Sunshine was filtering its way through the leaves of the large trees lining both sides of the residential street.  Jerry was walking down the middle of the roadway that he didn’t completely recognize, but subtle ques left him believing he had been here before.  Glancing down, he saw that he was walking in his bare feet and he was still wearing plaid pajama pants, but seemed unconcerned regarding not getting properly dressed before leaving the house.

In the distance, he saw his neighbor’s chocolate lab running down the street toward him.  Jerry found this odd as the canine never left his neighbor’s side.  Jerry stopped and turned as the dog sprinted past his left side.  Then Jerry saw his neighbor 100 feet down the street, kneeling down, arms wide open ready to embrace his beloved companion.  As the dog neared, he came to a complete stop and began barking at his owner.

Jerry watched as a wave of pain crossed his neighbor’s face just before he reached up and grabbed at his chest.  In slow motion, his neighbor fell over on his side, still clutching his chest, but appeared to be dead before he hit the ground as lifeless eyes stared back at him.

Jerry rapidly sat up in bed, throwing back the covers, and breathing heavily.  It was still early in the morning and the sun had yet to rise.  Jerry flipped the light switch, revealing his neatly kept bedroom and saw that it was 4:30 am.  Then he glanced down and recognized the plaid pajama pants he wore, which matched the ones from his dream.

As if on cue, he could hear the muffled bark of a dog and was instantly filled with anxiety.  Running through his house, he didn’t take time to put on shoes or grab a coat as he knew what had happened.  Unlocking the front door, he ran across the porch and leaped down onto the grass of the front yard without even touch a single step.  Moments later, he grasped his neighbor’s door knob, but it was locked.  The lights were on in the front room and he knew he was too late.  Stepping over to the large front window, he could barely see the outline of his neighbor lying on the throw rug in front of his chair.  In front of him stood his companion, the chocolate lab, barking frantically trying to get his owners attention.

Jerry stepped back away from the window and directly in front of the door.  Kicking out with all his strength, it took a total of three impacts before the door frame finally gave way and allow him to enter his neighbor’s home.  Without thinking, he reached for the telephone and called Emergency Services.  When the operator answered, Jerry said “Please send help, my neighbor is dead…..”

Jerry woke up coughing, with the smell of burning wood filled his lungs, as he quickly glanced around the dark bedroom.  He felt heat on his face as threw back the sheets and was filled with alarm as he ran through the house, in search for the fire that had awoken him.  With a quick search, he could find nothing that would generate the smoke as he began to realize he could no longer smell the burning wood.  Walking slowly back toward his room, he hesitated and decided to check outside. 

Opening the front door, he look up and down the quiet street and listened for any signs of emergency vehicles.  The street was completely quiet, yet his heart continued to race from the apparent nightmare.  After several minutes, he no longer felt the heat on his face and now the chill air was beginning to make him shiver.  Locking the front door after it was closed, he slowly walked back to his bedroom, consciously trying to remember more of the dream.

Taking a large drink of water from a glass he had on his night stand, he laid back down in his bed and continued to try remembering more of the dream as he slowly drifted back to sleep.

Jerry was working at the warehouse the next day when a police officer showed up at the manager’s office.  Jerry didn’t pay much attention and focused on restacking some goods on a pallet in preparation for shipment when he heard his name called out by the shift foreman “Hey Jerry, got a second?”

Jerry turned to see his supervisor standing next to the officer, both having a grim expression on their face.  As Jerry walked in their direction, his mind began to race, wondering what could have happened and how it involved him.  As he approached, his supervisor stepped back into his office, along with the police officer and motioned for Jerry to follow.  Upon entering, the supervisor closed the door and then sat in his wooden office chair and motioned for the others to also sit.

Once seated, the supervisor started “Jerry, Officer Kennedy unfortunately has some terrible news.  Apparently last night, your grandmother’s house caught fire and fire rescue was unable to save her.  I’m so sorry to tell you this news.”

Jerry stared at his supervisor and didn’t react.  Instantly, he could smell the smoke from his nightmare and then images began to flash through his mind.  He could see his grandmother lying in bed, smoking her last cigarette of the day, something she always did.  He could barely make out her outline and the glow from the end of the cigarette danced in the darkness as she smoked.  The movement of the ember slowed as she relaxed and slowly began to drift off.  Jerry watched in horror as, after several minutes passed in a flash of an eye, the lit cigarette fell from between her sleeping fingers and onto the bedspread.  Jerry wanted to scream as he watched the linen begin to darken, then smoke, before igniting in a small fire directly over his sleeping grandmother.

