Godfrey Jellison's Precognition

  Godfrey Jellison’s Precognition—George Davis

  “I woke up one morning with the gift. It isn’t something I wanted or prayed for. It, to me, is a curse,” Godfrey Jellison admitted to Doctor Wellington, Maine’s authority on extrasensory perception cases. 

  “Tell me, Mr. Jellison. What happens when these visions occur. “ 

  “I get all woozy inside, and if it is related to a disaster or a person’s misfortune. I am shocked. It takes me time to recover from the vision.” 

  “With what accuracy have you been able to verify the results of your creativity? I mean, how many times have your visions come true?”  

  “I don’t know. They just started a week ago. When they begin, I feel, like I said, woozy all over. Then a picture forms in my mind. I see the event happening, and to tell the truth, Doctor. It scares me to death. These pictures are so vivid in detail. I cannot look away. They are in my brain; so etched in my conscience it is impossible to erase them.” 

  “Give me an example of one of your visions, Mr. Jellison.” 

  “Well, last Tuesday I woke at three in the morning. I felt jittery. Everything in my room seemed surreal. It was as if the picture was playing on my bedroom wall. There were two people kissing in the park downtown. The sun was just rising over the city. It is as though this couple was there all night. As I watched, the man pulled out a knife and stabbed the woman to death. My vision ended. I was so shaken by what I had seen. I got up, dressed, and went downstairs. I was so nervous I just sat in my kitchen, head in my hands. What is happening, I said to myself? How can this be? What is the message?” 

  “So, what did you do about it? Did you alert the police?”  

  “No, I went down to the park, saw the empty bench I had envisioned in the theater of my mind.”

  “Has anything occurred at that park since your…vision, Mr. Jellison?”

  “No, or, at least I haven’t heard of anything.”

  “Do you mind if I test you, Mr. Jellison?”

  “What do you mean, testing?”

  “To make sure you have ESP, Mr. Jellison. They are simple tests. First, I will hold up cards, and ask you to identify the number on the playing card.”

  “Oh, all right. Go ahead.” The doctor held up the first card. In my mind, I saw the ace of clubs.

  “That is right, Mr. Jellison. Next? He held up another card. “It’s the ten of diamonds.”

  “Right again, Mr. Jellison.”{ He held up eight more cards and I named each one correctly.

  “Very good, Mr. Jellison. Let’s try another. He had me sit on one side of a huge board. In the slots were blocks of wood with numbers. “The object of this experiment is for you to take one block at a time, and match it up with numbered slots on this side of the board. In the natural, it seem impossible, but I matched all nine cubes to the numbered slots on the board.

  “Well, Mr. Jellison. You are truly clairvoyant. I would suggest you use your gift for the good of all.”

  “I don’t want this gift. How can I get rid of it?” 

  “I’m afraid that is not easy. In fact, at some point in time, it might leave you. However, there is no known way to erase that gift.” I left his office and drove over to the Wayfarer Diner in Bickford for lunch. 

  Winnie the waitress and co-owner of the diner greeted me with her usual smile. 

  “Good morning, Godfrey,” she said. “What can I do for you this bright, sunny day?” 

  “Lots of hot coffee, two over medium, home fries, one slice of rye toast, and crisp bacon. I’ve just been run through the wringer, Winnie.” 

  “Oh, what happened, Godfrey?” I explained it all to her, and she agreed it was a curse. 

My meal came and was perfect as usual. I’ve been eating breakfast here for six years, and I have not been disappointed once. Well, maybe once when Ken overcooked an egg, but hey that was four years ago.  

  Monday morning, ‘oh blue Monday’ as the song says. I woke to the sun streaming in my bedroom window and the rays dancing in a floral pattern on my tiled floor. It was a beautiful morning. It is always great when I wake naturally, and not by visions. I so hate this curse. There has to be a way to disconnect that wire to my brain. 

  I went downstairs and put a Kcup in my coffee machine. I like the ease of the one-cup java maker. It is ideal for me. I live alone, well, almost alone. I have a dog named Boy who is really a girl. I discovered this when I brought her home and went to rub her belly. Since I had already named her, I was not going to change her moniker. 

  “Arf, arf.” I’ve owned this mutt long enough to know that means, I’m hungry, and I need to go out. So I let her out, and filled her dish with flavored hunks of grain. 

I got through another day without a vision. Maybe they’re gone. I can only hope and pray they are. 

“How’s it going, Godfrey?” My friend Alex Moody asked. 

“Pretty fair this day. I haven’t had one of those visions so far today.” 

“I think they’re neat. I’d like to be able to predict the future, pal.” 

“Well, I wish you had this, and I was free of it.” 

“You can help so many people with that gift Godfrey. You can warn people of coming disasters and things.”    

  “I don’t like this curse. It is not of God. It is of the devil, Alex.” 

  “I think we, too often, blame the devil for things. Maybe God gave you this gift to help others.” 

  “No, Alex, you are wrong. God says this kind of thing is satanic. I believe God. I don’t want this gift, and I hope and pray God will take it from me.” 

Alex did what he always does. He lowered his head and walked out. He could never stand anything that even looked like a debate. I know; down deep, Alex is a good man, but no partner in an argument. 

  It’s been six days since my last vision. Maybe I am free. Thank you, God. However, it was short-lived. At ten last night while reading a novel in bed it happened. I saw a fire in Alex’s apartment house on Main Street. I saw Alex standing in the window crying for help. What do I do with this? Do I call the fire department? No, they’ll think I'm either crazy or a firebug. How about my friend, Dexter Wyndham, chief of police? Yes, that’s what’ll do.  

  “Do you know it is eleven o’clock, Godfrey? I just fell asleep. I worked a double today. This better be important.” 

  “Er…it is, and it isn’t.” 

  “What do you mean, it is, and it isn’t?” I explained what I had seen in my vision. He wasn’t impressed. “You called me at eleven to tell me, you saw Alex Moody’s apartment house on fire?” 

  “Yes, Dexter. He was standing in the window hollering for help. You probably know I have this…gift. I call it a curse. It is ESP extrasensory perception. I see things that come to pass. I see the future, Dexter.” 

  “That’s a lot of nonsense, Godfrey. There is no such thing as ESP. It is not a science. I only believe in…hold it, Godfrey. I've got a call on my other line.” I could hear the one-way conversation. “Where? When? How bad is it? I’ll be right there, Hank.” Hank Graffam is our fire chief.  

“What is it, Dexter?”

  “Alex’s apartment is engulfed in flames. I’ve got to go.” I saw it, and it happened. I got dressed and went over to Alex’s apartment. The entire house was in flames. I searched the windows looking for Alex. I was too late. He died in the flames. Suddenly, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see Alex still clad in his Mickey Mouse pajamas. “It was awful, Godfrey. It woke me up. I ran to the window, and a fireman was able to put up a ladder against the siding, and I walked down to safety.”

  When I got up the next morning, I prayed God would take the curse. I don’t want to know the future. I want to be free. I don’t want some evil being putting visions in my head. I rebuked the demon in Christ’s name, and I have been freed. I thanked God for delivering me from that evil curse.

  It is not for mankind to know the future. Jesus said, ‘take life one day at a time,’ and that should be sufficient for anybody.

  God is omniscient, knows all. We are not meant to live our lives dependent on some person or persons that are connected to witchcraft. God is our Source, our Strength, and our Redeemer.

  I guess you’re wondering what happened to the couple sitting on the park bench. Actually, nothing happened. It never came true. Maybe the demon put the wrong vision in my head. The one he planted must have been in some other state, or maybe, God foiled his plan. Yes, It was God all right. He watches over those who love Him. And God does answer prayers.