Even before the events in the park, William should have known that something strange was going on.
During the night he dreamed again of the unknown blonde woman.
She was about twenty, wearing blue shorts and a white halter top, good-looking
enough to have experienced a wearying array of come-ons from men.
In his dream he tried desperately to touch her pretty face, but when he reached out his hand, she disappeared like fog in the very first rays of light.
When he woke and was unable to breathe, he shuffled onto the balcony in his pajama bottoms to get some fresh air.
With trembling fingers he lit a cigarette and filled his lungs avariciously with the smoke, trying to understand the meaning of his visions.
Who was the woman? And why did he see her in his dreams every single day?
The visions had started about two weeks ago and although he was blind, he was pretty sure that he had never met her.
He began to shudder, not because of the fresh morning air, but because a series of inner chills swam through him.
Since that day eight years ago when he had gone blind, he hadn´t have any visions... except for the day, when he had seen his mother die.
He felt his mind drifting back to a warm summer morning like this three years ago, when he had seen in his head her car crashing into a truck.
She had been dead even before her body had hit the ground.
William´s desperate attempts to reach his mother by phone had failed...she had already been in the car, not anticipating that she would never reach the shopping mall.
The pictures of the unknown woman filled his head again and he rubbed his forehead, as if trying to scare away the thoughts.
He was not afraid of the visions.
What he actually feared was meeting her somewhere, maybe at the lake... and whatever form of death might be waiting there for him.
*********
„Come on, Willow, don´t stop, you can make it!” the young, redheaded woman buoyed herself up, while she was jogging around the lake.
Her hair clung to her forehead and sweat ran into her eyes, while her legs ached as if she had ran a marathon.
Gasping, she reached a park bench and sat down, while she glanced at the man next to her who was drawing a picture.
He didn´t seem to take notice of her, as he kept on drawing.
Every now and than he paused, as if he wasn´t entirely sure how to finish his picture.
From the corner of her eyes Willow could see that it was a woman he had drawn.
The day was pleasantly warm, and a breeze stirred an agreeable fragrance from some nearby Douglas firs, but when Willow took a closer look at the paper, she felt a slight shiver swam through her.
She realized that she was holding her breath when she suddenly became aware that she knew the woman on his paper.
There was no doubt: it was Buffy... her best friend.
The picture didn´t just resemble Buffy… it was Buffy.
Willow wouldn´t have been surprised if her friend on the paper would have opened her mouth to talk to her.
The picture was unbelievably vivid and clear and the more she stared at it, the more she realized that the artist was exceptionally talented.
She lifted her head a little to look at the blonde man.
His mouth was curved slightly, as though he was having a pleasant dream, but he still didn´t notice her.
Intending to tell him how fascinated she was about his talent, she opened her mouth, but for some strange reasons she couldn´t bring herselt to interrupt him.
Slowly she stood up and ignored the pain in her legs and while she looked back at the unknown man, she wondered why Buffy hadn´t told her about him... not knowing that Buffy didn´t have the slightest clue about him, either.
*********
Embarrassed but unable to stop himself, William told his friend Giles about the pictures and his urge to draw the woman, although he was blind.
“Come on, tell me the truth... you think that I´m a fool, don´t you?” he asked, waiting for the reaction of the man who knew him better than anyone else.
Giles was his best friend- and the only one who knew about his gift and the reasons for his blindness.
Holding the pictures in his hands, Giles stared at them for an eternity, as it seemed, without answering.
„Well…“ he began slowly, „that´s kinda strange. I... I don´t know what to say.“
Carefully he put he papers back onto the table and started polishing his glasses.
Of course William had told him that he had drawn before he had gone blind... but Giles hadn´t have the slightest idea that he was that good at it.
„What does it mean, Giles? I can see her face in my mind, I can hear her talking, laughing... last night a dreamed of touching her face, but...”
William shook his head and lit a cigarrete, while he heard his friend taking a deep sigh.
He imagined him rubbing his forhead with his fingers, trying desperately to find an answer to his questions.
“Well, when you was younger, you… saw other people´s destiny... and...”
He stopped for a while and turned his glasses to and fro.
“You saw what would happen to the people.”
“Yeah, I did”, William answered, feeling a strange combination of excitement and horror when he thought of his youth.
“What if... well, what if you see this girl in your dreams, because...”
“Because what ?” William grabbed his arm and squeezed it, waiting for him to finish his sentence.
Giles looked at him and took a deep breath.
When he exhaled, the following words flowed with his breath:
“I guess you see this woman in your visions... because she might be your destiny.”