Sixth Sense

My best friend Lisa and I decided to go for a ride one night eons ago. We had no particular destination in mind, just out enjoying the night. Lisa drove. I was in the passenger’s seat. Just as we were traveling west going up Columbus Street Bridge I got a very eerie feeling. You know the feeling you get when something tragic is about to happen, but you just don’t know what?

At that split second the hairs on the back of my neck stood at full attention. Reaching over to the car stereo I turned down the volume and carefully told Lisa to pull over; that something bad was about to happen. It was at that moment that an erratically driving car sped behind us at over 100 mph, swerved to avoid hitting us and crashed head-on into oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the bridge.

Time seemed to sit still. It seemed like the entire world had stopped on impact of the crash. A white, tall, slinky man on a bicycle came up to our car and asked if we were okay. We were so in shock we never offered him and answer.

The car that was hit on the opposite side of the bridge contained a man on his way to pick up his tuxedo for his wedding the next day. He died instantly.

Lisa and I were so nervous and traumatized that we failed to get the name of the man on the bike before he just vanished. The cops were looking at us skeptically because he was nowhere to be found. We both realized this man was a guardian angel coming to check on us. He never went to the vehicle which had actually been hit because he knew that the man had died way before EMT arrived. It’s the only explanation that makes sense. The trauma of that night will be forever etched in my mind. We had to go to a doctor to get sedatives in order to sleep.

I myself will avoid traveling over the Columbus Street Bridge in Tampa, taking another route to the other side of town. I often wonder if I actually have a sixth sense when something bad is about to happen. Where does it come from? It never feels good to have this intuition, but I guess it could be very helpful to help keep myself and those I love and care about out of danger.

-Ileana Walker