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That strange, jarring sound--thunk, :hunk--had been thein the dreaed her It wasn’t just an ordinary ha noise; there was an odd echo to it, a hardness and sharpness she couldn’t quite define She decided it was not only a case of her subconsciousthe noise the shutter hadsound in the drea than theof an unmoored shutter Furthermore, she was sure she had heard precisely that sound on another occasion, too Not in the nighto

As she let the hot water strea away the soap, she tried to recall where and when she had heard exactly that sa sound, for it suddenly see why, she felt vaguely threatened as long as she could not recall the source of the sound But rely beyond the lily familiar but unnamable piece of music

4

AT 8:45, after breakfast, Carol left for work, and Paul went upstairs to the rear bedroom that he had converted into an office He had created a Spartan atmosphere in which to write without distraction The off-white walls were bare, unadorned by even a single painting The room contained only an inexpensive desk, a typist’s chair, an electric typewriter, a jar bristling with pens and pencils, a deep letter tray that now contained nearly two hundredof his sabbatical, a telephone, a three-shelf bookcase filled with reference works, a bottled-water dispenser in one corner, and a small table upon which stood a Mr Coffee , as usual, he prepared a pot of coffee first thing Just as he pressed the switch labeled BREWER and poured water into the top of the Mr

Coffee, the telephone rang He sat on the edge of the desk, picked up the receiver "Hello"

"Paul? Grace Mitowski"

"Good , love How are you?"

"Well, these old bones don’t like rainy weather, but otherwise I’"

Paul smiled "Listen, I know you can still run circles around uilt coy"

He laughed "Don’t psychoanalyzeof whoht to be able to catch her at the office in half an hour"

Grace hesitated

Hot coffee began to drizzle into the Pyrex pot, and the aro tension in Grace’s hesitation, Paul said, "What’s wrong?"

"Well" She cleared her throat nervously "Paul, how is she? She’s not ill or anything?"

"Carol? Oh, no Of course not"

"You’re sure? Irong, I’d want to know"

"She’s fine Really In fact she had a physical exaency required it Both of us passed with flying colors"

Grace was silent again

Frowning, Paul said, "Why are you worried all of a sudden?"

"Wellyou’ll think old Gracie is losing hera nap yesterday, the other last night, and Carol was in both I seldohtot to warn Carol

"Warn her about what?"

"I don’t know All I remember about the drea I’ve got to warn Carol that it’s coht be I can’t reer Now Lord knows, I don’t believe in dreae like that I think I don’t believe in the you about this"

The coffee was ready Paul leaned over, turned off the brewer "The strange thing is--Carol and I were nearly hurt in a freak accident yesterday" He told her about the dae at O’Brian’s office

"Good God," she said, "I saw that lightning when I woke up from my nap, but it never occurred to ht be the very thing I wasthe very thing ht sound like a superstitious old fool, but here goes anyway:

Was there actually sohtning strike a fewelse," Paul said uneasily, "it’s at least a remarkable coincidence"

They were silent for a , and then she said, "Listen, Paul, I don’t recall that we’ve ever discussed this subject much before, but tell s of that nature?"

"I don’t believe, and I don’t disbelieve I’ve never reallyabout it Always considered it a pack of lies, delusions, or just plain nonsense But after this--"

"You’re reconsidering"

"Let’s just say a tiny doubt has cropped up And now I’m more worried about Carol than I hen I called you"

"Why? I told you she wasn’t even scratched"

"She escaped once," Grace said, "but I had two drea Soelse I mean, if the first dream had some truth in it, then maybe the second does, too God, isn’t this crazy? If you start believing in just a little bit of this nonsense, you get carried aith it real fast But I can’t help it I’m still concerned about her"

"Even if your first dream was prophetic," Paul said, "the second one was probably just a repeat of it, an echo, not a whole new dream"

"You think so?"

"Sure This never happened to you before, so why should it happen again? Most likely, it was just a freak thinglike the lightning yesterday"

"Yeah, I guess you’re probably right," she said, sounding somewhat relieved "Maybe it could happen once Maybe I can accept that But I’uarantee you I’ a weekly coluhed

"Still," she said, "I wish I could rehter, and when Paul finally hung up, he stared at the receiver for a h he was prettyof Grace’s dreae coincidence, he was nonetheless affected by it,

The ut-deep, bone-deep chill