I’ve never been particularly good at predicting what might happen next. You can take a look at my sports betting record for proof of that. If I had the same kind of insights as the guys at MyTopSportsbooks, things might be different. But I just can’t seem to figure out what is coming up around the bend – in any part of my life.
But all that changed a few years ago when I met a guy on the subway. Now, I know what you’re thinking – you should never talk to anyone on the subway. Trust me, that wasn’t my intention. But I did – and it changed my life. Just not all for the better.
I had noticed this guy in a regulation grey hoodie and jeans, mumbling to himself. That should have been a red warning sign really. But I thought he looked like he could do with some help and stretched out a ten dollar bill as I went to exit the car. Instead of taking the cash, he grabbed me by the hand and I suddenly felt an intense and powerful surge through my entire body.
I have no idea how long this went on for but when I came to I was sitting in the seat where the mysterious guy had been drooped. He was nowhere to be seen and no one else seemed to have seen what I had just experienced. Now it could have been that this was a New York City subway car and everyone completely ignores each other all the time anyway. But I couldn’t help feeling that only I had experienced the strange encounter.
I also felt that something weird was just about to happen. Even now I can’t really describe why I thought that something was about to happen. The best – and obviously worst – way I can describe it is as having some kind of spidey sense. If you’re not familiar with the comics, it was when Spider-Man used his superpowers to know that someone somewhere needed his help.
My spidey sense wasn’t as clear as that. But I did spring up to my feet as the doors opened on the train and stuck my arm out rigid. That was just in time to miss a woman that had, unbeknownst to me, been running along the platform. It was also just in time to take out the guy who had been running after her.
As the doors closed and the train started to depart I – and the rest of the now very interested commuters in the train car – could see the woman mouthing a ‘thank you’ to me as she disappeared into the distance. In true New York style, the people in the carriage went back to ignoring me for the rest of the journey and I eventually got off at my stop and walked the block and a half until I reached my apartment building.
For the next few days I had similarly strange experiences. They weren’t all saving people from being attacked by pursuers – but I just kind of knew what was going to happen. I did put it to the test one night when I started watching a film that I had never seen before and attempted to predict the ending. It worked and I knew long before the end that the movie was complete trash. It made me feel as though I wasn’t really using my super power for good.
By the end of the week I was catching babies falling out of windows and stopping people fall down open manhole covers in true, cliché movie style. But my mysterious premonitions began to wear off after a few days. Not before I had one more strange experience though.
I was just about to go down to the subway again on my way to work when I had a flash of an image of me lying on the tracks. That was it. Nothing else. No explanation. I don’t know whether it was predicting my untimely demise or what. But I do know that I have never gotten on a subway train since – and I have never, ever had another premonition.
