A Blessing A Curse and a Plane

The sting of the Mango Habanero sauce from the chicken wings Altenda  just demolished in twenty minutes flat was still evident in her mouth. She poured herself a glass of chilled Pinot Noir wine. As she sipped it and looked around  her apartment, the Jacob Lawerence, Kara Walker and Alma Thomas paintings  which adorned her walls she felt blessed. She would not have acquired these things if it hadn’t been for her job. She could barely call it a job. She sat at home answering the phone from  people wanting to know when they would find their soulmate, have babies, get divorced, buy a house, change jobs, win the lottery and even what color to paint their houses. She was a physic as stated on her online profile. She was a physic for the online Golden Physic Network of Cutter County. The trouble was that she, like many of the people  who answered the ringing phones from home, didn't have any physic powers at all. 

She took another sip of her wine as she waited for her best friend, Sabrina to come over to watch a movie with her after work. 

A few years ago Altenda was unemployed  and sleeping on her mom’s hot black worn out leather couch in the living room. She had just broken up with her husband, moved out and lost her job all in the same month. Even though she was highly educated with a master’s degree  jobs were far and few in between. At least the jobs she wanted. She spent six months on her mom’s couch before her mom said anything to her about finding a job. She was surprised it took her mom that long. Altadena’s mom got up early every morning and at 68 she still went to work. She worked as an Administrative Assistant for a professor. Professor Black was a short, bald man who wore horn rimmed glasses which looked like they came straight out of the 1950’s. He always wore dark blue or black suits with matching  blue or black ties. He was bossy and arrogant and if you asked Altendena more than a little OCD. But, nonetheless, he paid well and her mom liked her job. Altadena was thumbing through a magazine one day spread out on the couch  like an octopus when her mom walked in  the door from work fanning herself from the summer’s heat.

“Dena, you need to find a job. You've been here long enough sitting around. It’s time to get off of your butt and find a job. I put you through school and I am not going to have you just lying around wasting that degree or my money.” Helena said loudly.

“Mom, I am trying. I just can’t find the perfect job.” Altadena said, sitting straight up on the couch.

“Dena, you don’t need the perfect job, just a job. I am giving you two months to find something. I know you've been through some things but that’s life girl. It is time to move on.” Helena said.

A month later Altadena was dressed in a  designer gold and red dress sitting in front of a woman looking at her resume online. 

“Are you sure you want this kind of job? “  The woman asked, looking up from her laptop.

“Yes, I am sure. This job sounds interesting and it goes with my background in psychology.” Altadena tried to convince the woman.

“Well, Miss Gilbert, if you want it the job is yours. Welcome aboard.” The woman stood up and extended her hand to Altendena for a brief handshake. 

The woman, Omera Hinks, set up an appointment for the technical people to come to Altadena’s mom’s house to set up the special equipment that she would need, basically a telephone line separate from the house phone and told her what to say when she got her first call. She told Atadena that she could use her own name or make one up. She also told her to tell the customers what they wanted to hear and already knew about their own lives and probably just needed some violation from someone whom they thought knew more than them. She said not to be too specific but not too vague either and give them just enough information so they were satisfied.  All the operators, as they were called, would get a set salary per month. You could move up the ranks and make more depending on how many clients you had. 

Altadena did her job well and in a month she was making a down payment and moving out of her mom’s house to her new house. She invited her best friend,  Sabrina  over. Sabrina knocked on the door. Altenda opened the door and gave her best friend a big hug.  

“Dena, what is this psychic job you are doing? You know that you can’t see into anyone’s future. If you could, you would not have married that jerk, Jay.” Sabrina joked as she poured herself a glass of wine. 

“Brina, we all have some psychic abilities. Some of us just pay more attention to it than others and I am just trying to get people to tune into theirs and of course pay my bills.” Altadena said smiling. 

“Dena, okay. But, you know I am not buying it.” Sabrina gulped down the last of her wine and grabbed the last piece of chicken wing left on the plate that Altadena  must have missed.

“Girl, are you going to spend the night?” Altadena asked her friend.

“Yeah, you are closer to the airport than I am and I have a plane to catch tomorrow afternoon. I’m going out of town for a few days for work.” Sabrina said.

The next day Altadena woke up early. She had a slight headache and figured that it was nothing that a strong cup of coffee wouldn’t cure. She  grabbed her robe from the end of the bed and put it on and  tied the  robe together in a tight knot  and went into the kitchen and put on a strong pot of coffee. Sabrina was still asleep in the guest room. 

Altadena scrambled some eggs and put some biscuits in the oven  for their breakfast. Just as she was about to sit down at the table her head started to hurt again but this time it felt like it was going to explode in a fiery explosion and she saw something in her mind like a quick flash. She wasn’t sure what it was at first so she closed her eyes and concentrated on the image in hopes her head would stop hurting. She saw her friend Sabrina dressed in a red power suit with her low white kitten  heels dragging a carry-on bag of luggage behind her. She was waving and smiling. Her long wavy hair was blowing behind her like she was caught in a mild windstorm. 

Altadena didn’t know what to make of that image and she tried to put it out of her mind. She went to the spare room to wake her friend up. As soon as she got to the door another image flash entered her mind. Sabrina was now boarding the plane. She sat down in her seat in first class and sipped her usual complimentary drink. She was still smiling and making small talk with the person sitting next to her. The next image she saw was a wall of fire. Her friend was on the plane. Altadena shook her head trying to erase that horrible thought out of her mind. It was dumb she thought.  She wasn’t a physic so why was she seeing these things? 

