There are some times in life when we just can’t shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen. Whether you feel it in the pit of your stomach or see it in the eyes of a family member, some days, we can't help but suspect that something is wrong. It only gets worse when your feeling turns out to be right.
#1 Saving the Day
I’m an airline pilot. One day, we loaded up passengers and everything and we were ready to taxi. I noticed that the nose of the airplane seemed to be higher up than usual while we were sitting on the ground. I told my first officer about it and he agreed. We double-checked the weight and balance and everything seemed to be right.
I decided to just taxi out towards the runway and see if the wheel struts would go back to their normal positions during taxi. They didn't. It still felt weird to me. Something wasn't right. I told ground control we needed to go back to the gate. I called ops and told them we're headed back because I thought something wasn't right with the weight and balance.
After we got back, I asked them to check how much ballast we have in the aircraft. It's verified on my sheet as 500 lb, but I had a feeling. Turns out, yep, they forgot to put it in the plane. So had we taken off, the center of gravity would have been out of whack - way past limits. It could have resulted in an airplane that was impossible to control. That was a day that I was really pleased that I had so much experience flying to give me that feeling and that feeling could very well have saved my life along with others.
#2 College Party
I was at a party when I was in college when two older dudes showed up. The place was packed and most people were out of it. I noticed something was a bit off about them. They never smiled and weren’t really talking to anyone. Finally, someone accused them of feeling around in their back pocket and it turned out they were lifting wallets from partied-out college kids. Once confronted, one of the guys attacked the kid. They left slowly and were never caught. It was pretty surreal. The kid turned out fine.
#3 Weekend Away
I went for a weekend away with a group from my local scouting area, back in the ‘80s. I didn't know them all, but I went to make up the numbers and get some adventures. We stayed in a rented house in the Peak District. One evening, a few guys went out to try "bouldering,” which is climbing boulders 10-15 metres high. I got there, took one look and said no. We had no climbing gear and it was high enough to seriously hurt yourself if you fell. I got called a "chicken," etc., so I left them to it and walked back. An hour later, one guy fell 10 metres. Gone instantly.
#4 What’s That Smell?
When I was a little kid, I stepped outside to walk home from my neighbor’s two doors over. I smelled what I knew was a bear, which are common where I live. If you've ever smelled a black bear, it's not that different from a skunk, which is what my friend's mom told me it probably was when I asked her to drive me home. I asked even though my house was literally right around the corner.
The thing is, a skunk's smell is strong, but doesn't, like, travel. A bear's smell is more… permeating? Begrudgingly, she drove me, only to see the bear sitting on my back steps outside the door I would've tried to enter my house with. Black bears aren't that vicious, but my friend's mom apologized immediately about not believing me. I could've walked straight into that thing at the age of 12.
#5 Passenger Door
This happened almost 30 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I was probably eight or nine at the time. I was at the store buying candy for the weekend with the girl from next door, she was one year younger than me. A car stopped and the man inside opened the passenger door. He asked me and my friend to get in the car. He was picking us up for our parents, he told us.
I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. I remember thinking, "This is what my parents were talking about!" I grabbed my friend's hand, said that we lived in that house "right over there" and pulled my friend with me. We went to their door, rang the bell, went straight in and told the people living there what had happened. Turned out I was right. We were about to be kidnapped.
#6 The Van Beside Us
My pops left me in the car while he went inside this convenience store. A van parks right next to our car. I'm in the backseat closest to them. Almost immediately, they slide open the van door and start smiling at me and waving at me to come over. It was two guys and a woman. The woman was holding some candy.
I remember thinking they were way too excited to see me while being complete strangers. I got out of my seat and laid down on the backseat until my dad came back. I never told him what happened. A boy around my age had been abducted within the same year in a decently high profile case. My mom had made me watch the newscast with her about how the boy had been abducted after little league and told me to never talk to a stranger. Without that lesson, I don’t know if I would've made the same choice.
#7 Driving Home
A bunch of my friends wanted to go to this party when I was 20. I was sort of like, "I don’t know, I really don't want to go to this place with these people." So, I didn’t. Turns out, two of my friends got into an argument with the people who lived there and got kicked out. They were super out of it and drove home angry.
