The twilight was fast approaching and rain was coming down in sheets as I approached her door but nonetheless, I paused to read the plaque posted on the wall. The lettering was engraved in heavy brass in old Edwardian script lettering, "Laura L. Wellington Clinical Psychologist Ph.D., LPC, ACS”.

I moved closer, oblivious to the rain, and lightly traced the letters with the tip of my index finger and felt the familiar surge begin with clear images of a young girl and a young boy on a porch swing. Stilled, the image slowly dissipated as I forcibly suppressed it. I took a breath and knocked on the heavy oak-paneled door.

The door was promptly opened by a slim and attractive woman, possibly in her late 30’s to early 40’s with shoulder-length red, curly hair and jade-green eyes. She was wearing a soft pullover denim dress and black stockings, and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She had a large impressive name tag displaying the credentials that I had observed earlier prominently displayed.

“Mr. Higgins?” she posed the question, extending her hand as I shook it and nodded in the affirmative. “Thank you for being prompt. I realize this is an inconvenience, especially in weather like this.” She said this as she ushered me into her office. It was well-appointed and was designed for comfort. It had a comfortable seating area with several chairs and a couch with what appeared to be a homemade comforter draped over the back. I closed the door and followed her in.

“Please don’t take this personally, but I tell everyone who comes here the same thing. The sheriff's dept has a substation two doors down and I have a special pen that can alert them if I am in trouble.”

I wasn’t offended, although I am an older gentleman, I am in good physical condition, shaved head, a mustache that curls at the ends, and a soul patch. Some people have commented that I’m a cross between Wyatt Earp and Pancho Villa, without the head hair. I guess I  could be considered sketchy by the uninformed.

“No offense taken. It’s a dangerous world out there. It’s always smart to take precautions.” 

She indicated that I should sit on the couch and she picked up a notepad and a pen which had a red button attached to one side and sat down in a chair across from me. I thought to myself that this must be the pen that had the alert button to summon law enforcement if needed.

She sat rigidly with her pad on her lap and began, “The police, local and federal, occasionally ask for my opinion on the subject of the paranormal, particularly clairvoyance, when it involves a case they are working…"

The ‘case’ was me. Long story short, I have a gift, or a curse, which is all a matter of perspective. I have visions of things, past and future. The ‘case’ involves a vision that came, unbidden, to me last week. I have some control over them but at times they overwhelm me. I saw a man being killed in a restaurant and thought it was my civic duty to warn him that he would be killed at the restaurant during dinner that evening. He immediately assumed I was crazy and unceremoniously threw me out of the office building where I confronted him but apparently thought better of it later, He had gone to the restaurant, but when he was being led to a table, suddenly decided that he would dine elsewhere. This apparently threw off the timing of the hit because halfway out of the restaurant, the hitman made his move and was taken down by the staff. 

The man in question turned out to be a federal informant, which is the way my luck usually runs, and suddenly I had federal agents on my ass like white on rice. I endured hours of interrogation, locked away with preppie cops with garlic breath as they asked me repeatedly how I knew the hit was going to take place. I had nothing to give them and they had nothing to connect me to this mess other than my vision, which they thought was bullshit, of course. The bottom line is that it’s not currently against the law to have a vision, not yet anyway. Plus, I saved their guy so I didn’t really see what the problem was. The Feds, in a successful attempt to be the largest pain in the ass possible, required me to meet with an ‘expert’ on the subject of pre and post-cognition. This brings us to my current situation.

“.... and this case apparently involves you predicting a future event that they feel might be suspect.”

“They lack imagination, and they’re assholes. Pardon my French.”

She squirmed a bit in her chair, cleared her throat, and began to inform me of her qualifications.

“I have had quite a bit of experience with cases such as this and have compiled these in preparation for writing a textbook on the subject of paranormal beliefs and cognition.  I would like you to feel relaxed in here and do not view me as an adversary……”

I could feel the vision from earlier creeping back and I was having difficulty suppressing it. I took off my jacket and interrupted her, “Could I please get  a paper towel or something?”

She stopped abruptly and said, ‘Of course, forgive me for not offering you one. I see you’re soaking wet.”

She got up and I removed my jacket and sat back, releasing the vision, and saw the woman I was with now in her teens, sitting on the porch swing from earlier with a young man, approximately the same age. They were laughing and eventually started kissing with a bit of passion building. The events of that night and the next ten years washed over me like a wave in the surf. I lived over ten years in the time it took her to walk to the bathroom and return with a hand towel.

“Are you alright?” she asked with genuine concern in her voice as she handed me the towel. No one wants to have an old geezer croak in their office.

