Second Chances (101 page)

In those few short days, Brian had taken to walking Sarah to and from her car and office.  He checked in on her several times a day.  On each occasion he managed to somehow play it off so that he didn’t appear to be a stalker or overprotective friend.    Unfortunately, there seemed to be no visible end in sight.  He couldn’t figure out from where the danger emanated, so he just had to be a continual presence until the situation was dealt with.

“Any plans tonight?”  Brian asked while walking her to her car on Thursday.

Sarah emitted a nervous laugh.  “I do, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said shyly.

He opened the Xterra door for her.  “Try me.”

“Well,” she sighed as she lowered herself into the driver’s seat, “Jamie and I are going to visit a woman who is a psychic or witch or something.”

Brian felt a wave of relief wash over him at her unexpected admission.  “Good,” he said.

Sarah was confused.  This wasn’t the reaction she expected from him.  Her eyes narrowed as she studied him.  “Why is that good?”

He didn’t know how to respond at first.  “Umm, because then you won’t be alone tonight.”  He shut the door, leaned in, and added, “Do me a favor?”  She nodded.  “Please call me to let me know when you get home.  I’d love to hear what happened.”

“Certainly,” she responded.  “Just promise you won’t laugh at me.”  She really did value his opinion.

“I won’t.”  He was struggling right now.  He had leaned into her window, caught a whiff of her hair and perfume, and was fighting the urge to kiss her forehead before she drove away.  He closed his eyes and pulled back.  “So, I’ll talk to you later,” he said quietly and walked over to his car.

From the student parking lot, Evan Winters watched and waited.  He had seen the routine develop.  He saw that Professor White was never alone.  Always she seemed to be with Professor Waite.  And the way the professor looked at her.  He growled.  Was the woman blind?  Waite was drooling all over her.  He smirked as he hopped into his Black Escalade.  Things were just getting interesting.

Jamie was waiting for Sarah on the porch as she pulled into the driveway.  Sarah was about to get out; Jamie shook her head and motioned for her to stay where she was.  “I dropped Chloe off earlier,” she explained as she hopped in the car.  “It was great.  I had some iced tea with your mom, she baked cookies...need I say more?”

Sarah laughed.  “I know how you feel about my mother’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  So, did you at least bring me some?”  Her look was hopeful.

“Right here,” Jamie responded, patting her purse.  She opened it, pulled out a big zippered storage bag of cookies, and immediately fed one to Sarah as she drove.

“Mmm,” Sarah murmured appreciatively.  “These are so good.”

They followed the directions Jamie had pulled off of Map Quest, a method which seemed too high tech for their destination.  At last they pulled up in front of an ordinary looking ranch house.  Immediately Jamie and Sarah leaned over the address on the sheet to make sure they had the right place.  They laughed, parked, and exited the vehicle.  If the house was common, then Brenda was even more so.

She stood smiling warmly as they reached her door.  Brenda wore a faded denim skirt, a tight fitting red cap-sleeved t-shirt, and black flip-flops.  Sarah bit her lip to keep from smiling.  Brenda couldn’t have been more than thirty.   She was tan and fit, with long blond hair that she kept pulled back in a messy ponytail.  “Welcome,” she said as she urged her guests into the kitchen.

“Hm,” Jamie muttered as she glanced around the room.

“Not what you expected?”  Brenda queried lightly with a smile playing at the edge of her lips.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t this.”  The room was decorated in country colors.  Baskets abounded, some hanging, some sitting on the counter or floor.  All of them were in use.  There were herbs hanging to dry in various places throughout the room.  And the table she waved them to have a seat at was a big wooden rectangular one with matching chairs.  The room was cozy, and inviting.  They felt at ease the minute they entered.

“So, I asked you to do some homework prior to our meeting.  Did you complete it?”  She asked looking from one woman to the other.

They both nodded and Sarah added, “I had some difficulty with my question.  Can you help me with it?”

“Certainly,” Brenda said, taking a seat across from Sarah.  Brenda studied her for a moment.  This woman was beautiful, but there was sadness behind her lovely emerald eyes.  She leaned in closer.  Hmm.  This woman had a great gift that lay untapped, unused.  A crime.  She would fix that.  “Tell me about your dreams first.”  She hadn’t taken her eyes from Sarah.