The car flipped on the way home and wrecked another four cars. My one friend leaves with a small concussion the other leaves with like eight broken bones and walking therapy for about two years. The best part is the emergency responders said if anyone was in the back seat, they would be a goner. That's where I would have been sitting.
#8 Camping with Grandma
My grandmother and I used to go camping at this one spot in the woods by a small creek every summer. One summer, she got this bad feeling and made us pack up and we leave. She didn’t really elaborate too much more until we actually left. A couple of days later, they ended up finding a body right near our campsite.
#9 Four Girls
I work at a psych hospital. I was in the cafe with an adult unit and the adolescent unit was also there. I had known one of the kids from when she was on the children’s ward. Normally, we had a good rapport. I went to greet her and told her I was proud she had been staying out of trouble. A few of the other girls reacted weirdly to me saying it and the girl looked guilty. I told the staff on the unit and said they should keep an extra eye on the girls because I had bad vibes about it. The staff kind of brushed me off. A half-hour later, four girls (including the one I knew) literally attacked the two staff members.
#10 Slumber Party
When I was about 10 years old, I got invited to spend the night at my really good friend’s home. My mom said no. I begged her to let me go, but she was adamant that I couldn't. She said she just didn't feel right about it and that no amount of pleading was going to change her mind. A few weeks later, my friend’s dad was arrested. After he went to trial, it was found that he had also approached several young girls. He would have his daughter invite them over for a slumber party. If my mom hadn't trusted her gut feeling, I could have been one of his victims.
#11 Load of Trees
My grandparents were driving up a steep mountain road behind a logging truck. Suddenly, my grandmother started having a mild panic attack. She just kept saying, “something’s not right, pull over. We need to pull over.” So, my grandpa did and settled her down. After a few minutes, she was fine and they kept driving. A mile or two up the road, the load of trees had come loose and spilled off the truck.
#12 Quick Thinking
It was 1:30 a.m. and raining. I was riding my motorcycle down a four-lane road. I saw a car approach a stop sign, perpendicular to me, in the parking lot of a pub. I thought, "He's going to turn left in front of me." I was going 45 mph, let off the throttle and about 200-250 feet from him, he did exactly what I thought he would. I grabbed my front and rear brakes, back tire locked up and kicked out to the left. I jumped and my motorcycle slammed into the rear driver side of his car. I had a couple of scratches, bruises and a sore tailbone. But, I wasn't run over or hanging out in his back seat.
#13 Gut Drop
I used to be a lifeguard in a very small gated community with a lot of wealthy people. I also used to sing at the local church services. I met the pastor in that context and something about him just seemed… off. It wasn't anything I'd be able to properly articulate. I just didn't like him. He just made my gut drop.
Later, I noticed that the local pastor was spending a lot of time at the pool watching the little kids swim — one little boy in particular. He would have a towel ready for him, he'd have the kid sit on his lap to dry off. As far as I knew, he wasn't babysitting him. He was just there, watching and touching. It made my hackles rise.
I told the kid’s parents that the way the pastor was interacting with their son made me uncomfortable. They investigated and it turns out the pastor was going to their home when they weren't there and "spending time" with that little boy. I don't know what happened to him after that, but he was obviously removed as pastor from the church. It's so important to trust your gut on these things.
#14 Dad’s New Wife
My father started publicly dating a woman shortly after my mother passed. I liked her. One evening, my father took me to one side and asked how I'd feel about him asking her to marry him. I got an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach and felt nauseated. I told my father I didn't want him to and he asked why as he thought I liked her.
I explained that he did like her but I still had a bad feeling. He then said to me, "That's just a feeling, they don't mean anything." Evidently, he already had the ring and proposed to her straight away. I then got really excited about the engagement, the wedding, moving houses, and my impending little sister.
After the wedding, though, she changed. After my half-sister was born, she went nuts. She harmed me, my full sister (my mother's child), and later my half-sister (her own child). He only left her when my doctor told him something was clearly going on with her and that was affecting my health. (She was putting a substance that I'm intolerant to in my food and my father wouldn't believe me and would force me to eat whatever she made. However, I couldn't get a doctor alone without her to tell them).
