I Guess I'm a Hero

Speeding Trucks and Little Girls

"No kidding!" she laughed. "Really? That's quite a coincidence." She saw that I wasn't really laughing along with her. I just had a grim sort of smile on my face.

"Yeah, a coincidence. Right."

Of course, I didn't know – no one did really – that this was the beginning of the partnership. You astute readers have probably figured out who my seer is by now, but it was all brand new to us. We had no idea. The same thing was probably happening all over the world - at least for the lucky ones. There were some who never did find their partners.

"Bill," she continued, "Was there a problem changing your tire?" She suddenly got a worried look on her face. Probably in response to mine.

"Yeah. The jack slipped." I took a deep breath and got the rest out, "But I... I caught my car before I could get hurt."

I don't know what I was waiting for: Her to laugh and dismiss me with a wave of her hand, her to get angry and call me a liar or her to sit quietly and listen while I go through the events of the morning. Something...just not the silence.

Finally she took a breath to speak. "You aren't joking, are you?" It seemed I could hear the dozens of questions form in her mind. No doubt they were the same questions that have been in my head since this morning.

"No. I am not. It really happened. Maybe it was just an adrenaline rush. You know, one of those seemingly impossible things you can do when you are excited or angry or desperate. I've heard stories about it happening before. Like a woman lifting a car off of her trapped children. That has to be what it is, right?" I am pretty sure I sounded desperately hopeful at this point. Any kind of logical, rational explanation would suit me just fine. And, yes, I am actually very glad she didn't make some kind of Hulk reference right now. I would probably have collapsed into a hysterical fit of laughter that would have removed any doubt, from anyone's mind, the question of my mental state.

"That's probably it," she agreed. "It's pretty weird, but I guess stranger things have happened. Do you feel OK? You aren't hurt or sore or anything are you?"

Sore. I didn't even think of that. "No, I feel fine." I thought some more about what would happen to a person's body after a huge hit of adrenaline followed by a huge feat of strength. "I would think that after being hit with that kind of adrenaline rush I would at least be physically or emotionally wasted; especially after stopping a car from falling. But no...nothing like that at all. Just lucky, I guess."

I was so desperate to find a rational explanation that I pushed from my mind the fact that after I moved away from my car the first time, I lifted it again two or three more times. You would do the same thing, right? You would go along with anything, anything at all that made even a little bit of sense, to keep yourself from admitting to the fact that something really strange was happening to you. Deny it if you want, but I think you would. I even skipped over the fact in my mind that Peg had dreamt the whole thing a few hours before it actually happened. Because if I acknowledged her dream, that would throw my rational explanation right out the window. I hoped that she was thinking the same thing and wouldn't bring up the dream. We were saved by a knock on the door.

"Hey you two, what's going on in there?" Timmy had a playful tone in his voice. I know he and Jess have actually been rooting for me and Peg to get together so when the four of us – me, him, Peg and Jess – hang out together it wouldn't be so awkward. It actually wasn't that awkward, but I guess the thinking is that two couples out together would be better than one couple and two people. Go figure.

"Just never you mind," I shouted back jokingly. "When you're old enough, you'll understand." Again, I looked at Peg and a silent understanding passed between us. No one is going to know about the conversation we just had.

I opened the door and stepped out. "Wipe that grin off your face. You know that there is nothing going on between us, and if there was we certainly wouldn't be doing anything in the office at work."

"Hey," Tim clapped me on the shoulder, "A guy can hope, right? You know I'm on your side, man. Me and Jess both are."

"I know you are, and I appreciate it. I just – I don't know – I haven't dated in so long I don't think I know what to say anymore. And besides, I don't want to ruin a good working relationship. We're good friends and that's good enough for me."

"Stop thinking like an old man," Timmy joked. "Just tell her. Ask her out. I bet you'd be surprised at the results."

We took off our aprons, threw them in the hamper in back and went to clock out.

"And don't give me that 'good enough for me' bullshit," he continued. "We've had too many conversations for me to believe that."

"What do you mean about my being surprised at the results? What do you know that I don't? Has Jess said something? Has Peg?" We knocked on the office door on our way by and waved to Peg on our way out.

"Let's just say your name has come up once or twice." He held the door open for me as we stepped outside.

"OK, let's say that. So, what was said?"

"You are going to have to find that out for yourself, my friend. Just ask her out. Right now, in fact. I am going home to make some dinner for Jess. She and I both want the two of you to join us. Maybe we'll play come cards or something."

"You want me to ask her out right now?" I looked around, desperately trying to find a way out of this. "But she's so tired. She had a bad night. It probably isn't going to be a good time."

"Quit stalling old man," he smiled at me. "Go in there and ask her to come to my place with you tonight. And you can bring the wine."

Sure. Why not? I had been stalling. I am just going to do it. Right now. Yep...here I go.

You know how in all the science fiction you read they always tell you that Time is a constant: Ever flowing forward at the same pace. I mean, unless it's some kind of time travel story or something. Well, I think the people who write those stories have never experienced what happened next. Because time slowed down – way down.

Timmy was walking to his car and I had turned back to the restaurant see if I actually could summon the nerve to ask Peg out tonight. Across the street, a family had exited their SUV and was crossing to the restaurant. They were talking merrily amongst themselves and seemed not to notice that their little girl, she couldn't be more than five or six, had lagged behind to get her dolly out of the car. Meanwhile, a delivery truck was coming down the road. It wasn't speeding, it was just coming. The little girl had stepped out from between two parked cars and was running to catch up to her family. Tires squealed and I turned around to see what was happening. NO! was all I had time to think. I started running to the girl, but I knew I wasn't going to make it. "Look out!" I cried, but there was no way. I was about to watch a little girl die and there was nothing I could do about it. Timmy turned at my voice and then looked up and saw what was about to happen. He was too far away too, but I saw a look of determination come over his face. If I hadn't had my experience with my car this morning, I would never have believed what happened next. It was like Tim turned into a blur. One second he was standing more than 30 feet from the truck bearing down on the little girl and the next second he was across the street with the girl in his arms.

Time resumed its normal speed and the driver got out of his stopped truck, spewing all kinds of apologies, going on about how the girl "came out of nowhere". The little girl, pretty much oblivious to what had just happened, climbed down from Timmy's arms and ran to her father and mother who were both running towards her with arms outstretched and tears coming down their relieved faces. Timmy was just standing there with a stunned look on his face.

I jogged over to him. "Tim. What..." I thought I should say something, but didn't know what to say. It didn't matter. I never got a chance to finish. My friend just shook his head and sat down.