“Okay,” Sarah began nervously.  She recounted the dreams she had shared with Jamie, and told her a newer more recent one.  “A friend of mine, Brian, calls me and asks me to be a part of some dating game show he has been asked to be on.  I agree to do this for him.  So, we arrive at this studio and I discover that I am to be one of two female contestants who are competing to date him.  I decide I’ll just play along.  Anyway, I guess we have to jump through a series of hoops to win him.  All of these mini contests are designed to help him determine with whom he is most compatible.  The one I most vividly remember is the one where I am placed at a vanity table with tons of make-up surrounding me.  And I’m told that I have to get ready for a date with Brian.  He is sitting there just watching me get ready.  It’s a little unnerving, what with the cameras, Brian, and the hostess hovering nearby.”  Sarah paused and watched for a reaction from Jamie or Brenda, but both were simply listening intently.

“So, I’m applying all the make-up and I get to the part where I must put on mascara.  I have four to choose from, but the one I select has this huge clump on the wand when I pull it out.  I try shaking it, I try shoving it back into the container.  Suddenly it’s apparent that the clump is actually a spider.  And somehow this spider is soon in my hair.  I can see it crawling around.  I hate spiders.  I’m terrified of them.  But I’m on national television, so I try to remain calm.  I ask Brian to get the spider out of my hair.  He asks what I want him to do with it after he captures it.  I tell him to put it outside where it belongs.”  Again she stopped to wait for a reaction, but there was none.

“In the next scene, the three of us are in bumper cars.  Brian is in the middle.  We are told that as we drive through this course, Brian will have to pick one of us.  He will suddenly veer off in the direction that one of us takes, and the game will be over.  So, I’m driving along and the road forks.  I go left and Brian pulls along side me.  I smile at him, and the cars freeze up.  The game is over.  The other woman is led off another direction, and the entire time she is walking away she is crying and screaming.  She keeps saying that it isn’t right, that she should have been chosen, that I shouldn’t even be allowed to compete because I’m married.

“Brian is taken off one direction by a cameraman for his commentary on the game, and I am led off another direction with my own set of cameras and the hostess.  We are surrounded by food and I’m munching away, while cleaning up.  She’s asking me all these questions about how I feel about the game and about Brian and I really don’t know how to answer.  My responses are vague and I’m quiet.  I feel guilty over what the other woman said.  Maybe she’s right.  Maybe I shouldn’t have been allowed to compete.  But then I think how this isn’t my fault.  Nobody asked me if I was married.  And just when I start to tell the hostess all of this, the phone rings.  It’s Brian.  And suddenly I’m happy.  He wants to know if I’ll go to dinner with him the next night and I agree to go.  Then I wake up.”

Sarah looked at her hands.  She had been wringing them the entire time she shared her dream about Brian.  She paused and looked at Brenda, awaiting her reaction.  She smiled quietly.  “So what does it all mean?”  She asked slowly.

“I think you know what it means,” Brenda responded.  “Your dreams are not like some.  There are those who dream of chicken drumsticks that are swimming in a river, acting like piranha, others who want me to tell them why their boyfriend always appears in their dreams in the form of a gummy worm, but your dreams are not so mysterious.  Are they, Sarah?”  She gazed into Sarah’s sad emerald eyes.  “You have dreams that are self-explanatory.  Your dreams are the result of your fears, your truths, your hopes and desires.  And I am willing to bet that some of your dreams even come true.”  Sarah’s eyes darted to Jamie in surprise. 

“When I say they come true, I don’t mean the dreams of handsome princes, or even of game shows.”  She smiled warmly.  “I mean that you have premonitions, don’t you?”  Sarah froze for a moment her eyes wide, unable to breathe, then with downcast eyes, nodded in shame.  “Why are you ashamed?  It is a great gift.  It also comes with a great responsibility.  You have other abilities, Sarah, abilities that you are equally afraid of, abilities you intentionally never let surface.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Sarah said honestly, her face scrunched up in confusion.

“Let me work with you.  Let me help you be what you were meant to become.”   Brenda took Sarah’s hand and flipped the palm up.  Slowly she moved a silver ringed finger to trace the lines in Sarah’s palm.  “Yes.  You are strong, stronger than even you would believe.  Right now you are carrying a heavy burden.  You are lucky in that you are surrounded by a protection of love.  Unfortunately there is a danger nearby as well.  Love will be there for you, Sarah, but it can’t save you.  You must turn to it when you fear it most.  And you must face the danger alone.  There is no other way.”  She pulled her hand away from Sarah’s quickly then, as though she had just touched something hot.  Brenda caught her breath.  She couldn’t tell Sarah what she had seen.  She tried to cover up her feelings by instead turning to Jamie.

“You have been waiting so patiently, Jamie,” Brenda began quietly.  “I think your path will be much different, and yet due to your friendship, some aspects are bound to be parallel.”