My maternal grandmother told my dad that if he didn't leave her, she would go for custody. After that, he finally decided to leave her. However, despite everything she did to us, my dad accused me of lying for the entire time leading up to that and has never asked me about any of my attempts to get help since.
#15 Buzz Killington
When I was in college, I went to a party where two guys in Hooters t-shirts showed up. Nobody knew who they were and they kept entirely to themselves. They would just smile and walk away when people approached them to ask who they were. Turns out, they were undercover cops. They totally ruined the party.
#16 The Chicken Dance
The one I best remember was about 10 years back. I was a groomsman at a friend's wedding. Partway through the reception, I was suddenly struck with a feeling of impending doom. I thought, “Oh, God. They’re going to play the Chicken Dance next.” I frantically started searching for someone, crying, "Let's go outside! Who wants to go outside?" I didn’t even need to go, but it wasn't hard to get a group together. When I came back, sure enough, the Chicken Dance had been danced. I was the only member of the wedding party to escape its embarrassing talons.
#17 Inexplicable Impulse
I once got off the subway at night. There was one other person about half a block behind me on my route home. This is a totally normal thing and has happened to me thousands of times before. He was a totally normal-looking dude, not even following me closely. Yet, I had a bad feeling. Such a bad feeling that when I turned the corner on my way home, I broke into a sprint and hid behind a dumpster in the shadows down the street.
By the time he came around the corner, I was well hidden and could see him from my hiding place. As soon as I saw his reaction to the fact that I wasn't there, I knew I had been right to hide. He started looking for me, muttering to himself. He went up and down the street and looked around corners. I hid and held my breath until he was gone. It was terrifying. I’m so glad I had that sudden, inexplicable impulse to hide, and listened to it.
#18 Grocery Shopping
I live next to a 24-hour grocery store that's by itself in a big parking lot. I walk up a side alley and turn to the left to get to the front entrance. One night at 5:00 a.m., I walked over to it to get something. When I came back out of the store, there was an old man waiting at a bus stop right out front next to the alley I had come from. For some reason, I immediately felt weird and didn’t want to walk by him. So, I walked back into the grocery store. I waited 10 minutes before I decided to walk back anyway, thinking I was being silly. The man was gone.
But, I still felt really weird. That's when I remembered that the bus doesn't run for two hours. And since he never went into the grocery store, I couldn't think of a single reason why he would have been waiting there. I just kept thinking, he was waiting for me. Even though he was gone, I knew I couldn’t walk back the way I came. Instead,I walked in the opposite direction and up a hill before crossing over. When I looked down, I could see in the alley I would have walked down. The man was hiding there, leaning against the wall, waiting for me. I now only go to that store during the day.
#19 Horse Advice
My sister was 18 years old and bought a horse from a guy who was married and 47. My parents liked the guy and became friends with him and his wife. I knew something was up because he and my sister would talk constantly on the phone. My mom actually asked his wife if that was cool. She said it was totally fine and he did this a lot with other kids who needed “horse advice.”
My parents wanted to send my sister to stay with this guy for a whole summer so she could ride and show horses. I told them the relationship was clearly inappropriate and not to do it. They were like, if the wife doesn’t mind then who cares?! Within two months, he had left his wife. Within four months, he and my sister were engaged.
Four months after that, they got married. One week after that, my sister was pregnant. This guy has had many parents accuse him of being a creep and coming on to their underage daughters. His own son has nothing to do with him. And he’s not even good looking or rich. Just a gross, hideous hillbilly with leather for skin and three teeth. Good job, baby sis.
#20 Biking on the Bridge
Two years ago, I was on my way back home on my bike. I had to go over a bridge and on one side of the bridge, there was a girl, crying. On the bridge, two 14-year-olds were in a head to head, seemingly about to get into a fight. When I went by, they stood back. I thought something was off, but I told myself fighting among 14-year-olds is normal and not dangerous, right? Turns out, one of the boys jumped off the bridge only minutes after I passed. His friend couldn't physically hold him back. Had I stopped, listened to my gut feeling, I might have been able to help and talk him out of it.
