Intuition and Premonition
By BillieBob

Do you believe in either one? Would you even want to? A blessing or curse, or both!

Intuition and Premonition

The tale I have to tell may just make a believer out of you. At one time I thought both belonged in one of those supermarket tabloids. Or maybe those that had the unmitigated gall to even claim such nonsense was in serious need of medication, a strait jacket, and a padded room with a view. My personal opinion now is much different. A whole lot different!

First it was just those little things. A little something would happen here, nothing for a while, then another little something would happen there. No one thing stands out too much in memory till maybe now that I look back about twenty years or so. Maybe as much as twenty-five years. For example I remember that little thing told me to hesitate just for ten, or twenty seconds after the traffic light turned to green one rainy day. Good thing, because just about then a car went across in front of me from the left going over the speed limit by 20 MPH easily. I would’ve had that car in my left side. This was way before airbags. If I was lucky, I would have ended up in intensive care. Hence, you wouldn’t be reading this.

Then there was the case where I left extra early for work one morning. Later that day I heard from a co-worker there was an accident about halfway to work on the same road I traveled that morning.

My feeling, or intuition wasn’t 100% reliable. Two weeks after buying a brand new 1987 Mercury Topaz, the one with what they called the “High Output Engine” (the valve cover on top was a casting not stamped sheet metal), and loaded with all the options including all wheel drive. Now before you say something like I’m full of shit, tell me why there was a rocker style switch on the dash to engage the rear drive. Then there’s the little giveaway such as a transfer case and drive shaft to the rear differential, and axles in back. Later I found out where they snaked the brake cable to the rear. Just under the floor pan above the drive shaft, and above some sort of damn shield. That’s also where they had put one of those splices in like a “Y” shape. To connect it without dropping said pieces to get at it I had to use one of them spring loaded grabber things you push a plunger. There, I proved it was all wheel drive, but not full time.

Where was I. Oh yes, two week old then car that had cost over 14 thousand dollars. I had hit a damn deer. That’s why I don’t do day trading.
Over the years we would go to stock car races. Two of the tracks we went to was at The Milwaukee Mile. Another was Slinger Super Seedway. My cousin raced at Slinger, with some success. Like three track championships. I won’t bore you with a long list of the drivers we watched there over the years. Let’s just say many of them went on to compete in Nascar’s Cup division. Most notable was The 1992 Winston Cup Champion Alan Kulwicki. Naturally we would pull for him to succeed in his career.

If you follow the schedule, they still race at Pocono Pennsylvania twice a year. In June, and also July. Alan Kulwicki had introduced the concept of using a transmission with overdrive there and shifting on the front straightaway. On Saturday, the day before the Cup race on Sunday I went outside on the front porch to have a cigarette. I don’t remember if I was thinking about the Sunday race, but at some point I remember like I was hearing, or almost hearing, or just thinking the words, “Alan Kulwicki is dead”.

Well that certainly gave me a case of the willies! I shook myself and told myself mentally that it was silly, or stupid. I didn’t think of those words for a long time. Then that fateful night after getting home, showered, and into bed after working second shift, my wife rolled over in bed and said, “Alan Kulwicki is dead”. She also said she had taped it on the VCR and the taped was cued up to watch the report. Naturally I went back downstairs and watched it because of it being April first and all.
We went to his wake at the funeral home in Milwaukee. Well, I think it was Greenfield. We got in line with everyone else to pay our respects. We as in my wife, my mother, and me. When we got to the point of being next in line to the casket they called for to start the service. Contrary to what they had Robert Duvall say in the movie Days of Thunder, race car drivers do go to drivers funerals. After the long walk back to the car and I got in I had remembered that thing the previous June or July. I turned to my wife in the car and told her about it. I couldn’t really read the look she gave me. Maybe something like as if to say ‘I don’t doubt you’.

That whole thing made a believer out of me to some degree at that point. Then the guilt ate at me. All of the would haves, should haves, and could haves for months it troubled me. I mustn’t forget to mention the depression and agonizing over not doing anything about it beforehand. Then finally logic and rational thought kicked in like what if someone tried to contact me with that kind of information. Naturally I would have thought they had a screw loose.

We don’t attend many races anymore. Last year once at Milwaukee, and once near Madison, Wisconsin.
I know this may seem like a fictional story, but it isn’t. I hope to God I never, ever experience anything like that again. Whether you believe it or not, it’s your right. This wasn’t meant for the Halloween Theme. Just something I had to get off my chest.

Another fact: I can’t pick winning lottery numbers either.

The only thing I can predict with 100% accuracy is one day I will die, and the rest of the world will move on without me.