by T. Jones
She was working out at the club the next morning, running on the treadmill because it was too cold outside, when it hit her. There were several televisions in the big workout room, and they were running a fill story about how busy the airports were during the Christmas season. She glanced up, saw a video of a plane landing, and she knew. She ran into the locker room, grabbed her phone, then walked up the stairs to get service. Her grandfather had just bought his first cellphone, she hoped he had it on. He answered on the third ring.
"Danielle, is something wrong, is everything okay there?"
"I'm fine. Listen, this is going to sound crazy, I know. You're flying out tonight, right?"
"Yeah, we're leaving here a little after eight I think. This Eastern time has me all screwed up. It's raining a little, but that's no big deal."
"Don't go tonight, don't get on that plane Grandpa! It's going to crash, I don't know how I know that, I just do. You have to believe me."
"Honey, it's just nerves. This is the first time we've been apart since you moved here. Flying is the safest way to travel."
"Yeah, until it isn't. Please don't get on that plane. Please! I know it sounds crazy, but I have these feelings sometimes, and they come true. Promise me you won't get on that plane."
"Dani, come on, settle down. The plane isn't going to crash. We can't change our tickets this late. I promise, it will be okay."
"Please Grandpa, don't get on that plane." Danielle was crying, but trying not to let him hear it in her voice. "I just know it, I don't know how."
"Danielle, I'm sorry, but we have to use our tickets. Call Anna, talk to her honey, you're just worked up because you're alone. I have to go sweetie, okay? Please don't worry. I'll call you after we land in Jamaica."
"Okay. I love you so much! Tell grandma I said that too okay?" The line went dead and Danielle wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Maybe it was just her imagination working overtime. She showered, then went home to get ready for her shift at the restaurant. She finished early and Anna picked her up to give her a ride home.
"Danielle, are you okay? You don't look well. I can come in for a while if you want."
"It'll be fine, I guess I just miss my grandparents, separation anxiety or something."
"I could help you with that, backrub?" The freckled girl smirked.
"Your Dad will be pissed if you spend another night, and if I get you in bed I'm keeping you there. I don't want him mad at me, he'll revoke my invite for Christmas dinner."
"Alright, then I'll see you tomorrow." She drove away and Danielle went into the house and turned on CNN. The story didn't break until almost midnight. There were no details at first. Breaking news, a flight from Miami to Jamaica had overshot the runway, injuries, possible fatalities. Danielle tried her cellphone, aware that service in Jamaica was sketchy at best. She made several more attempts, then just sat on the couch waiting to hear more. She sat numb, wondering what more she could have done to stop her grandparents from getting on that plane. What would Teresa Blackburn have done to change their fate? Possibly, with the help of Teresa and her group of psychics, she would have seen this coming sooner, in time to somehow stop it from happening, or at least prevent her grandparents from being a part of it. She fell into a fitful sleep sitting in her chair in front of the television. At three in the morning, her phone rang.
"Danielle, can you hear me?" It was her grandfather, the connection was bad and he sounded frail and old, but he was alive.
"Yes, I can, but just barely. Are you guys alright? Is grandma alright?"
"We're both fine, just scared and tired. There were quite a few people hurt, but as far as I know, nobody got killed. The plane slid right up to the edge of a cliff, another fifty feet and we'd have fallen in the ocean. But we're fine Honey. I knew you'd see it on the news, but I had a hell of a time finding a phone that worked, and getting through. The next time you have one of those premonitions, I'm going to listen." Danielle laughed, tears streaming down her face.
"The next time I have one, I'm going to make sure you do. I love you so much." The connection was poor and she was yelling.
"I'd better go, there are other people waiting to use the phone. I'll call you tomorrow afternoon. Far as I know, we're planning to stay for the rest of our trip."
"God, I'm so glad you're safe! I love you, and I'll talk to you tomorrow." Danielle put her phone down, grabbed the comforter, and collapsed onto the couch.
***
"So Teresa, you have my full attention. The thing with the plane crash, it scared the shit out of me. I knew something was going to happen. I was sure it was going to crash actually, but not soon enough, and I had no idea of the outcome. I was sure my grandparents were going to die. They didn't, obviously. But next time someone else's family might not be so lucky."
Danielle had called Teresa Blackburn the next morning, but because of Christmas, wasn't able to connect with her until the middle of the following week. They met for coffee.
"The truth is, that a lot of the time we can't change what fate has in store for us, dear. And sometimes we just have to let things happen the way they're meant to. In the case of your grandparents, we may have been able to foresee that the crash wouldn't kill anyone, but maybe not. That's why we keep trying to recruit more people all the time. The more perspectives we have on any one event, the better the chance is that we'll get it right."
"I'm just saying, I can see how what you're doing is important. I never completely believed the whole psychic thing, even though I've seen things happen that I had premonitions about, but the plane crash was too clear. I've seen pictures of the wreckage, and it was exactly what I saw in my vision. You said to call when I was ready, and I am now. It seems like this is kind of more important than just me, like I have to do what I can."
