October 27 Plot Background Story

He sat on the floor, the shock of what just occurred still had him shaken. Campion Toussaint had a gift, he could remove the pain from someone, whether emotional or physical. That he had known since he was 10, and the teachers at Glenvale helped him develop it better, to quickly remove physical pain from himself. They did not, however, tell him he had a second gift.

“What’s wrong?” Annabeth Nichols said as she looked at him. “Tell us.”

He couldn’t explain it, didn’t know how. One moment he was playing strip poker with his roommates, had just won a hand and was ready to watch Annabeth remove her rather large bra and release her breasts.

Then it happened. Blackness took away his sight. He felt as if he were transported away from the off-campus apartment in Charlottestown and to a forest. He could smell the loam and wet dead leaves. He could feel the dampness of the ground. He caught his breath, then he “moved” again, this time into the ground.

Campion felt his body become one with the earth, all his senses open. He could see an earthworm crawl, could feel the transition from topsoil to sand. And he could see the buried box.

It was small, a box in which rings were placed. He reached out and surprised himself. He was able to open it. A ring, a small diamond affixed to a gold band.

“A small diamond, square in shape,” he mumbled to no one and to those on the apartment floor.

He felt his body, his spirit, leave the ground and fly high above the forest. Campion looked around and recognized where he was: 10 miles outside of the city, in the Van Schuyler Preserve. He closed his eyes and felt the hardwood under his bottom.

Campion didn’t move but opened his eyes and stared, not at any specific coed, just blankly.

He heard Mary-Ellen Douglas cry. “That’s my grandma’s engagement ring,” she whimpered. “Where did you see it?

He came to, his senses returned to the present location. “Van Schuyler Preserve,” he whispered. “I know where it is.”

“How?” the English major asked. “How? It’s been missing for a year. We lost it on our way to a family reunion.” The tears were ending. “Wait, what? How did you know about it? I’ve never talked about it.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s as if I read your mind, saw that you lost it, and then, bam! I was there!”