Jerry jumped as a gentle hand shook his shoulder followed by a voice “Jerry, are you okay?  I know this was terrible news.”  He glanced in the direction of the voice to see the concerned loss on the police officer’s face.

The officer and supervisor shared a look before the supervisor said “Jerry, why don’t you take the rest of the day off.  You need some time to get your mind right.  I can have someone give you a ride home.”

Jerry, shaking his head to regain his focus, replied “I’ll drive myself home.  I think I dreamed of this last night.  And honestly, that freaks me out a little”.

Jerry’s whole body seemed to jump as he quickly came out of a stressful sleep.  He remembered looking down and seeing sparks in his hands before a loud “BANG”.  The bright light blinded him and pain raced through his body.  Flipping on the lamp that sat on his night stand, he still saw bright white spots in his vision, but was able to see that his hands and fingers were intact.  Remnants of the pain were still there, but quickly disappeared along with the white spots in his vision.

The nightmares had started coming with more frequency.  He glanced at the clock and saw it was exactly 4:30am.  Wasn’t that the time of his previous nightmares?  He looked around the room and could see nothing amiss.  Shaking his head side to side, he turned off the lamp and pulled the covers back over his body.  Minutes later, he was sound asleep.

It has been a long month since his grandmother had passed away.  His parents had been killed in a car accident several years ago, so he had inherited the responsibility of dealing with closing of his grandmother’s estate.   Luckily, she had left a will and had minimal outstanding debt, so the probate had gone quickly and a reasonable large sum of money had been directed in his direction.  But the money did nothing for the heartache he felt from losing the last of his relatives.

It was New Year’s Eve and several of the guys from work were having a house party to celebrate the occasion.  They had invited Jerry in the past, but this was the first year he had actually attended.  The “guy” time did him a lot of good, along with the bootleg whiskey that he had procured for the occasion.  As he sat on the steps of the back porch and watched two of the guys raze each other while throwing horseshoes under a makeshift nightlight, he felt relaxed and at ease for the first time in a month.  Then one of the girlfriends came out of the back door and yelled “Countdown in two minutes!”

On cue, everyone started to gather around the bottom of the steps as Jerry watched from a distance.  As one of the ladies viewed her watch, she yelled “30, 29, 28….”  Jerry watched in fascination as the clock ticked down.  With ten seconds remaining, one of the guys, Gus, stepped out of the ground and pulled something from his pocket.  As Jerry watched and could now see it was a large homemade firework, Gus pulled a match from his other pocket and as the countdown hit one, he lit the match with a flick of thumbnail, and lit the end of the fuse. 

As soon as the fuse was lit and sparks began to fly, Jerry’s dream instantly came back to his mind.  As he jumped up, he realized he was too late.  Gus had drank too much as was holding onto the firework too long.  Before Jerry could take the five steps to assist Gus, the firework exploded while he was still holding it, blowing off three of the fingers of his left hand.  Gus cried out in pain as the group of party goers went from cheers to gasps. 

Jerry stood in shock.  His other dreams had always been of current events.  But this dream had come in advance and, if he had been paying attention, could have stopped the unfortunate accident.  He watched as the injured man was rushed into the house and out the front to a car to seek medical attention.  Jerry looked down to see splotches of blood on the ground.  Something he could have prevented.

Jerry had treated himself with dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in town.  This particular Sunday afternoon, they had offered a Sirloin Steak with a loaded baked potato, cooked carrots and freshly baked rolls as their special of the day, which he hadn’t been able to resist.  While he had thoroughly enjoyed the meal, his walk home had been slightly miserable as he had over indulged on the savory meal.  Stepping into his front room and hanging his coat in the corner, the couch seemed to beacon him over for a little relaxation time.  Kicking off his shoes, Jerry laid down on the couch and within minutes, was fast asleep.

