Ever have a premonition? One that wakes you up in the middle of the night? They don’t happen to me very often, but Monday morning I woke up at 4 a.m. in the pre-dawn darkness with a very clear premonition.
“Something is going to happen at the 48th Street subway station,” I thought. What it was I couldn’t tell. But I had a very clear vision of the station at Rockefeller Center and my presence there.
I don’t pass through that station on my way to work. Don’t normally take the subway lines that go that way. “Maybe I’m going to have to make an emergency visit to my cardiologist,” I thought.
He has an office near there on 50th Street. But I never see him at that address. He’s usually at the office at 168th Street.
My mind rushed to dark places–as it can do in pre-dawn hours. Would there be some sort of terrorist attack at 48th Street? Should I alert the authorities?
I tossed and turned, left it in God’s hands, and managed to fall back asleep. I woke up at my usual time, 6 a.m., sat on the sofa to pray. After the usual 20 minutes I got up, did my stretches and went for a short run.
The premonition was still there, although muted in the daylight. Something was going to happen involving me at the 48th Street station. Why would I be there? Our office was downtown, nowhere near.
I came back inside. Put my oatmeal on the stove. Had a square from a chocolate bar–my breakfast treat–and munched on a banana.
At once I felt something hard in my mouth. A big crown had come off one of my back molars and it was mixed in the banana. I spit it out and washed it off.
I called up my dentist’s office. A crown had fallen out. Could I come in right away? Yes, yes, they said. “We’ll see you at 9:45.”
I took my shower. Checked my emails. Dashed off. I took the A train as usual but then changed to the B train and headed to Rockefeller Center.
I got out at 48th Street and walked to the dentist’s office. He put my crown back in.
I found myself humming “Crown Him With Many Crowns.” All turned out fine. Yes, my premonition proved true, but not nearly as scary as I thought. “Crown Him with Many Crowns” seemed just the right song to sing. At 48th Street in the morning.