"It's hard Danielle, sometimes you know things, and you can't change them. Sometimes you know things and you don't dare change them, because something worse might happen. I've been accused of being too proactive, of stepping in too soon without considering the consequences. That's why Bess Fisher quit the group, that and the child. But that was quite a few years ago, the other girls have let me make the decisions lately. I try hard to make the right ones."
"I don't know how it all works. You'll have to coach me, I guess. But I want to help."
"I have a different role in mind for you, Danielle. With your skills, I mean your abilities as a fighter, you could do things most of us couldn't. For example, last week we stopped a drunk from getting in a cab, because he would have gone home to kill his wife. But two of the girls got hurt pretty badly before the cops showed up. He wasn't a big man, by any means. You probably could have knocked him out and thrown him in the dumpster where he belonged without breaking a sweat, while someone else could have gotten his wife to a shelter."
"Sounds like fun." Danielle grinned.
"Well, it's not usually. Humanity has a way of making you feel dirty, it's not usually glamorous, and it's not always cut and dried. I want you to understand, if you join, that there are times I will ask you to do unpleasant things, often without knowing the reason why."
"Such as?"
"Two of the more senior members, the Elders, they're calling us, have on occasion slept with people when needed. Sometimes to prevent someone from keeping an appointment, rarely, to break up a marriage."
"Yeah, I'll break a guy's nose for you, but I'm not going down on one. I have a wonderful girlfriend Teresa, hope to be together forever, I would never cheat on her."
"No, I didn't think you would. But your young and beautiful, sometimes it would be enough to just let a person think you might sleep with them. Maybe just some flirting."
"Maybe, but it would depend on the situation, and how important it was."
"Like I said, I can't always tell you the why of things, sometimes I don't even know myself, I just trust my gift to tell me what needs to be done. Again, it's a messy business."
"I just know what it felt like, knowing that plane was go
ing to crash, but not having the time to stop it, or knowing what would happen to my grandparents. I need to make a difference in situations like that." Teresa smiled and reached out her hand to shake Danielle's.
"You're pretty young, too young for some of it. I'll ease you into it, let you get comfortable. Bottom line Danielle, we save a lot of lives, it's important work."
***
The first sign of trouble came early that Spring. The snow left early, and the golf course began to green up by the middle of March. Danielle was still working at the restaurant, but she had cut back on her later shifts. Disrupting Fate always seemed to be necessary around the time the bars closed, or so it seemed to Danielle. Her grandparents weren't happy, and neither was her girlfriend. The Sisters, as she had come to know the loosely knit organization that was becoming increasingly more central in her life, were paying her a nice salary as well as paying for college when fall semester started. Explaining the necessities of her hours to her grandparents was difficult, but she always came home sober and in one piece, so they stopped fighting with her about it. Convincing Anna was a little more difficult.
"Why do you need to work for this outfit, anyway. You make good money at the club. I know waitressing isn't your dream job, actually I don't know what your dream job is, but I will support you in it, whatever you want to do. Your grandparents aren't destitute and I know they'll help you with school. And there are student loans. What exactly do you do for them at two o'clock in the morning that can't wait until the next day?"
"It's really hard to explain, Anna." The young girl stared at her coldly.
"Try, because this is important. I can't say that I've ever been really mad at you, but it's coming, and it's not going to be pretty."
"You can't help being pretty, Anna." Danielle teased, getting nowhere. "We help people. We make sure bad things don't happen to good people, at least when things go right."
"Like a charity? Charities don't operate that late at night."
"Three times it's been that late, usually I'm home by midnight, one at the latest. And it's not always at night, some of the stuff I do is during the day."
"So, what do you do? Is it like AA on steroids, you drag people out of the bars?"
"Sometimes we make sure drunks don't get home, if they're abusing their family. We make sure they end up in jail, or at least slow them down."
"How the hell do you know they're abusing their family? Police records? Are you like vigilantes? You're making this shit up as you go along." Anna fumed.
"I'm not, honestly. I can't explain it, you wouldn't believe me anyway."
"Is this like the time you dreamt your grandparents were going to be in the plane crash? That was just a coincidence, that and your mind playing tricks on you."
"Okay, you're right, no arguing with you. I wouldn't expect you to believe anything that isn't written down on a spread sheet."
"Damn right! And by the way, if you're working for a bunch of do-gooders, where is all the fucking money coming from? Do you bill these assholes after you save them from themselves? If you're going to lie to me, at least try to make it believable."
"Teresa and a couple of the others are wealthy. I think they put up the money. The more I do with them Anna, the more I see that we're really doing something important." Danielle said, speaking more softly and taking her girlfriend's hand. "I would never do anything that would come between us, can't you just trust me? You know how much I love you."
"Of course, I trust you. You're just too beautiful for your own good, and I worry about you. You should be home in bed with me at that time of night."
"My grandparents refuse to think we're doing it, and yours don't want us to, just where should we be sleeping together?" Danielle smiled, knowing the fight had run its course.