I sat up, still in the grasp of the waning vision, and said, “Yes, I’m fine thank you for the towel and the concern,” and I meant it. The vision was complete and I knew it all now and I was saddened by the knowledge.

She sat down and continued with her attempts to put me at ease,.“I was saying that it is important for you to not view me as your enemy because I am not…”

I had a sudden urge to stand and I abruptly stood up and walked to the window, drying my head and face with the towel, and gazed out the window at the mountain in the distance. The rain was still heavy but I thought I could see a light blinking toward the top of the mountain. I was in disbelief that this might be the mountain that I had just seen in my vision but it very well might be.  She had paused when I stood up abruptly but continued unabated. “... I simply talk with you and submit a report as to the likelihood of authenticity of your ability.”

I turned to face her, staring her directly in the eye, and asked, “Have you noticed how life so often comes down to one of two choices, and the choice you make determines the direction of your life?”

She was speechless for a moment and I momentarily wondered if she would press the button but she didn’t, she just said in a confused and hesitant tone, “Yes, I suppose so.”

“If you had stayed on the porch swing and made out like he wanted to, everything would have been different. His cause of death would have been obvious.”

She went stiff in her chair, closed her notebook forcefully, and said, “I’m not sure what you think you’re doing but it is not amusing!”

I walked toward her, folding the towel, and she was staring in a frightened way but could not disengage from my eyes. It was like I heard that some animals are hypnotized by the viper's gaze.

“It was a massive cerebral aneurysm. The headaches that he had been having, and the ‘migraine’ that he had that day were signs that were unrecognized. The decision to go skinny dipping led to the conclusion that he drowned without looking elsewhere. He just went limp and you weren’t strong enough to pull him out. There was water in his lungs but he would not have survived the massive brain bleed. He was just destined to die that day, we all have our day and that was his. “

The changes in her physical state were enormous. She had totally lost her rigid clinical demeanor and appeared to be shrinking inside herself. I waited for a moment then continued, “ Your family and his family blamed you and you blamed yourself, A promising young life suddenly assumed a new trajectory. Self-medicating with alcohol and drugs, aimless wandering from one failed relationship to another. Guilt and self-loathing led you to the bottom of a dark vortex leading to that awful night, a night very much like this one, to the top of the mountain…”

She had stood, her back to me, and was cradling her face in her hands and she spun around, fists up, like a boxer, and covered the ground to me in two steps. Tears were running down her face and she placed her fists against my chest and said, “Stop it.” The word Stop came out weak and the word it sounded like a whisper.

I gently took her hands, lightly rubbing the underside of her wrists.

“You have been paying for a debt you never owed, your decision to come off the mountain was a good one, you have entered a field of endeavor that has helped many people. Unburden yourself.”

She pressed her face against my chest and the sobs that followed were horrible, pent up for over a decade they were sobs of a horrible redemption, I pulled her onto my lap on the couch and she continued her release and then I thought she was asleep but when I attempted to slide her off my lap she stood up.

She looked different, almost as if she was in a trance. I stood and picked up my jacket but she said, “Not yet,” and quickly pulled her dress up and off and I noticed the black hose were thigh highs. In a moment the bra was off and the panties were down around her ankles and she kicked them away.

I said, “This might be a bad idea, I’m not as young as I used to be.” she pulled both boots off and I lifted my ass as she pulled my jeans off.

“I’ll make it happen”, she said with a level of intensity that was palpable. I have heard of psychic energy and such as that but the energy between us that night was incomparable. She was true to her word, she made it happen. First with a hungry mouth, and then on the floor with her legs spread, the honey-colored bush begging to be entered. I stretched her and she emitted a moan/growl hybrid and said, “Give it to me hard and fast, and don’t stop, I want you to finish inside me!”

It would have been ungentlemanly to refuse an offer that gracious and I did exactly as she requested. She slept soundly after that and didn’t wake up when I pulled out of her. I picked her up and placed her on the couch and covered her with the comforter and she barely stirred. I dressed quietly and sat and watched her for a short while. She looked peaceful, almost childlike. I put on my jacket, placed the pen with the alarm button by her hand, and gave her a fatherly kiss on the forehead goodbye.

I let myself out and made sure the door was locked behind me. The rain had slowed to a drizzle and as I turned my collar against the chill. I idly wondered if she would bear my child and if they would have the visions too. The storm had moved and I saw lightning off in the distance. I wondered what the Feds had in mind for me and I began to walk toward the storm. I muttered under my breath as I saw a bolt of lightning come straight down to the ground, 

“Fuck them!”