“What’s up Dena? Do I smell biscuits?” Sabrina said sitting up in bed wiping the sleep out of her eyes. 

“Umm. Yeah. I have them in the oven along with some eggs for breakfast.” Altadena told her sleepy friend.

“Great. I am starving.” Sabrina said, grabbing her robe from the end of the bed.

Both women walked to the kitchen and were sitting at the table munching on their breakfast and drinking coffee. Altadena cleared her throat and sipped some coffee. She had to tell her friend what she saw in her head, the crazy but terrifying visions. 

“Brina, I had a…vision.” Altadena stammered out the words.

“A what?” Sabrina asked, taking a bite of her buttered biscuit.

“A vision. I think it was a vision.” Altadena stammered on. 

“Dena, what are you talking about? I think you are letting all of this fake physics business job  go to your head.” 

“No, no, I really had a vision. It was real. It was about you.” Altadena said, standing up to put her plate in the sink.

“Okay, I will play along. What was your vision concerning me? Did I win the lottery and retire?” Sabrina joked and  buttered the last biscuit and took a bite.

“Now, I don’t know where to start but I got up and went to the kitchen to cook breakfast and then it happened. I got a slight headache but I didn’t think much of it. Sometimes I get them before I have my cup of coffee. But this time it was different. I felt like my head was on fire and I had a flash of you.” Altadena tried to explain.

“Me? What about me?” Sabrina asked. 

“Okay, you were on your way to the airport and you were smiling and happy. You got on the plane and then…Then  something horrible happened. I think that there was a fire or  something. I saw fire, lots of fire.” Altadena said.

“Dena, what the heck? I think you had too much wine last night. You are talking crazy, girl. To quote your Grandma Emma.” 

“Brina, it is true. I saw you on the plane and the plane blew up and caught on fire.”  

“Okay, like I said you have let your fake job go to your head. But, that’s okay. I have to get dressed because as you know I have a plane to catch.” Sabrina said walking back to the guest room.

“Maybe you are right. This job probably is getting to me.” Altadena mumbled as she went to her own room to get dressed.

An hour later Sabrina came out of the guest room dressed in her red power suit. Altadena gasped when she saw her and almost dropped her hot cup of coffee on the floor. 

“What’s wrong with you now?” Sabrina asked her friend. “You are as pale as a ghost.” Sabrina continued.

“Is that what you are wearing?” Altadena asked.

“Yes, why? Don’t you like it? It is my power suit I wear when I talk to the suits.” Sabrina laughed.

“That’s the outfit you were wearing in my vision.” Altadena said.

“Well, I must have told you that I was going to wear it.” Sabrina said, smoothing out her skirt.

“No, you never told me what you were going to wear. It was in my vision. I know it sounds crazy and I know me and you both know I never had any special powers when I took this job or ever but I swear to you that I had a vision and you were wearing that same suit and had that same carry on bag.” Altadena said, trying not to sound like she lost her senses.

“Okay, so what do you want me to do? Not catch the plane? Not go to the meeting? Because of some vision you saw which may or may be true? You want me to believe that you just woke up with some psychic abilities you never had in your life? Do you know how that sounds?” Sabrina said. 

“Can you not go? Altadena asked, trying to be serious but not trying to scare her friend. 

“No, this meeting has been planned for months. I just can’t not go. I might lose my job if I don’t go.” Sabrina answered. 

“Brina, please. I know it sounds like I lost what good sense I had but please…” Altadena almost screamed the words. Until something else happened. Another vision. Altadena saw something else. She saw her mom coming to the door carrying a puppy. Her mom had a black and white puppy in her hand and she knocked on Altendena’s door. But, her mom hated dogs. Why would she have a puppy? Altadena thought. 

“Dena, Dena, where did you go?” Sabrina asked.

“Umm, my mom is coming over and she is bringing a puppy.” Altadena said.

“Okay, you mom hates dogs. Why would she be coming over with a puppy?” Sabrina asked as she drug her bag to the sofa and set it down.

“I don’t know. But, that is what I saw.” Altadena said.

The knock on the door startled the women. They looked at each other and both stood there as if their feet were frozen to the floor. 

“Do you want to open the door?” Sabrina asked.

Altadena went to the door and opened it slowly. Her mom walked in carrying the puppy she had seen in her vision. Altadena almost fainted.

“Mom, what are you doing with that puppy?” She asked her mom.

“Oh, I thought you would like her. My friend Ina's dog had puppies and I asked for one for you.” Her mom explained. 

Both Sabrina and Altendena turned white as the snow they played in as kids and plopped down on the sofa. 

“Dena, maybe you do have some kind of powers.” Sabrina whispered. 

“I don’t know girl  but this is scary. But, now do you see what I am talking about?” Altadena told her friend.

“I don’t  know what is going on with you girls. But do you want the puppy or not. I have to go to work.” Altenena’s mom said still holding the puppy.

“Sure Mom. I want her.” Altadena said.

“Dena, I think that I will cancel that flight.” Sabrina said, grabbing her cell phone. 

Later that night both of the women got notifications on their phones at the same time. They both looked at each other with a look of shock and horror. They both were glad that Sabrina never got on that plane.