And I feel fine

AND I FEEL FINE

Zac Rhoades could see the future. This was not pie in the sky. This was not a silly hunch. This was not some intelligent guesswork.

This was not cryptic messages in the form of tea leaves and hidden symbols.

Zac Rhoades could see into the future.

As a teen, perhaps seventeen or eighteen (he couldn’t quite recall), sitting on his toilet seat he visualized he would witness an accident. A cyclist would hit a car, roll over the bonnet, get back on his feet and shout at the driver. He visualized the cyclist in every detail from his black track suit bottoms and a yellow t-shirt with a Nike swoosh on it’s front. In his mind’s eye he saw the situation unfold. The driver firstly apologetic then a little fearful as the cyclist raised his fist and became more animated. As the driver drove away Zac saw the cyclist pick up his bike, straighten the handlebars, realised there was something wrong with his front wheel and kick at it in anger.

For some inexplicable reason he finished his business, washed his hand and as he was playing a game on his PC anyway, probably Solitaire (there was a time he was slightly obsessed),

 he opened up a file and wrote. I HAD A VISION OF AN ACCIDENT. BIKE AND CAR. NO BIGGIE BUT THE DUDE WAS MAD.

Two days later at the corner of Bambury Drive and Church Road, as he was standing waiting for his bus the accident occurred. It was exactly the way he had visualized it, even down to the damaged wheel.

When he was in his late twenties, he awoke one day from a dream that he would win the lotto. The numbers were 5, 23, 25, 27, 31 and 32. He remembered them after he woke. He remembered them after he showered and ate. Even on the bus to work he remembered them. So, once he got home after a grueling eight-hour shift shuffling trolleys and helping sometimes rude customers to find products that were in aisles they had forever been in, he typed them out on his laptop on a word document. He saved it on his desktop under the title WINNING LOTTERY NUMBERS. Within an hour he decided to get online and use these same numbers for the National Lottery.

Three days later, he checked the results.

Every number was chosen that week.

He was a millionaire.

Six months later, in his five-bedroom house (which he had purchased outright) in a quiet suburban area, he had another premonition. This time he wasn’t sleeping. It came to him in a flash. He would meet a tall blond woman called Catherine and he would marry her.

Not Caroline or Katie but Catherine.

He opened a document on his laptop and titled it FUTURE WIFE. He then typed Catherine. He deleted it and re-typed Blonde Catherine. He saved it on to his desktop and closed the lid and smiled to himself.

They met, of all places, in Waitrose supermarket and six months later they were engaged. She had dropped her bank card in the confectionery aisle. He watched it as it fell to the ground. Scanning the name as he retrieved it, he saw the name on the card - Catherine Sheen. A year later they were married in a castle in Wales. The guests loved it and everybody said the couple looked gorgeous.

The same sensation came to him when in the Duke’s Arms watching Everton versus Chelsea. The exact score flashed in his mind, with the exact minute the goal was scored. He retrieved his mobile phone, opened the calendar app and typed into it - GOAL IN 49^th MINUTE – RAHEEM STERLING. Replacing his phone back into his pocket, he picked up his pint and watched confidently as the player scored a header the exact time he had foreseen.

So, this time - when sitting on his leather settee when the mind flash came again, he knew, one hundred percent it was a premonition that would come true.

He foresaw the end of the world.

He foresaw the bright light through his window and knew that within ten minutes the human population would all be extinct. Gone. Human beings would be wiped out in a flash, the planet would recover and another species would yet again dominate the world.

Seconds passed as he digested this awful disastrous news that he, for whatever reason, had become privy to.

He opened his phone, typed in his password and opened the calendar app and typed

THE WORLD IS ENDING.

What could he do, sitting here, alone in his home?

Thirty to forty seconds had passed and he realized prevention was not an option. Nothing in his power could be done to halt this scenario. He only had one choice.

Zak decided to use social media to message his loved ones. At least they would end their lives with a positive message of love.

Firstly, Zac decided that he would message his beautiful wife Catherine, then his brother, then his parents, then his friends. As many people as he could. Sending them one last message to show his love to them and ensure that last contact was one of positivity and love. Possibly leave their last thought on the planet with a kind of hope. ‘See you on the other-side’ or ‘You are beautiful and you have led a wonderful life’. Something like that.

He clicked off the calendar app and clicked on the internet.

Facebook showed Zac a reel with a song playing over a cat treading over a blanket. The song was something to do with biscuits. It was cute for sure. It was soon followed by a couple dogs who were wearing sweatshirts and looked like they were small people. They were running through a large kitchen. Zac laughed at this. After two more reels on cats treading and one dog whose bark sounded like he had a Liverpudlian accent, he remembered what he had initially gone onto Facebook to do.

He saw the light but never even heard the blast.