As Jerry’s mind drifted, he began to dream of sparkling sunlight reflecting off of a river and could hear the lap of waves as they broke against something below him.  Looking down, he was sitting on the side of a medium sized fishing boat, legs hanging over the side.  The boat didn’t appear to be moving, but for some reason, he felt an anxiety begin to build inside.  As he looked up and down the white and blue trimmed vessel, he heard a splash and then the sound of a chain sliding over the side of the railing, but when he looked in the direction of the sound, it appeared that the anchor was already out in the water, but was connected to the boat using a thick white rope.  Jerry stared at this rope quizzically for a long time, trying to understand how the rope had made the sound.

Curiosity abounding, Jerry stood and walked along the side of the cabin to the front of the boat.  He saw no crew or captain, but that seemed reasonable within his dream.  As he approached the front starboard side, he could see bubbles rising to the surface, bursting up their release from the green tinged water of the river.  As the bubbles seemed to slow, he noticed something dark seeming to float up toward the surface from the depths of the river.  Continuing to watch, the object began to take shape until he realized it was a cigar.  Of special notice was the red and gold wrapper near the end.  He had seen this wrapper many times, as his boss, the right hand man of the family, smoked this particular brand on a daily basis.

Jerry was startled awake when he heard the loud knock on his front door.  The sun was just setting and long shadows filled his front room as the last light shone through the large front window.  Getting up from the couch, he made his way over to the door.  A grin crossed his face as he saw that he knew the visitor.  Fully opening the door, he greeted his boss excitedly “Hey there Boss, great to see you this evening?  What brings you out to this part of town on a Sunday evening?”  His boss shifted the lit cigar to the side of his mouth before saying “Sorry Jerry, I can’t stay for long.  I’ve got some business I need to deal with down by the docks and you were on the way.  But I need a favor.  Can you deliver this to Hank over at the warehouse tonight?  I don’t have time tonight and he really needs this before tomorrow morning”.  On cue, his boss extended his arm and handed a manila envelope which Jerry took reflexively.

Jerry’s instincts were warning him of danger, but he couldn’t pinpoint what concerned him.  As he stared at his boss, he began to stare at the cigar, watching the red and gold label dance as his bosses jaw moved, but he heard no questions.  Then, as if someone had finally turned on the volume, he heard “God Damnit Jerry, are you okay?” 

Jerry shook his head, discounting his anxiety, and said “Sorry, guess I was still half asleep.  Yeah, I’ll take it to Hank right now.”

A smile crossed his bosses face before he said “I knew I could count on you Jerry.  See you tomorrow.”  Jerry watched as his boss quickly stepped off the porch and entered his running car before backing out of the driveway into the street.  Jerry stood in his doorway and watched the taillights of the sedan disappear as it turned right at the end of the street.  The anxiety was still there, but he couldn’t figure out why.

Jerry had dropped off the package as instructed the previous night, as he boss had requested.  He had been tasked to inventory the store room at headquarters and spent a majority of the morning working diligently on the task.  Just after lunch, he heard voices filled with both anger and sadness coming from the meeting room.  Curious, he set down the box he was about to inventory and walked into the large room that held their conference table.  Several of the family members had gathered and there were was an obvious tension in the room.

As Jerry listened, he heard “The fuckers from the South Side are going to pay for this.  How stupid do they think we are?  And to take him out like that?  They are dead, I tell you…D…...E……A……D, dead!”

Then another said as he put his hands over his eyes, trying to hold back his emotions, “I just can’t believe he’s gone.  He was like a father to me?”

Filled with alarm, Jerry stepped forward and asked “What happened?”

All the family members turned and looked in his direction in unison.  Then one of the older members said sympathetically “Son, the boss was killed last night at the docks.  We don’t know all the details, other than it appears this was a move by the South Side.  We may never had found his body if it wasn’t for the witness that fishing at the docks last night.  Apparently they chained him up and threw him overboard from a fishing boat down at the river.  When we found his car this morning, the frantic witness let us know what he saw.  We had someone dive down and sure enough it was the boss.”

Jerry felt like he had been kicked in the stomach.  Unable to stand any longer, he pulled out a chair and sank into the soft leather seat.  He had dreamed of his boss’s murder and could have prevented it.  Once again, he had a premonition that he didn’t understand.  Filled with guilt, knowing he could have helped, he let the emotions overcome him with grief and tears filled his eyes.