A good friend called me last night. He called again this morning, very, very early. I hadn’t taken his first call, which happened very very late, after I’d turned off the phones. "I have a message for
you," Al said.
"Okay," I said. "Cool. What is it?" I’m into messages. Whenever I’m at the beach, I’m all the time looking into bottles, because, well, you never know.
"Don’t go near or over water for the next two days."
"Oh," I said. "That’s it?"
"You heard me," he said. "Just don’t go near or over water for the next two days."
"That’s all? You're sure?"
"Hey, listen, I just got the message, and I’m passing it along, okay?"
"Well, since I have to come over the bridge to see you," I said, "I guess coffee’s off, huh?"
He laughed. "Just as well, I’m swamped. Maybe Sunday." He hung up, and left me with a thousand questions, not that it was the first time.
Now mind you, I’m not about to ask my friend a thousand questions, because he doesn’t know the answers. I know this already. Neither do I, which is why the questions are still living here, not out on their own, guiding the world. Now you ask, what of those questions?
Here are a few of them. Get out your pencil.
First off, where did the warning come from? Who (or what) gave it?
My friend's intuition in business matters is pretty good, sometimes right on. So, if he said, buy Xerox, or sell cocoa, I'd listen. I know he’s doing some personal growth work just now, to sort of corral his intuition, get it under control, so to speak. He's been trying a little of this talking to God thing. So, first, can I trust the warning? Or, is it just practice for him – a little test from higher-ups - to see if he acts on what he’s told. Does he have any discrimination?
Second, what exactly is the warning? "Don’t go near or over water for the next two days."
Seems clear enough - but wait. There are writers of a certain brand of fantasy/suspense fiction making good incomes on this type of thing. See, you mislead the audience into thinking that the
protagonist shouldn’t go near or over water for the next two days, and the audience is right with him as he doesn’t go over bridges, stays out of boats, doesn’t go swimming at the beach. We’re watching him interact with the prediction, giving it energy, and we're  cheering the whole way. He performs pretty much as we expect, and we love him for it. However, during the earthquake, he’s electrocuted in his bathtub. Then, as they get it,  the audience goes, ‘ohhhhhh!’
So, ever since I got the warning, I’ve been driving people crazy. I know about this fantasy trick, and I'm ready.  What’s the catch? Can I have a shower? Is water that has been treated still water? Can I have coffee? Tea?
Use the facilities? Am I at risk if it’s raining? How about watermelon? Laundry? Are there movies I
should avoid? Waterworld?  Oh my.

At this rate, I’ll be attending The Titanic in a theatre, there will be an
earthquake and I’ll be killed in the bathroom – probably drown in a toilet.
As a shaman, I have a bit of knowledge of where some of these warnings come from, but if I focus my curiosity at that end, it’s no better. 
Like, why didn’t the message come to me directly? God knows, I’m listening.
Can you picture it? Here are some spirits talking.
The Archangel Michael says, "you know, something bad’s about to happen to Clinton."
And Rafael replies, "What?" He looks clarvoyantly. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I guess we should say something."
Gabriel pipes in. "Okay, how should we issue this warning? I mean, you all know what a clown he is.
He’s liable to not take it seriously. It’s just like him. He’ll laugh it off."
Uriel thinks a bit. "Okay, so he’s going to get into a big wreck on the Georgia Viaduct next Thursday
morning, on his way to Richmond. What kind of warning could we…"
Michael says, "He’ll miss it if he stays on the North Shore."
Raphael: "Okay, well, let’s just send him a warning about traveling over water for the next couple of
days. He’s a smart guy. After he knows of the accident, then he’ll figure it out." 
"Okay then," says Gabriel, "how are we going to do this? I say, let’s send the message in a dream."
"Nah," Uriel says. "He doesn’t do dreams. I say we tell Al, have Al phone him."
"Well," Gabriel says, "if he’s not listening to us, what makes you think he’ll listen to Al?"
Uriel’s eyes are shining puckishly. You can see the whole universe in them, they’re so bright. "Oh, he won’t. But if we tell him to stay off water for a couple of days, he’ll spend that long analyzing the
bejeepers out of the warning. Something cryptic like that will keep him inside for a whole week! It’ll work, trust me. Mark my words, tell him about a car wreck, he’ll cause it going down to see if it happens." 
The world expands when Uriel grins.
All: "Yessss!" 
(High fives all around.) 
So if there’s a big wreck on the Georgia Viaduct on Thursday morning, any Thursday mind you, don’t
blame me. I’ll be at the beach.

Preview the first 3 chapters of The Light of The Magicians by Clinton Jarbeau no charge. For easy download instructions click on the book.

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