Free Connections of the Mind by Roseanne Dowell

think?”
    “Knowing Lester, early eight, nine?”
    “Yeah, early.” Rebecca didn’t know Lester as well as she thought she did. Let her be surprised. “So tell me about Jeremy. What’s he like?”
    “I’m going to leave that for you to decide on your own. I don’t want to influence you.”
    “Sounds serious.” Allison wasn’t sure she liked this. Rebecca was never tightlipped about a guy.
    “I’ll see you Saturday.” Rebecca hung up before Allison had a chance to say anything.
    * * * *
    Rebecca flipped down her phone, finished breakfast, paid her bill, and went outside. She headed in the direction of the path she had seen a short distance away. A good brisk walk would help clear her head. The spectacular colors, the crispness in the air refreshed her. She stopped for a minute and sat down on a bench to retie her shoes.
    She needed this. Needed her space. Some alone time. Away from work, from Allison, her brother, and right now, away from Jeremy. She stood and began walking at an invigorating pace. Was she doing the right thing, she wondered. Should she take this course, stay here, and see what developed between her and Jeremy?
    She felt like she’d known him forever. Yet there was so much she didn’t know about him. She hurried down the path, taking in the beauty of the trees. Suddenly her skin prickled.
    “Rebecca, look out,” Jeremy yelled.
    Jeremy? She thought he had gone to see the chief. She swung around to see where he was. Something came at her like a freight train. She ducked, but he clipped her head with his arm. She fell down. Everything went dark.
    When she woke up, Jeremy stood next to her. Her head hurt. She blinked a couple of times before fully opening her eyes. “What happened? Where am I?”
    She tried to sit up, but her head ached. A pain in her foot caused her to wince. What the heck happened ?
    “Lay still. You’re in the hospital. Someone attacked you. Someone tried to kill you. I was with the chief, and all of a sudden I saw you. I saw it happen, like in slow motion.” Jeremy brushed the hair from her forehead “I couldn’t do anything but scream your name. I still don’t understand it.”
    Rebecca tried to answer, but no sound came.
    “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life. Thank God, you’re safe.”
    Memory returned. “I heard you yell. I turned to look for you, and someone came at me. He knocked me down. I don’t remember anything else.” Rebecca liked the way Jeremy caressed her head. It reminded her of when she was a little girl, and her mother stroked it when she was sick or needed comforting. “You warned me. I heard you yell, but you weren’t there.”
    Jeremy smiled. “Yeah, I guess I had one of your visions. Someone in a dark, hooded sweatshirt was following you. I saw him speed up, and I knew what he was going to do. I yelled. You ducked, but he clipped you with his arm. You lost your balance and fell. You were unconscious when we found you. You have a broken ankle by the way.”
    “That explains the pain in my foot.”
    “You twisted it when you went down. Not a bad break. In fact, you won’t even need a cast. Just a strange-looking boot.” Jeremy laughed. “I’m afraid you’re going to have a black eye, too. Maybe a few other bruises that won’t show.”
    “I feel like I’ve been run over by a Mack truck.” Rebecca rubbed her back and hip. “Oh crap, my brother is going to have such a fit. You can’t tell him what happened, Jeremy. He’ll make me go home. I know he will.”
    “What do you propose we tell him?”
    “I’ll tell him I fell while I was jogging. That I hit a small branch and went down. He’ll believe that. I always was a klutz.”
    “And how do we account for the black eye?”
    Rebecca thought for a moment. “My hand was in a fist, and I landed on it, right by my eye.”
    “Do you think he’ll buy that?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe. It doesn’t matter if he buys it or not. We can’t tell him the