Children and animals are excellent indicators of character. The first time I had a premonition dream, I was no older than four or five. In the dream, my mother and I were rushing to catch a Coney Island-bound train from the Church Avenue station in Brooklyn, NY. We entered through the Caton Avenue and St. Paul’s Place entrance. My mother made it onto the train, but somehow, I was left behind on the platform.
She screamed frantically through the closing doors, telling me to stay put—she would ride to the next station and come back for me. Through my tears, I nodded and prepared to wait. But the second the train disappeared, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
It was Ms. Mia, one of my mother’s friends. “Come here, dear. I’ll wait with you until your mother returns.”
She stood in the shadows at the top of the platform’s stairs, the daylight streaming in through the stained-glass windows, framing her silhouette. I turned toward her and began my ascent. But as I climbed, I slipped and started to fall backward. Ms. Mia rushed toward me, arms outstretched, and for a fleeting moment, I thought she would catch me.
But just as my fingers brushed hers, she pulled away. I tumbled to the platform, landing hard. Above me, I heard her laughter, sharp and cruel.
I had that same dream, over and over, for a year—until the day my mother and I discovered Ms. Mia was having an affair with my father. We learned of it together.
To be honest, I never liked Ms. Mia. Something about her always felt off. She tried too hard to befriend my mother and me. They had met in “The Rooms,” as they called the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings my parents attended. My mother had a pattern—both of her husbands and even the man she dated after my father were all recovering alcoholics. Maybe it was because her own father had been one, too.
Ms. Mia often offered to babysit while my mother took classes at a local business school. She would suggest sleepovers at her place, but I always declined. Years later, I learned that Ms. Mia was married—but her husband was in prison for promoting prostitution and dealing narcotics. She had once been a prostitute herself, with alcohol and sex as her vices of choice.
Even as a child, I knew. Children always do.
Read Part One
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