The Golden Ring (a love story) continued...

One day the phone rang. "Hello?" I answered. "Let me ask my dad if..." there was only dial tone. So I walked the two or three hundred feet to her cottage to help Mrs. Bauer. As I approached the stone cottage I remember being a bit nervous. Our now tame but once feral orange and white tabby had found a comforting patch of sun to soak up. Seeing him there performing kitty yoga and stretching with all six toes in front of him made me feel more at home. I knocked on the old wooden door. "I'm in the kitchen" was the call from inside. Timidly I opened the door and entered the dark cool room. I could see her in the kitchen lit from behind wobbling atop an old stool. Her impatience to get at what ever was on top of the cupboards made me wonder if she had forgotten her recent call. Carefully she climbed down and asked me to get the little blue box on top. She asked me to open the box. Inside was a ring. A beautiful simple golden ring with a disk on top and in it a male figure dancing with a vase of water. Aquarius. I had an inkling of what the zodiac was. Destiny? It was beautiful and special. She was giving the ring to me. Me? She must have spent the summer watching us kids enjoying her property in a way she was unable to. Or maybe she was just a crazy old lady. Either way it was a special gift. One that would connect me to her and another person. I wouldn't know how special or what the connection was until years later when I met Robert.