PREMONITION
Ballroom lights dim then flicker as wedding guests recede to a shadowy corner away from the lifeless body on the floor, the body of my former soul mate. Now there’s a stain on his white suit, darker than the one he put on my reputation, and the gauze around his head can hardly contain the spill. I swung a furious fist that nearly missed to quiet his threats, and the table struck him before his head collided with the floor. But his disgraceful fall did him in long before he came to my son’s reception to out himself as “the groom’s real father.”
Without bending a joint, he rises to his feet and traipses toward me with blackened eyes and bluish skin, bearing no semblance to the man I used to love. Now face to face, he unwraps his head, pokes a finger in his wound then draws a bloody tear beneath my eye. “You’ll live the rest of your days with me on your mind, as I had to with you,” he says. “As restitution for the secret I died with so you could live your lie, I’m taking our grandson.”
He backs away into the corner, leaving me consumed with fear he’ll keep his promise this time, and haunt me forever. Somewhere within the darkness, there’s rustling followed by a woman’s chilling scream, “No! Don’t take my baby!” She lunges after him but is snatched back into the shadows as he slips away cradling a silent newborn wrapped in gauze.
I gasp! My eyes fling open and I sit up, patting the bed to ground myself in reality. A digital clock flashes 11:59 PM. I snatch the phone off its charger and scroll through my contacts for a number.
“Hey Ma,” my son answers sounding heavy-hearted.
“Your uncle came to me in a horrible dream. Are y’all alright?”
“No.” His voice breaks. “We were gonna announce we’re pregnant at the reception but then everything got crazy. Doesn’t matter now. She just lost the baby.”