#21 Brother-in-Law
When I was younger, we would go visit my aunt a lot. Her brother-in-law was often there and sometimes watched her kids for her. Well, my sister and I really didn't like him. We told our mom he made us uncomfortable and that we didn't want to be around him, even though he never did or said anything bad to us. Sometime later, it was discovered that he was as bad as we thought he was. He's in jail now, for a very long time.
#22 Checking In
My co-worker got a call last week that her sister-in-law didn't show up for work and didn't call or anything. She's been working three jobs recently and was complaining that she needed a good night's sleep. My co-worker said she probably slept through the alarm clock, but her husband insisted that she go home and check on her because it wasn't like her to just not show up for work. My co-worker was annoyed, but did it since her house was only 20 minutes away.
My co-worker got there and the sister-in-law had a heart attack. Her oxygen levels were extremely low and the paramedics said that if my co-worker hadn't gotten home when she did, the sister-in-law would have been gone within minutes. Thank God her husband had felt that something was wrong. Always go with your gut.
#23 Returning Uncle
A guy came to the door one day, looking for my mom. I was probably 13 at the time. Immediately, I had most of my body behind the door, ready to shut it. I just had this terrible feeling about the guy. He said he hadn't seen her in a long time and that he was just coming from church and was in the neighborhood.
Okay, so this guy is trying to communicate that he's a good person and his weird smile just made me trust him less. I told him my mom was napping. She wasn't. She was at work. So, he left a note for her with his name and number on it. I took it and closed and locked the door. Then I looked at the note and immediately recognized the name. It was my uncle. I hadn't seen him since I was five when he went to jail.
#24 Thanksgiving Dinner
Several years ago on Thanksgiving, my mom was becoming extremely overwhelmed. The holidays have never been a great success in my family and my parents had issues communicating, which led to a lot of stressful and tense dinners. If it wasn't them, it was someone else starting a fire. Well, this year was really bad.
My mom had been cooking for hours to get ready to head over to my cousin's house. My dad was yelling about how we spend too much money on the holidays. It got to a point where my mom told me and my brothers to leave for the party ahead of them. We didn't get far from the house until a really bad feeling started sinking in my stomach. I knew my brothers felt something too. I said "Can we go back?" and my older brother turned around immediately.
When we got there, my father was gone. He had left out of anger and my mom yelled at him to leave. My mother was in her bed, laying still with an empty bottle beside her. She was still conscious when we came in, but she started shaking and was falling asleep. We called 911. She has severe depression and after this, she got some real help.
#25 Priest’s Party
I went to a Catholic grade school in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We had a priest who was very friendly with the students and much loved. He used to play pick-up basketball with the players on the basketball team. We were playing after hours and afterward, he invited us to the rectory. He was joking and swearing, and told us not to tell anyone. I was only in eighth grade, but it felt wrong. I found out years later that his inappropriate behavior was known by the Catholic church and they covered it up. Once the scandal blew up, he ran off to Mexico.
#26 A Ride Home
My friend asked me for a ride home. I told him I wasn't going his way and he was like, "Okay, I'll catch a ride with those people." I wasn't a huge fan of the people he was going to go home with, so I gave him a ride. Turns out, the kids who were going to take him home decided to speed down a windy, wooded road near his house at 80 mph. They hit something and flipped the car multiple times. They all lived, but barely. The EMTs said that if they were bigger kids, they would've been crushed. My friend is 6'2"; he absolutely would've lost his life that day.
#27 Field Trip
I once went on a high school field trip for a couple of days. On the first day, we had a barbeque. There was chicken and I didn't trust the other kids to make sure it was done well, so I passed up on it. The next day, 15 people had salmonella, ruining their entire trip. This might fall under logic instead of instinct.
#28 Young Dog
A couple of years ago we had a young dog (about one and a half) who had epilepsy. Of course, we had to give him meds multiple times a day to help with it. One day, he basically just stopped eating. After a day or two, I told my parents that we should take him to a vet. Cue their whole, "No, no. He'll get over it."
About a week later, he still wasn’t eating and we took him in to the vet for a periodic checkup. Turns out, he had liver failure that was almost guaranteed to progress into heart failure. We ended up having to put him down a couple of days later, simply because we didn't want him to suffer. I told you, mom.
