I was the new girl in the payroll department.  After  
 three weeks of working there, everything still  
 seemed so foreign and confusing. There was so much  
 to learn!  Retirement forms, worker's compensation  
 forms, full time employees who are eligible for  
 County Retirement, part time employees who are  
 eligible for COBRA, pay scales, taxes....I felt like  
 I would never understand it all!  On top of it all,  
 I was a mother of two, working full time for the  
 first time since having kids.  Life had changed  
 drastically for me and I was feeling the pressure of  
 it all.   

 At the end of the day my head would be swimming with 
 all of the information I'd learned or needed to 
 remember.  I would write myself notes and stick them 
 EVERYWHERE just to keep track of it all. 

 After a particularly exhausting day, I went home and 
 did the usual routine: made dinner, worked on 
 homework with the kids, did laundry, cleaned up the 
 kitchen, read bedtime stories, and then finally, 
 fell into bed.  I dreamt that I was sleeping; I've 
 never had a dream that I was actually sleeping 
 before!  But in my dream, I was sleeping and could 
 feel the comfort and warmth of my bed.  I suddenly 
 sensed a presence in the room.  Sleepily, I raised 
 an eyelid.  There at the foot of my bed, stood a man 
 I had never seen before.  His hair was dark.  His 
 features, though hidden in the shadows of my 
 bedroom, appeared dark...and angry.  My heart was 
 pounding.  I clutched the blankets closer around me. 
  "Where's my paycheck?" he demanded. 

 At this point I woke up, my heart racing, my eyes 
 wide open looking around the bedroom.  He was gone. 
 It was only a dream, after all.  I didn't sleep well 
 that night and the next morning, I was still 
 bothered by the dream.  I told my coworkers about 
 it, and they laughed.  "Welcome to payroll!" they 
 giggled.  I shrugged it off, smiling myself and soon 
 forgot about it. 

 Almost a year later, the dream all but forgotten, I 
 had adapted well to my position.  I was confident 
 that I could handle any situation in the payroll 
 office, and if not, I knew how to find the answers. 
 We had been working a lot of overtime; our 
 supervisor was out on vacation.  So one afternoon, 
 not quite finished with some crucial figures I had 
 been working on, I decided to stay a few minutes 
 after closing time.  It was about quarter past four 
 and most of the employees had gone home.  I was 
 busily hammering away at my calculator when I heard 
 shuffling footsteps in the hallway.  Suddenly there 
 at my desk was a man, one of our employees.  I had 
 seen him around but couldn't place his name.  He had 
 some questions about the deductions in his pay.  I 
 patiently explained as best I could, and as I did, I 
 could see the look of frustration and anger on his 
 face.  I was getting that feeling in the pit of my 
 stomach; you know, the one that says "get 
 ready....fight or flight".  The man was irate.  He 
 started yelling at me quite close to my face, very 
 threateningly, about his deductions.  I explained 
 that I understood how he felt, but that I was not 
 responsible for deciding the amount, and I told him 
 that he needed to speak to the town manager, right 
 upstairs.  He continued to rant and rave, and I 
 calmly repeated myself.  "I'm sorry you feel that 
 way; however, I'm not the person you need to speak 
 to.  The town manager's office is right upstairs. 
 You can go speak to him."  He was not even hearing 
 me!  He was going on and on about my incompetence. 

 After a few minutes of this, he left, storming out 
 of the building.  He never went up to see the town 
 manager.  I'm convinced that because the town 
 manager is a man, he never would have acted that way 
 with him!  I was left very shaken by the whole 
 incident.  His anger was way out of proportion to 
 the situation and I felt that he was looking for an 
 excuse to blow up at somebody.  I later complained, 
 in writing, to the superintendent, about this man's 
 behavior.  I never got an apology.  In fact, he 
 wrote his own letter of complaint about me!  My 
 superiors supported me, though; saying that he had 
 an explosive temper and that this was not the first 
 time it happened. 

 It wasn't until the following day that I remembered 
 the dream.  There is not a doubt in my mind that it 
 was him standing at the edge of my bed that night. 
 I've never had a premonition before or since...but I 
 feel that I had been warned.