Jeff had always considered himself to be an average, ordinary guy. He was good in sports in high school, intelligent, average looks, and dated occasionally, but he never had found that one special woman to share his life with.
He dropped out of college after three years because he decided he didn't want to pursue a career in his chosen major. He worked a few jobs with no plans for the future for a while after he dropped out of school.
He had several buddies that had become firemen and they asked him to apply for the job and it interested him so he applied. It took him several interviews before he got hired.
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He had been a fireman for several years and one day, something happened that changed his life forever. They were preparing to burn an old abandoned house down and had walked through it making sure no homeless people had taken it up as living space before they burned the house down.
He was walking around seeing if there was anything left behind that could be made into something. He liked restoring things and he had found several items before and had turned them into various things and sold them and made a little money off them. He came upon a small wooden box that piqued his interest. It had some weird carvings on it that he had not ever seen before and he picked it and looked inside.
One of his buddies looked over his shoulder to see what he had picked up and was trying to see what was inside of the box.
"What's that?" he asked.
Jeff reached in and took out a silver ring and told him he found something that might be worth a few bucks and showed him the ring. He tried the ring onto his ring finger and saw that it fit quite well.
"Man, you always find the good stuff don't you buddy? I never find anything like that when we burn these old houses down," said his buddy Mark.
The captain overheard the discussion and Jeff showed it to him to make sure it wouldn't be a problem with keeping it.
"The owners said we could have anything we find so I don't see anything wrong with keeping it," replied the captain.
All of the other firemen chimed in the same thing that Mark had told Jeff and he just grinned and got on with finishing up their "once over" of the house. They were planning on burning the house down with several other crews coming in to get some much needed experience for a couple of rookies that had been recently hired.
The plan was to set fire to some of the furniture that was left in the house and for the rookies to go in with Jeff and Mark backing them up on the hose to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to do in a house fire. They planned on putting the fire out several times getting the rookies some good nozzle time before setting it ablaze and letting the house burn down completely to clear the lot so a new business could be built on the property.
They set a couch on fire and waited several minutes for the front room to become engulfed in flames.
"Alright rook, lets go in and put the fire out," Jeff said. "Make sure you have the nozzle on 3/4 fog and stay low and make sure your SCBA is on as well as your PASS alert."
They moved in and Jeff told the rookie to spray the ceiling in a circular pattern to create a lot of steam which would knock out a lot of the fire and help cool down the room and then to turn his nozzle patten down and put the rest of the fire out.
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Everything looked to be going as planned until some of the ceiling started to fall. Jeff noticed what was happening and shoved the rookie away just in time. The ceiling fell right on top of Jeff. A rafter had given way and lot of the plaster,lafe, ceiling joist and the broken rafter fell directly on top of Jeff.
Normally, Jeff should have been injured severely from taking a direct blow to the head, but for reasons unknown to everyone that came rushing in, he was pulled out with no injuries at all.
I don't how in the hell you weren't killed a few minutes ago Jeff, but man I am sure glad you are ok," the captain said.
"I thought I was a gonna for sure myself Cap't," Jeff said. "Thanks for pulling me out from under all of that shit!"
Unbeknownst to Jeff, that ring that he had put on and forgot about was what saved him. He wouldn't understand until later on when he got a visitor the following week.
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~
A relative of the owner's of the house had dropped by the station to ask if they had found a small box before they burned the house down. He said he would be willing to pay a large sum of money to anyone that found it and still had it.
"I found it sir, but we were told we could have anything we found before we went in. What's so valuable about the box," Jeff asked?
The man said it just had a lot of sentimental value to him and he wanted it back to keep it in the family.
"I'll give you a thousand dollars for the box if you are willing to sell it back to me," the man said.
Jeff knew the ring wasn't worth a hundred dollars if that much and he kind of got a tingly feeling that something wasn't just right with this offer.
"It was just a small wooden box, why would it be worth so much to you," Jeff asked?
"It was a box that was passed down from our ancestors and has been in our family for over 500 years and I just want to get it back," the man said.
