1

Yesterday morning was like any other day. I woke up at six, went for a run, came home, and got ready for work, thinking nothing ever changes in my life. Drove through Starbucks for a caramel latté and made it to my desk with five minutes to spare. I logged into the computer and just like that my workday began. At least I thought it did.

A message was received; my boss wanted to see me in his office right away. That was strange, I thought he didn’t even know I existed. At least it got me off the phone for a couple of minutes. One less customer to yell at me for something I didn’t do.

The meeting lasted just long enough to tell me that the company was downsizing and they were letting me go, with a severance package for all the good work I’ve done. I was shocked as I quietly left his office to pack up my things from my desk.

The two other employees weren’t so quiet about being let go, and security was called to escort them off of the property. With my box in hand, I headed back to my car. Once there, I sat for almost an hour trying to decide what to do next.

For twelve years I did nothing but answer help calls from cranky callers; I was verbally abused daily for $18 an hour. At least I had six months of severance pay to live on until I figured out my life’s next journey.

I arrived home by noon and was met with stares from my cat. It felt like I was invading her space by being home at the wrong time. Cali, my calico cat, just meowed and walked away.

I picked the mail up from the floor and glanced through it. Just my luck, all bills. The answering machine had two messages. I pressed play to hear what the telemarketers were selling today. I hoped I won the lottery, but of course I would likely have to send them a gift card from a store to receive my money.

Message 1 – “Hey Sunshine, it’s me, Scott. I'm going to be in town this week and I‘d love to stop by. Give me a call back and we can talk about details.” Well that brought a smile to my face. A few days with my ‘friend with benefits’ might cheer me up.

Message 2 - “Hello, this message is for Ms. Kathryn Stevens. I’m John Burke with the law office of Michaels, Smith, and Burke. I've an important matter to discuss with you. Please call me back at your earliest convenience. Thank you and have a nice day.”

Oh yay, I lost my job and now I'm probably being sued by a creditor! Could this day get any worse? There was no way I was going to call this lawyer guy back. As for Scott, I planned to call him back later, but at that moment, with the day I was having, all I heard was a pint of ice cream and the tv calling my name.

Somewhere between a western rerun and an infomercial about the latest cleaner, I fell asleep on the couch. If it weren’t for the phone ringing, I would have had a mess of liquid ice cream all over me. I put the container down and answered the phone.

“Hello?” I answered, half asleep.

“Hello, is this Kathryn Stevens?”

“Who is this?” I asked.

“This is John Burke. I left you a message this morning requesting you give me a call.”

Oh great, the lawyer. I should have checked the number on the phone before answering. It was too late to hang up now. “Oh yes, I was planning to call you back when I had a few minutes.”

“Is this a good time?” he asked. I don’t think he believed that I was going to call back.

“Sure, how may I help you?” Please don’t sue me, I silently repeated over and over to myself.

“My firm handles the estate of Leslie Stevens…”

“Wait! What do you mean to handle the estate? Did my Aunt Leslie die?” I wasn’t sure I had heard him right. God, no one in the family tells me anything!

He was quiet for a moment, then said “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but yes, she passed away last month on the 18th.” He stopped talking to see if I was going to respond, but I said nothing. “Well, Ms. Stevens, she left you something in her will. We need you to come to the office to fill out some paperwork.”

“She left me something? Yeah sure, I can stop by,” I answered even though I was still stunned by the news. I wrote down the address and said I would be there at noon tomorrow. He agreed on the time and hung up the phone. Then I realized I had forgotten to ask him what she left me.

Leslie was an awesome Aunt. She was a little bit eccentric, the black sheep of the family so to speak, but she was always kind to me. She stayed with me for weeks after my accident. Technically speaking, I had died on the table, but the doctors were really good and they revived me. They called it a near-death experience.

Aunt Leslie knew why I didn’t let people touch me, but she never spilled my secret. It was her idea to tell people I was a germaphobe to explain why I don’t like to be touched. The real reason is far worse than that. After my accident and near-death experience, I came back with the ability to see the future of anyone I touched with skin-on-skin contact. I’ve taken to always wearing gloves to avoid that connection as much as possible. With Leslie gone, my friend Scott was now the only one who knew my secret. I still had to call him back and I planned to do that tomorrow. I couldn’t handle any more bad news today.

I cleaned up the ice cream, fed Her Highness the Cat, and decided to go to bed early. I felt if I stayed awake something else bad was going to happen. I prayed the nightmares from the accident would leave me alone, but the way things were going, I doubted it.