Elaine Baker was going to die on the fourth of July, just before the sun broke through the dawn. She would pass on peacefully in her sleep as she dreamt of meeting her husband again for the first time, feeling all the butterflies in her stomach as her face cracked into the most radiant of smiles. When she met Larry she knew, without a single doubt in her mind, that she was going to marry him and that, for once, someone in her family would get a happily ever after. It goes without saying that Elaine did marry Larry Baker and that they did live happily ever after, but death doesn't care how happy people are --- which is a grim realisation that I had to come to when I was nothing but a toddler --- and because of that, Larry passed away two years before Elaine would. When Larry died, so did a part of Elaine. She would try to keep up her normal routine for the sake of her now grown children, convincing them that she was capable of caring for herself and that she did not, in fact, need to be put in a retirement home. The thought of losing the house that she and Larry had purchased when they were nothing but two love-struck newlyweds with their first child growing inside of her, the same house where they would go on to raise three beautiful children who out-shined every expectation that the couple had for them, the house which contained over sixty-one years worth of passion and love, was unfounded to Elaine. Because of that Elaine would never admit to her children just how difficult it was to wake up every morning without their father, not just because she missed him with such an adamant and unrelenting pain, but because he had physically helped her as her bones began to give out on her and when her heart was just too weak to pump enough blood through her body to stand up. He made breakfast in the morning while warming a bath for her, he put a comb through the tangles in her grey hair that refused to cooperate at the best of times, he got down on his knees to help guide each of her legs into her pants --- he was the one who did it all: the cooking, cleaning, and caring for each and every one of Elaine's needs. At first she hated it, and a part of her still felt regret for putting so much on Larry when he had his own needs to attend to, but she had come to love Larry in a different way when he put everything aside to care for her. Everything he did for Elaine was out of unconditional love and the greatest respect for her; in his mind Larry saw this as repayment for the sixty-one years of hard work she had put into him and their family, how not once had she ever put herself first or asked for anything more than just a simple I love you and perhaps, from time to time, saying thank you. Larry never once complained about helping Elaine when she wasn't able to clean her own behind due to the pain in her knees, or when she wasn't able to feed herself due to the shaking in her hands, he did everything with a smile on his face and the patience of a thousand graceful angels. When he died, as sudden as it was, he never got the chance to say how thankful he was to be able to help Elaine and that he never wanted to take a minute of her life for granted. Without a doubt in his mind, he would do it all over again just because he loved his woman with such a profound sense of belonging. He belonged to her and she, him.

I met Elaine Baker when I was in the second grade, she was my homeroom teacher and, out of all the years that I spent in public school, was probably my favourite. First thing in the morning, right after the national anthem blared through the PE system, she would take time to go around the room and compliment everyone on something that she found amazing about them. Every day she would always stop at me, think for a moment while smiling, and she would tell me that I had the biggest most loving heart that she had ever seen. It never bothered me that she said the same thing to me every day, because it felt as though she saw something in me that needed to be told everything was okay and that I wasn't a bad person for being able to see the deaths of people around me. I wasn't in charge of the premonitions, and I would later come to learn that no matter how hard I tried I wasn't able to change fate. People died, but I wasn't responsible for how that happened. I was, however, responsible for making sure the people who were about to die were well cared for and knew how loved they were, even if they didn't want any of it. I embraced Elaine's words and lived by them every day, that my heart was so big and I needed to accept my premonitions as a gift to give back to others in their time of need.

The day came when I was packing up a bag of groceries for another client of Leeson's Grocery when I had the premonition of Elaine's death. I saw the calendar flip over and the sun kissed underside of the clouds, I felt the warmth of Elaine's hand sewn duvet wrapped around her, and I saw the dream of her husband in her mind as her heart began to slow until finally it never beat again. I excused myself to the work washroom and cried for longer than I care to admit, having felt the beauty of her demise and the last bit of love that Elaine clung to. Before all of this, I hadn't spoken to Elaine in over ten years, mostly because there was no reason to. We saw each other on the street from time to time and would exchange a cordial smile, as people in small towns often do when a friendly face passes by, but there was never any call to action as far as having a friendship. Having this premonition would give me seven months to build a friendship with Elaine before she passed, to ensure that every duty Larry once cared for was now something I would do for her. It had taken me a long time to realise that I didn't have to make grand gestures to the dying, that sometimes all it took was someone to keep them company before they passed on to the afterlife. Most times the premonitions I had were of the elderly, so being a grocery delivery driver for Leeson's Grocery meant I was often put face-to-face with people who were just too fragile to go out and buy their own food. This gave me the opportunity to get to know them and spend more time with them, slowly building an organic relationship with them while knowing fully well that soon they would pass on. Most times it was easy, a lot of elderly people enjoy the company of others and love even more to have someone to talk to when the days are long and quiet, but there were always a few characters who didn't want my company. But that's a story for another time.

