Premonition or Coincidence?

I try not to think about the paranormal too often. A terrifying incident with a ouija board when I was ten made me forever wary of such things. I refused to touch it but sat in a room while my two friends played. I watched as the pointer moved around while they sat with their hands in their laps, asking questions about me. The board, among other things, spelled out that I'd be murdered when I was 21. Imagine that hanging over your head for the next 11 years.

Last Halloween, I wrote about some of the other things I've experienced that have scared the wits out of me. I'd rather have a life without ghosts, psychic powers, ouija boards, tarot cards, the sixth sense or seeing dead people.

I try to avoid dwelling too much on these things because I know it's far too easy to get wrapped up in superstitious mysticism. I don't want to spend forever speculating on past lives or deciphering the hidden meanings of psychic visions, and end up not fully dealing with the realities of this life.

That said, I know children can often seem to have psychic abilities. I would definitely say my seven year-old son is one of those children who seems to be very "in touch". He's very sensitive and is often described by those who meet him as an "old soul". Out of the blue he'll tell me things about relatives who have passed away, relatives he's never met or only met when he was a small child. Relatives I never talk to him about.

As he was eating his breakfast this morning he asked me, "Mommy, who's Johnnie?"

I got the prickly feeling I always get when he says these sort of things to me, but I calmly told him, "That's the name of your great grandmother." He's never met her because she passed ten years ago. I don't have any pictures of her up in the house, and I never refer to her by her first name.

He was just as calm as he matter-of-factly replied, "Oh. Well she told me I need to be careful crossing the street today."

I asked him where he saw her and he said, "In a dream." Then he cocked his head to the side and said, "She's really beautiful."

I told him he should always be careful crossing the street and that next time he sees her that he should say one of the prayers he knows. And then, because he says this sort of thing all the time, I changed the subject so we could get out the door.

Thirty minutes later we dashed out the door and hustled down the hill. We jogged since he's always worried about being late and he likes to race me in the mornings. Two blocks from school, we stood waiting at an intersection for the walk signal. I quizzed him on his spelling words until the light turned and the walk sign appeared.

I never cross an intersection right when the light changes. I always wait a couple seconds for all the drivers that insist on running red lights. But the coast seemed clear and so my son stepped off the curb and I did as well, a nanosecond behind him. He began spelling "because" for me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a black SUV hurtling through the intersection towards us. The driver had blatantly run the light. Cars honked and screeched their brakes to avoid hitting it. Horrified, I managed to reach out and jerk my son backwards just in time. The SUV zoomed past and I glimpsed a woman blissfully yapping on her cell phone, oblivious to the fact that she'd almost hit my son.

Reassured that he was alright, we continued across the street and ran the rest of the way to the school so that he wouldn't be late. As I kissed him goodbye he says to me, "I guess I have to remember to listen to your grandma when I cross the street." And then he turned and ran into the school.

Until that moment I'd managed to forget what he'd told me.

Like I said, I try not be someone who overly occupies myself with the paranormal. Yet sometimes, just sometimes, something like this happens. I don't know what to make of it, but it gives me the chills.