Time travel agent Hugh Solomon chases through time after Andy Tarkin who blames Hugh for the death of their common crush in 1902 Chicago.

The story has a nice bootstrapping paradox.
Have you sold a ring recently, in the shape of a serpent with its own tail in its mouth?

Variants

(1)
  1. “The Ring of Memory” by Alexander Jablokov, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 1989.
  2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Alexander Jablokov