She opened her eyes. "Nancy, do you believe in premonitions?" she
asked. "You know, like seeing into
the future?"
Nancy thought about that one a moment. "I guess I've never really had a
premonition or anything like that, but that doesn't mean they can't exist, I
suppose." She looked over at
Dawn. "Is that what you think this
feeling is, a premonition?"
"I don't really know," Dawn said. "I'm just trying to figure it
out." She hesitated. "Sometimes, before, when bad things
have happened in the past, I've gotten this feeling, a kind of sixth sense, I
guess." She rose and flopped down
on the sofa. "I just hope it's
something else this time, a false alarm or whatever."
James Taylor sang quietly alone for a few minutes,
as the girls were lost again in their own thoughts.
"Hey, why didn't you tell me about this Marc
Daniels," Nancy said suddenly.
"Where have you been hiding him?"
Dawn smiled and blushed lightly. "I haven't been hiding him
anywhere. I never even talked to him
before the dance."
"Honest?" Nancy asked in disbelief.
"Honest," Dawn replied. "He just came up to me and we started
talking. It was really weird."
"So, has he called you or anything?" Nancy
asked curiously.
"Yeah, he called this morning," Dawn
answered, her blush deepening.
"So, do I have to drag it out of you? What did he want?"
Dawn shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "We just talked a bit and then he asked
if I was busy tonight and I told him yes, so he asked if I wanted to go to the
pool with him on Monday instead and I said okay." Her blush deepened even more.
"Wow, a date!" Nancy exclaimed.
"Not really," Dawn countered quickly,
"We're just going to the pool."
"That counts as a date in my book," Nancy
replied.
A firm knocking at the front door put an end to
their discussion. The girls looked at
each other, concern written all over their features.
"Your parents wouldn't knock, would they?"
Nancy asked quietly.
Dawn shook her head. "I wonder who it could be?" she thought aloud as she
stood up and headed for the door.
"Be careful, Dawn. Don't let anybody in, even if you know them," Nancy called
after her in a loud whisper.
The front porch light was already on in anticipation
of her parents' arrival, so Dawn walked up to the peephole in the door and
looked through it.
On the front porch stood a police officer and what
looked like a fireman. Dawn knew the
policeman. He was Officer Pinkens, a
cop friend of her father's. I wonder
what he wants here this time of day, she asked herself.
"Who is it?" Nancy asked, still
whispering.
"It's a policeman and someone else," she
replied. "The cop’s a friend of my
dad's." She opened the door. "Hi, Officer Pinkens."
The cool night air made Dawn shiver, but she had a
strange feeling that it wasn't just the delta breezes which had given her a
chill.
