Free Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel Page B

few hours talking to him, I knew that I would fall in love with him and marry him.  For me Gracie, it was not just love at first sight like your father and I always joked about. I felt the connection between us. I knew that he was the one I was meant to be with.
    About a month after we met, your dad and I were standing outside of Wechsler’s Drugstore.  As he leaned in to kiss me I was overwhelmed by the smell of rain. Then I had a vision of his death.  I saw it as plain as day.  He was older and lying in the grass next to a red rose bush in front of a yellow house. He clutched his chest with his left hand, a gold wedding band on his ring finger.  I came running from the house, older too, the screen door slamming behind me.
    Although the visions were new to me, I dealt with them the same way that I did with my other abilities.  I never told your father that I had seen his death. I thought that I could change the course of the future by altering little things.  I made sure that we never lived in a yellow house. I never planted red rose bushes. I even acted like I thought screen doors were the most hideous things on earth! Our wedding bands are silver. But, you know the end of this story.  He died anyway, lying in the front yard clutching his chest.  There was nothing about that part of the vision that I could change.
    The strange thing was, after I had that first vision of your father, I started having visions of things that happened to other people. I was able to save them without fail, to the point that, as you know, people grew suspicious of why I was always around when accidents were narrowly averted.  I know that this embarrassed you, that folks in town thought I was a little crazy or maybe bad luck.  I’m sorry for that too, Gracie, but it feels good to finally let you know that I was saving their lives.
    Why then couldn’t I save your father’s life? It is a question that has plagued me these two months since his death.  After much contemplation I have come to some conclusions:
    1. I think that the true love of your father triggered the visions. I had never felt for another man what I did for him.
    2. Because I married him I did not alter the future enough to prevent him from dying in the manner he did in the vision.
    3. Every night since I first had the vision of your father’s death I dreamt of it and it never changed.  Then the night before he died, I didn’t have the dream at all.  I thought that was a good thing. I had stopped having the vision when I touched him many years before. However, it was a sign I ignored. I let my guard down.
    Honey, I’m telling you these things not only because I needed to come clean about who I am, to give you some insight as to why I would have such an immense sense of guilt that I would end my own life, but because I fear that you may have inherited my abilities.
    As a child I observed that you were very cautious and protective of others and extremely hard to surprise!  I don’t know if I was seeing something that I wanted to see. We never talked about it and I never had visions or senses about you. I think I thought maybe your own abilities would take care of you.
    Gracie, if you do have abilities similar to mine, please learn from my mistakes. Save yourself a lifetime of trouble and heartache.  I’m sorry that I don’t have more knowledge about this to share with you. I don’t know where the visions came from, perhaps this is a mystery you can solve for the both of us.
    The only other person I have told about any of this is your aunt Hazel.  She has always been a wonderful sister to me and I know she will be a wonderful guardian for you.  She does not have the senses or the visions, but she knows everything that I have just told you. Go to her for anything you need, you can trust her.
    Take care my sweet red headed girl.
    Love Always,
    MOM
     
    “Is this why you didn’t marry Avery’s dad?”
    She nodded.
    Tears were rushing to the surface. This was a