Premonitions, Part 3

"Happy birthday, Sarah."

I smiled at Peter as he handed me the black jewelry box.  It had been weeks since I first saw that reporter, John, in my office.  He had been back a few times, trying to talk to someone, get some sort of story, though I can't imagine what, but after the first couple of weeks, he seemed to give up and I didn't see him anymore:  not in person and not in my dreams.

I took the box from Peter and opened it as I continued to grin.  I let out a little gasp as I pulled the bronze chain out of the box and held the necklace with the small golden heart up in the light.  "Oh, Peter, it's beautiful!" I exclaimed.

He smiled at me and reached across the table to hold my other hand.  "It was my grandmother's," he said.  "Before she died, she gave it to me, said I should give it to that special someone when I found her and well," he shrugged and turned a little red, "here we are."

I continued to smile as I admired the antique necklace.  "Can you help me put it on?"

"Of course," he said, and he got up and stepped around the table behind me.  "You know you're very special to me, Sarah," he said.  "I don't always say it, but I really am happy to be together."

"I'm happy, too," I said, as he hooked the necklace on.  He leaned around the front of my neck and kissed me lightly on the lips.

"Good," he said after he pulled away.

I gave him another little smile, but as I looked into his eyes I got the strangest feeling, like something wasn't quite right.  I couldn't quite place it, but I felt suddenly uncomfortable, I must have frowned or something because I noticed Peter frown back at me.  "Are you okay?" he asked.

I forced the smile back and nodded.  "Yeah, I think so," I said.  "Just tired.  Do you think we could go to bed?"

"Of course," he said.  "Happy birthday, Sarah."

As I wandered off to bed hand in hand with my boyfriend that night, I tried to regain the contentment and even joy I had felt just a few moments before, but for whatever reason it was gone.  I felt uneasy and even more so because I couldn't tell what was making me feel that way.  I silently unlatched the necklace Peter had just put on me, switched into my pajamas and slipped into bed.  Peter much have been worried and confused, but he didn't say a thing, and I eventually drifted off into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

Premonitions, part 2

Peter really was a good guy.  I don't want you to think I was just settling for him.  He was probably even better than I deserved.  I was nothing special, but Peter, he was attractive, smart, and hard working.  And he really cared.  Still, I couldn't get that strange dream out of my head... even a week later...

"Sarah?"

I was hearing the voice again.  I hadn't heard it since that dream a week ago, but there it was again.

"Sarah?"

Slowly I opened my eyes, looked up from my comfortable bed, and saw Peter standing by the closet tying his favorite red tie and looking at me with a hurried but caring look on his face.

"Your alarm apparently didn't go off," he said.  "It's already almost 8."

I shot up in bed like that, all thoughts of my half dream of the morning gone.  "Geeze Peter!" I exclaimed.

His eyes widened a bit, apparently thinking I was angry.  I wasn't.  I smiled.  "What would I do without you?" I asked as I jumped out of bed and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before rushing off to the bathroom for the fastest shower of my life.

---

My heart was still pounding as I collapsed into my office chair and glanced around at my co-workers.  I let out a deep sigh as I dropped my purse on the floor and felt the reassurance that no one even noticed I was 10 minutes late.  I should have known nobody would care.  I'm just an office drone, just like everyone else, utterly unnoticeable.  I was just catching my breath, taking deep soothing breaths as I prepared to log on my computer for the day, when I felt my eyes grow wide and a gasp escaped my lips.  I felt my pulse racing again because 10 feet in front of me, standing in front of my boss's office door, with a frustrated look on his face as he addressed a secretary, we the man from my dreams.

Casually I stood up from my desk, straightened my skirt, and walked around my desk and right past them on my way to the washroom.  "But I did make an appointment," I heard him saying.  "John Carpenter, from the City Times."

"I'm sorry, sir, but there's nothing on the calendar."

I didn't hear any more than that.  I couldn't very well stop in the middle of the hallway.  But I had heard enough.  His name was John.  His name was really John.  What did this mean?  How could my dream have involved a man I had never seen before, but really existed, how...

And then it hit me.  The City Times.  He was a reporter.  I was sure I had seen him on the news, probably without even noticing it before.  Maybe even that night a week ago when I had first had the dream.  I smiled and almost laughed as I stopped just short of the women's restroom.  With a shake of my head, I stepped into the room briefly to check my hair and so as not to arouse suspicion, as if that were possible, and then walked straight back to my desk without paying any further attention to John Carpenter.  A reporter.  I felt so much better.  That annoying little mystery was solved and I could get on with my simple, boring, but satisfying little life.

Premonitions, Part 1

"Sarah?"

It was so dark, so difficult to see.  Where were we, an airport runway?  A few steps forward, stepping into what seemed to be a streetlight on the widest road I have ever seen.

"You have to move on, John.  You have to..."

With a gasp I sat bolt upright in bed.  With a shiver I ran my fingers through my hair.  I felt a stirring next to me and my boyfriend rolled over and muttered, still half asleep, "What's wrong, sweetie."

"Nothing," I lied, fighting to keep my voice from trembling.  "Go back to sleep."  I didn't have to worry about hiding anything.  He was too tired to notice and all too happy to oblige.

I ran my fingers through my hair some more, scratching my scalp as a few long strands escaped onto the covers.  Sarah, plain and tall with the long brown hair.  That was me, alright.  It's so strange to see yourself from a third-person view like that.  It's not even comparable to looking in a mirror.  And in a dream, though I suppose it's the place it makes the most sense for it to happen apart from a home move, still it's so strange since I usually dream in the first person if I dream at all.

But at least that was definitely me.  The other person... John?  Was that what I had called him?  I glanced over at the man who had resumed snoring next to me.  Peter.  Not John.  Not a John anywhere in his name or anywhere in his family as far as I knew.  No past boyfriends named John either, so certainly not any Johns that would be clinging to me.  I knew Johns, but most of them were too old and not even remotely interested in me anyway.  The more I kept thinking about Johns the more I started to feel like a hooker or something.  It made me feel dirty, and I blushed in the darkness.  It's a name, just a name.  It doesn't mean anything, and it certainly doesn't mean that.  I didn't see him in the dream, but I saw myself, and I wasn't dressed up in anything special.  A skirt and heels, but the same kind of skirt and heels I wear to the office.  Nothing dirty.  So why did I feel so... wrong?

I decided not to let it bother me and to go back to sleep.  It was just a dream.  It didn't mean anything.  There was no John in my life.  Peter was all I needed.  Peter.  He was enough for me.  And even if he wasn't, he was likely to be all I was ever going to get.