#29 Suck it Up
I was a freshman in high school going out for football for the first time. About two weeks into practice, I started having terrible back pain. I told my mom, who said, "Ah you’re just sore. Suck it up." So, I did for a while. I kept going to practice for another week before I finally had to tell my mom she needed to take me to the hospital or I would go without her. So, she set up an appointment and I had a slightly broken vertebrae. Tiny cracks on each side of the same vertebrae. Safe to say, I don't take her advice much anymore.
#30 A Friend’s Place
We were at a party at a friends' place. He had a new colleague he had befriended attend. Something about this new dude just screamed "insane" to me and the more he conjured up crazy conspiracy theories. He also went on about "prophecies.” The next day, I said to my friend, "Don't be near this dude, he's nuts." A couple of months, that dude attacked his girlfriend. Last I heard, he was in prison.
#31 Suspicious Minds
A friend was avoiding me, and my now ex-girlfriend was acting a little suspicious the whole day. I just knew something didn’t add up. I decided that I needed to know what was happening. I gave my "buddy" a call and told him, "So, I spoke with (my ex) today and she told me something weird. Care to explain?" He confessed and I had to cut them loose from my life.
#32 Dad’s Call
My sister once called me downstairs to talk to my dad on the phone. At that time, phone calls with him were pretty regular and happened maybe once a week. It also wasn't an unusual time for his call or anything. But, my stomach dropped, I wanted to be sick, and I really didn’t want to answer for some reason.
Turns out my grandfather, who I liked very much, had passed away very unexpectedly. I still don't understand what it was. I got nothing from the reactions of my family because he wanted to tell me first and it started before I saw any of them. There had been no news, medical or otherwise, about my grandfather beforehand.
#33 Spidey Sense
I had this feeling of dread watching my twin sister walk down the driveway to get in the car and visit her boyfriend a couple of towns over. I knew she shouldn't go. It stormed and my mother insisted she try to make it home. My sister tried, but she flew off the icy turnpike in the middle of the night. She was absolutely fine and believes me about my spidey sense now.
#34 Staying Home
When I was doing my Ph.D., I got offered the chance to go to the Central European University summer school programme to do a course that would have been extremely valuable. I even got offered a full scholarship to do the course, and free accommodation, etc. It was a really amazing deal and I obviously couldn’t pass it up.
Two weeks before I was supposed to leave, I said to my boyfriend at the time that something was telling me I shouldn't go. I was like, “What the heck, brain? This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” but the feeling kept getting stronger. So, I withdrew from the course, feeling stupid for doing it. The day after I was scheduled to leave, my perfectly healthy mom got sick. A week later, she was in a coma. A week later, we had to turn off life support. Her funeral was a week after that. I would have been away in her last waking moments.
#35 Squeaky Noise
I heard a strange noise when I woke up. I looked outside my bedroom window to see if anything there made that noise. Instead, I saw my oldest cat sitting on the windowsill outside of the other bedroom. She was staring into the room as if there was something in there that she didn’t like but couldn’t look away.
At that moment, I knew there was something or someone in the other room. Then I heard the noise again, like a soft squeaking. It sounded like someone was shifting their weight from one foot to the other on a wooden floor. I told myself there couldn’t be an intruder in that room. I told myself that it made no sense that someone could get in there without waking me up. So, I gathered my courage and went to check it out.
When I got to the doorway, I saw two of my other cats in the hallway staring into the other room. They both looked very agitated. I peeked around the corner and heard that strange squeaky noise again. It was one of my neighbour’s cats. I was very afraid and got somehow managed to get trapped on my desk by a bunch of cats.
#36 Day Before Halloween
I was at a pub around October 2013. I lived in a particularly rough neighborhood at the time and I was enjoying a few a day before Halloween night. I had this horrible feeling of uneasiness looming in the back of my mind, so I told my buddies that I was turning in for the night. They called me the following morning and informed me that the pub had gotten robbed and three people were injured. It was about two hours after I left.
