Recently I received an e-mail from a woman who used to be a girlfriend of one of my long-time friends. She asked if I remembered her and updated her life. Back in the mid-90s when Trish and I would see her occasionally with my friend, she worked as a lawyer for a government agency. Fran recalled that we had taken a trip to Key West with them when Megan was young.
Apparently, that trip was in 1995 because I signed a copy of Prophecy Rock for her and put in the date. Soon after Fran received a promotion that required her to move from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta. My friend, who’s also named Rob, tried to keep things going in a long-distance relationship. But it was never the same and eventually they broke it off.
Now she wrote that she was married, living in Washington, D.C. and had a nine-year-old daughter. She also mentioned that synchronicities were an important part of her life. I wrote back and asked if she was working as a lawyer. Her answer was interesting.
“Yes, I am working as a lawyer in D.C. and about to be furloughed! The synchronicity is that you signed your Prophecy Rock novel for me dated 12/22/95 and wrote, ‘Happy Furlough.'”
That was back when Newt Gingrich controlled the House of Representatives and shut down the government. Fran temporarily lost her job then, as now in the current ‘Sequester.’ What goes around, comes around.
Very prophetic. Though I wasn’t too sure what a furlough actually was until I did a search. Strange how some words slip by, but I believe it’s something more used in the USA.
I think we were threatened with a furlough back then (I was working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research) but it never happened. Apparently it is happening now, though. I’m sorry to hear of Fran’s furlough, but that was a good synchro! 🙂