I had just over four months left with Elaine before her time would come, and I was doing my best to make the most of it for her. I spent most every day with her, even when she didn't order a grocery delivery, because I knew that she needed help. I never asked for any payment for my services, just for the grocery deliveries, because that wasn't what I wanted from Elaine. We had a pretty good routine that we stuck to, every two days I'd help her into the tub and wash her hair early in the morning, on Monday's we would pick out her wardrobe for the week ahead, Wednesday night I would make a spaghetti dinner for her, and every afternoon we played Gin Rummy while drinking Earl Grey tea with absolutely no sugar, because she had a sweet tooth like no other and as soon as she had one taste of sugar than she couldn't help but want a chocolate bar and that wasn't good for her diabetes. I enjoyed the routine we built together and I could tell that she did, too. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was more fun than either of us had had in years.

Elaine loved comedy movies, the raunchier the better, so I tried to take her out once a month to the movie theatre to whichever comedy movie was playing at the time. It just so happened that they released a new movie about a gun-slinger with a whip of a tongue who had a plethora of beautiful exotic women to choose from, so Elaine and I found ourselves at the theatre to watch it together late on a Friday night. She laughed more than anyone else in the theatre, often leaning over to squeeze my forearm as if she needed to stress how much she was enjoying herself. As a treat after the movie, I decided to take her out for some sugar-free frozen yogurt over at the ice cream parlour, Ice Queen.

"You'd think a man like that would want to settle down with someone more sooner than later," Elaine commented as she spooned a careful amount of kiwi lime frozen yogurt into her mouth, sifting it around softly before swallowing.

"Why would he when he can have any woman he wants, as well as as many as he wants?" I replied, licking the excess from my own spoon.

Elaine snorted, nodding in agreement. "Well, you say that now when he has his looks to carry him through life. But that personality, however, isn't getting him anywhere. In about twenty years he's going to look like an oven-baked potato and not one woman will want him, then what?"

I laughed and finished the last of my frozen yogurt, scanning the parlour as the customer base began to dwindle. "I think a lot of people here have that same mentality about their love lives---thinking that as long as they have a pretty face and don't weigh over the suggested amount than they can have whoever they want and it doesn't matter how they treat each other."

Elaine placed her spoon into the small container, leaning her elbows on the table as a look of concern flashed across her face. "Now just because that Atheson boy ran off with someone else doesn't mean you aren't a beautiful young lady."

"I know," I said, trying to hide my frustration with a forced smile, "but it makes me wonder why I wasn't good enough for him, maybe I just wasn't woman enough."

With a wave of her hand, Elaine pushed the idea aside. "If there's anything I've learnt about boys like Atheson, is that they just aren't men enough for women like us."

"You're right," I replied.

Picking up her spoon so that she could take another soft bite of her frozen treat, Elaine smiled and straightened out her shoulders. "I'm always right, dear."

I stood up to take my empty container over to the garbage, but just as I was about to open up the flap that hid the contents of the garbage, I noticed a new face standing at the counter. I paused for a moment, trying to place if I had ever seen him before in town, but coming up empty. By his side he had a girl with him, probably only a few years younger, who he was teasing playfully as she stared happily at her ice cream cone. He leaned over and bit off the top of her treat, while she tried to gently smack him away while cussing him out. Soon enough he got his own ice cream cone, which she then tried to steal a bite from but failed when he spun away from her. As he turned, he turned to face me. The smile he once had across his face began to dissipate as his eyes met mine, a look of intrigue soon appearing. For a moment I felt starstruck, not because I knew him or had ever seen him before in my life, but because he was, simply put, the most handsome man I ever had the pleasure of seeing. He had golden locks that swept over to the right side of his face, deep set brown eyes that looked almost black, and a smile that sent my heart twirling to the floor. I didn't know what came over me, but I had the sudden urge to run over to him, throw my arms around him, and kiss him like lovers do in the movies. It was at that moment that the premonition came like the first crash of thunder from a storm cloud, sending my mind into a flurry of dimly lit images that depicted the lifeless and bloodied body of the handsome newcomer. He lay motionless on the shore of Lake Newberry, half his body submerged in the soft waves of the water as he bathed in the soft moonlight. I saw the moment he died; he struggled to push someone off of him before slipping down the side of the shore and into the water, being suddenly tackled by someone as soon as he tried to leave the waters. He continued to fight off his attacker, until finally he became pinned to the ground while he used one arm to try to fend off a knife that was lunging at him. Within seconds, his hand slipped and the knife crashed down into his throat, lodging deeply inside. He choked as blood filled his lungs, his hands now pinned to either side of his head while his attacker waited, breathless, for him to die. Then it was dark.