#37 Last Vacation
When I left for my last vacation, I obviously had to leave my old cat behind. But, there was something so strange about her demeanor. It was just the way she looked at me, like she didn't want me to leave. I had a feeling that she wouldn't be alive when I got back. As it turned out, she passed away the day before we got back.
#38 Construction Crane
A storm was gathering as my dad was driving. I was eight years old, sitting in the back and looking out the window. I told him, "You better hurry, that construction crane looks like it might topple.” Everybody laughed at the idiot kid. That evening, the whole family was watching the local news. They opened with that crane crashing down due to heavy wind. Although nobody had been hurt, I felt vindicated.
#39 Math Teacher
I had a math teacher in middle school who came off as creepy. He would try and get close to us guys and try and act like old friends. He seemed afraid of girls for some reason. I didn't like him. He gave me a very bad feeling. After about a year at our school, he wasn't there suddenly. We had a police officer come in and sit us down and interview everyone individually. He was arrested for inappropriate behavior and sent to prison.
#40 Field of Soybeans
I was leaving a family camping trip and something felt wrong before I left. I ignored it at first, but something was still bugging me. It was dark, so I drove slower than normal. I turned a curve and there was this deer standing in the road. Just… standing there, staring at a huge field of soybeans. Even driving slower, I didn't have time to stop. It wrecked my hood, busted my radiator, and cracked my windshield. This buck was huge. If I'd been driving faster, it could have done more damage.
#41 Enough for Shorts
I used to work for a company making barns and we were installing a rail made from old oil lines. I was using a large chop saw to cut the threaded ends off the pipe. A chop saw is basically a large gas-powered chainsaw with a 14" diameter fibre blade in this case. I had gotten to the last cut and as I stood up, I had the weirdest feeling that something was wrong. I didn't know what, but I knew something was off.
I looked around, checked my cut, which was good, and didn't mark the concrete below. I stood there for a solid five minutes with a saw in my hands, trying to figure out what was wrong. All looked good until I moved the saw enough to notice a large hole burning in the shin of my jeans. Turned out, I had stood in the sparks. Luckily, there was enough left for shorts.
#42 Those Two
Two guys I met in my senior year of high school seemed alright, but for some reason, I had the feeling I couldn't really trust them. We ended up going to the same college and being in the same circle of friends, but I still didn’t really trust them. They ended up burglarizing a friend's house right after a big party and got caught fleeing the scene in their car by a roommate. They gave all the stuff back after being confronted and everyone cut ties with those two.
#43 A Child’s Nightmare
My dad had just left for an out-of-town business trip. I was pretty young at the time. I woke up from a nightmare and started freaking out because I thought something horrible had happened to my dad. My mom came in, calmed me down and I went back to sleep. Turned out, my nightmare occurred right about the time the taxi my dad was taking to the airport got into an accident. My dad was fine but it was one very weird moment.
#44 Sadie the Dog
This was about 15 years ago. My parents went out for a nice dinner for their anniversary and decided that I was old and responsible enough to be left alone for a few hours on a weeknight. I was almost nine and we owned a fairly protective dog at the time, so it all seemed fine. They leave, tell me to lock up and to call if anything happens.
Halfway through a Sailor Moon marathon, I get a knock on the door. I'm confused because it's only been about two hours and they said they probably wouldn't be back until around 10. My front door is a system of two doors, a super old, thick wooden door (the house was originally built in the '30s and this door is still the original piece) and then outside of that, a screen door. My dog is barking a ton at the front door. I just pull her back to calm down because she had a tendency to be reactive to most noises.
Welp, it's not my mom at the door. It’s some middle-aged man I've never met before in my life. Puppo is now basically feral, so I keep the screen door firmly closed and a hand on her collar. I ask the man what he wants. He starts in on this weird convoluted story about how he has two young twin daughters and how they got into a fight and that one of them ran away.
Now, this man claims that he believes his daughter is hiding in my house and would like to come look for her. I tell him no such girl is here and why does he think she would be here in the first place. He goes on into a long story about how this was the house they first lived in and how it's the one she was born in, and how it was like a safe place for her. He says it would be the most likely place she would run away to as it was really the only other place she knows.