"Another year, we'll get our own place. We can both work at the course this summer and save. By next summer we can get a decent place. If they bail on paying for my school, I'll just get a student loan."
"It will all work out for us, just trust me." As it turned out, Anna trusted her, but Anna's father did not.
***
Rachel Jenkins was married to a police captain. He was a good man, destined to be the Chief of Police within ten years unless his wayward wife torpedoed the chances of that happening. Rachel tended to be unfaithful, both with men and women, always when she drank, which she always did. Her next dalliance would be with a dangerous man, a drug dealer on the north side. The aftermath of her coupling would result in a dead drug dealer, and the Captain in question embroiled in a protracted investigation that would prevent his eventual promotion. It would mean that a city in desperate need of leadership would not get it, and the toll of that, even the Sisters couldn't predict.
Danielle had made it clear, no sex under any circumstances. Deeann Long knew Rachel, and was sure she only went for younger girls, usually preferring the company of men. Danielle had talked to Teresa, refusing at first without knowing the details.
"How can you be sure she'll be there? And how do you know she'll even be interested in me? Isn't there some other way of doing this?"
"We could call in a drug tip or something." Teresa shrugged. "Then the word gets around about the Captain's wife being in that bar, he goes there and maybe shoots somebody anyway, same result. You just need to buy us some time. I'm working on a way of getting Rachel into treatment. If that doesn't work I'll make sure her would be lover gets tossed in jail for a good long time. But the Sisters see the whole thing happening late tonight. You need to shake your pretty ass at Rachel and drag her out of there before she hooks up with that scumbag. You'll probably have to have a couple of drinks with her, you have your fake ID, right? I know you don't like to drink, but this is important. Jenkins will be a great Chief of Police if we can keep his wife out of trouble for a while. I can't point to a life we're saving Danielle, but ten years from now I'm going to remind you of this moment. What you're doing tonight could be really important down the road."
"Yeah, fucking Butterfly Effect, I know the drill." Danielle laughed. "Save the speech, I'll let Rachel stick her tongue down my throat. How am I going to get away from her?"
"Once you're in the cab she'll get really sleepy, we'll see to that, and you can drop her off at her house. Tell her poor husband she asked you to bring her home because she had too much to drink. He's used to it. Hopefully you'll be home in bed by midnight and your grandparents will never know you were drinking."
***
Rachel Jenkins was in her early thirties, voluptuous and loud. A full two thirds of her ample breasts were on display for the small group of patrons, most of whom were watching Monday night football on the array of screens scattered along the walls. Rachel was cheering raucously, seated at the bar by herself. She was eyeing the middle-aged bartender affectionately, and Danielle almost felt sorry for him as she slid onto the barstool next to the woman. Danielle thought that it was an odd place for her to be, in a sports bar on a Monday evening, but Rachel soon explained.
"Wow, gorgeous! Are you hiding out from your husband too? I have to get half way across town where nobody knows me, just to have a drink or two, you know? He's a cop, and every time I turn around, some asshole with a badge that knows him is making sure I get home. Of course, sometimes I thank them extra nice, know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I'm not married, so I don't worry about that shit. Mostly I don't worry about guys at all." Danielle gave the woman her best smile.
"Hey, are you coming on to me?" Rachel tried to look serious, then started laughing loudly. "It's okay if you are, those legs of yours go for miles. They come together right there." Rachel reached out quickly and put her hand in Danielle's crotch. The tall girl twisted away quickly, but laughed uproariously.
"Jesus, buy a girl a drink first, okay? Maybe later."
"Mitch, give my pretty, long legged friend here a drink. I think she and I are going to be good buddies before the night's over. Those are some crazy long legs sweetie, they give me all kinds of
ideas." The bar filled slowly but Rachel didn't seem to notice, she only had eyes for the young dark-haired girl. Surprised by how quickly the seduction was going, Danielle soon realized that Teresa and the other Elders were pushing things along. Three beers later things were becoming heated. Rachel's inhibitions lowered with each swallow, and it wasn't long before she was kissing Danielle frequently, then more passionately. An hour into the seduction Rachel was panting, desperately biting Danielle's neck and sliding her hand up under her shirt. Danielle did her best to appear as if she was enjoying herself, but it reached a point when most of the customers were watching them, instead of football.
"Hey Rachel, maybe we should get out of here, huh? My place sound good?"
"Fuck, let's just go in the can. I don't think I can wait." She began her assault on Danielle's neck again, pushing her face into her cleavage. Danielle looked around, laughing merrily as she threw some money on the bar.
"Alright girlfriend, let's get you out of here."
"Yeah," Rachel screamed. "I'm gonna get me some pussy tonight!" Danielle laughed as best she could, silently cursing Teresa Blackburn. She slid an arm around the drunken woman and steered her out the door.
Half way down the bar, a construction worker glanced at the slight man sitting next to him. He was holding a device that appeared to have a lens.
"Dude, were you taking pictures of those two?" The small man smiled.
"Better, video. How often do you see two women like that, tongue wrestling in a bar?"