Jeff had left the box in his locker and went to get it for the man. He picked it up and looked at it. All of a sudden, the carvings started glowing and the ring on his finger got so hot, he almost passed out from the pain.
The ring stopped burning his finger and the carvings made sense to him even though he had no idea what had just happened to him. The carvings were of a language that Jeff certainly didn't know before, but now he could read them with no problems.
They read, "The owner of this ring shall be invincible and have the powers of the Gods."
Jeff couldn't believe what he was reading on the box. There should be no way that he could read the carvings, but he could. Although he didn't know it, the ring had chosen Jeff to be it's knew owner to avoid the relative, who was an evil man, from getting the ring back and inheriting the great powers that it possessed.
He knew somehow, although not sure as to why, that he had to keep the box and the ring. He got the feeling that he had to get rid of the relative and tell him he was not going to sell it to him.
When he walked back into the foyer where the man was standing, the man had a look of hatred on his face. He looked like he was going to have a stroke and his face was sweating profusely.
"No, no, no, you have the ring, don't you," the man screamed? "You have to sell it back to me now, you shouldn't have them!"
"Sorry sir, but I have decided that I will just keep them for myself," Jeff said.
"I'll give you five thousand for them right now," the man pleaded.
"Sorry sir, but I will just hold onto them," Jeff said.
Jeff's eyes showed the man that he was not going to sell them back to him and he fell back and sat down in the chair against the wall. The man was despondent was visibly shaking.
"I knew they couldn't be trusted with that box, now it's gone forever and our family will never be the same. I have to have the box back sir, I will pay you ten thousand dollars, please sell it to me," the man pleaded again?
Everyone at the station had overheard the man and they all came into the foyer to see what was going on. Most couldn't believe Jeff had something anyone would want, much less beg to pay such a price for it.
I'm not selling it and I think you should leave now sir," Jeff said. He looked at the man and in his head he was saying over and over, "stand up and leave and don't say another word."
The man did just that, although you could tell that he wanted to say something, his mouth just wouldn't open. He stormed out of the station, got in his car and left.
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All of the fireman looked at Jeff and asked him what in the world was so special about the box.
Jeff looked at all of them, thinking in his mind,
'I wish you all walk away and just forget about what just happened.'
They all turned around and went back to what they were doing like nothing had been going on.
"What the hell," Jeff said out loud. "They all just did what I thought in my mind, just like the relative did."
Later that day, Jeff and his buddies were playing poker at the dining room table. Every time Jeff thought about what cards he needed to make his hand, he would draw the right cards. He couldn't believe it, every time, it happened just the same. The guys called it quits after they had lost ten hands in a row. They all couldn't believe how lucky Jeff had been.
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The next morning when Jeff got home, the man from the day before was waiting in Jeff's driveway. Jeff got out and asked, "How did you find out where I live? I told you yesterday that I am keeping the box!"
"I'm here to take back what is mine," the man said while pulling a gun out of his jacket.
He raised the gun and said, "Take off my ring and give it back to me right now, or I will shoot you!"
Jeff tried to take it off to no avail, it just wouldn't come off.
"I will just have to shoot you and cut your finger off," the man said.
Jeff couldn't believe was happening. The man tried to push him toward the house so he could get Jeff inside so no one would see him do what he wanted, which was to kill Jeff and cut off his finger to get the ring back.
Jeff was panicking but somehow he calmed down enough to think back to what had happened the day before. He realized what he needed to do, so he turned to the man and thought in his mind, "You will drop the gun right now, get back into your car and forget about me! You will never try to find the ring ever again!"
The man looked stunned. He dropped the gun, climbed back into his car and drove off. Jeff couldn't believe it.
The man had wanted to kill him so he could cut off his finger to get the ring back. Jeff had thought what he wanted the man to do, and he just did it without questioning it. He couldn't believe he had just thought what he wanted the man to do and he did it without a fight, just like the day before.
"What else can I do with this ring," he asked out loud?
