?”
Liz said, “You look like the bride of Frankenstein right after she was shocked to life.”
Trying her best to joke away Liz’s concern, Claudia touched a hand to her smooth brown hair. “Why? Have I suddenly developed two gray streaks?”
“No. You look totally drained.”
“That shouldn’t be surprising. This is finals week, Liz. Where have you been?”
“Don’t play cute with me. This job never gets you down. Although, I don’t know why. If I had to deal with some of the lazy, insubordinate students that come through Judith’s office, I’d throw my hands up and scream. You, on the other hand, have a knack for bringing out the better side of these kids.”
After exiting the serving line the two women took a seat at a vacant table. Immediately, Liz dug into her plate of chicken pot pie, but as soon as she realized Claudia was ignoring her food, she looked up in silent question.
“Something happened to me this morning, Liz,” Claudia announced with grim resolve. “I think I’m going crazy.”
Liz chuckled. “Aren’t we all.”
Urgently, Claudia leaned forward and lowered her voice. “No. I mean, really crazy. Like delusional. I think…I need to make a doctor’s appointment for a checkup.”
Hearing the concern in her friend’s voice, Liz frowned. “Why? What happened?”
“I had visions of a man.”
Liz didn’t just chuckle this time, she outright laughed. “I’d be more worried if you weren’t having visions of a man,” she finally managed to say.
Frustrated, Claudia picked up her fork and jabbed at the lump of meat loaf on her plate. “I’m not talking about having a fantasy of the opposite sex, Liz. This was something totally different. This was a sharp, clear image that came to me out of the blue. No…it wasn’t exactly out of the blue. I got dizzy first and then—” A trembling deep inside her made it difficult to go on. She gripped the fork and tried to breathe normally. “This face appeared.”
“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