I felt weird since I opened the door and this dude's story hasn't been helping his cause. But now I know something is going down. I, in no uncertain terms, inform the guy that he must have the wrong house because this house was built and has been lived in by my family since it's construction. There were pictures less than 10 feet away from me on the wall of my dad and uncle playing in the front yard in the late 70s.
By now, my dog is growling like crazy and dude is getting agitated. He insists that I don't know what I'm talking about and that if I would just give him a few minutes to search for his daughter he could be on his way. The latch on the screen door was broken and I was putting all my strength at the time in holding my dog from the door. He opens the screen door with one hand and with the other reaches for my closest arm.
My crazy cocker spaniel goes ballistic! She uses all her strength to lunge at him, gets a hold of his hand, and bites down. Now, the man is yelling and confused. He pushes back against the screen door and slams it shut to get my dog off of him. Sadie gets pushed back indoors, but is still raging. I quickly slam the front door, lock it, and chain it shut.
I run around the house and make sure all other doors and windows are locked and then hunker down in the bathroom, hyperventilating. I wait until Sadie's growling has calmed some. I then check outside, no man or his car. I call my parents and tell them they need to come home. When they get home, I recount the whole story. Sadie was treated like a queen and got a whole steak for her to eat that weekend.
#45 You Saved My Life
I pulled up to a stoplight and waited for the light. This car pulled up behind me. Another was coming down the street to my left, speeding, but not insane. Then, the light turned green for me. Something about the car told me to stay put. So, I stayed put. The car behind me kept honking and honking and honking. The car to my left ran the red. Then, I pulled out and made a left. I got to the next stoplight and heard incessant honking. I turned around and saw the car that was behind me in the next lane motioning to roll down my window. He said, "That car wouldn't have hit you, it would have T-boned me. You saved my life." Listen to your inner self.
#46 Man Hunt(ing)
One night, I was about eight and hanging out with a bunch of high schoolers for some reason, playing manhunt. My team went into the woods to hide where we found a spot to wait for a while. Suddenly, we heard a noise that we just dismissed and left. We went back to the edge of the woods to scope out the area and one of the kids told me to wait there, so I did.
About five minutes later, I had this bad feeling, so I just left. The next day, I went back to that same spot in the woods with my friend to show him. I heard the same noise I heard the night before with the other kids, but didn’t think much of it again. We soon got out and started to head home. We were probably 50 feet away from where we had exited the woods when I looked back at my friend a man emerged from the spot that we had.
I yelled back to him to run. When we got to a safe distance, I turned back to the man and we just locked eyes for a good minute when he started to approach us. So, we ran home. I’m 17 now and I still think back on it. I always wonder what would have happened if I stayed in the woods by myself that night before.
#47 Wife’s Phone
When I glanced over at my wife texting and noticed that the recipient was listed in her phone only as initials and not an actual name. It was definitely strange because I had seen her phone lots of times and her contacts always had the person’s full name. Of course, it turned out she was with someone on the side.
#48 Time and Bus Fare
I once interviewed at Vector Marketing a very long time ago. I got mad pyramid scheme vibes from them, but I needed money and they don't actually make you buy anything upfront. So, I thought that the only risk was wasting time and bus fare. Sure enough, it was indeed a pyramid scheme and I wasted time and bus fare.
#49 Thank You For This
It was two summers ago and I was at my internship. That morning when I looked at my dog, there was something in his eyes that immediately told me today was his last day. I could feel it emanating off of him. Skip to lunch that day when I decided to go check on him. Sure enough, he was in the corner with his head against the wall, throwing up. I had to put him down later that day. It broke my heart, but at least as he was passing away, he gave me one last look as if to say, “Thank you for doing this." Never underestimate how real the bond is between pets and owners.
#50 Not a Scratch
Fastening seat belts in the back seat is not common in India. We were coming from Agra to Delhi in a taxi we reserved for the whole day. When we left Agra, the driver was braking heavily. My wife, who was in the back seat with me, suggested we should fasten the belt. We did and fell asleep pretty fast. Next thing we know, our car was swirling in the middle of the motorway. We finally stopped on the shoulder of the road. Not a scratch on our bodies.
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