Back in MA’s study we added another log to her fireplace, broke out the Bailey's Irish Cream and relaxed completely.
J: MA you know that I am concluding my story about you with this interview, don't you?
MA: Yes of course.
J: You offered me the opportunity to ask any questions the last time we met, is that offer still good?
MA: Yes
J: Because we have become such friends I want you to know that if you elect to duck any of these questions it will be fine by me. It is not a matter of national security - it is just that my readers have been very specific about what they would like to know. Good by you?
MA: I have never been shy James.
J: Well MA I am not certain. But let me start by giving you the best regards of a poster named Judith Anne. She asked me to say Hi to you. I am not sure you remember but she was very active in the SARS threads.
MA: Of course I remember. Judith is a nurse and we once spoke about how my mother was a nurse as well. But it has been quite a bit of time since then. James, no one else knows this but she is also the one who encouraged me to post on FluTrackers - again it was in our past.
It is just lovely to hear from her.
J: I will tell her so MA.
J: There was no one else who asked me to offer any cordialities, however I do have a list of questions that they would like you to respond to.
MA: Let me go get the brownies and we can begin.
Thank you very much, James.
As we sat eating brownies and sipping egg nog spiked with Bailey's the evening was getting late.
MA: Did you read Precognition like I asked?
J: Yes I read it several times and I must say MA that it is just all over the place. You used it to warn about SARS and you used it to post about Ebola over the years. There was a lot of back and forth with other posters about religion and stuff. But you used a lot of humor too.
It is a very cool thread because of the very long time line involved and all the people who seem to know you so well.
But MA I have no idea what the theme is if it isn't microbiology.
MA: James, it is just as advertised. When I titled the thread Precognition there was one snippet of a report about a strange pneumonia found in China.
I felt something very odd was afoot and had a very bad feeling about this bug.
It has been this way all my life. I do not consider it strange to have very strong feelings that later turn out to be true. It is part of my very being.
I assure you that there are others who can testify to their experience with hunches, feelings, foresight or precognition.
Thus it was with that thread. I took to the Internet to chronicle the events I felt were about to occur and when they did occur, I simply reported them.
I also opined on my feeling about the relationship to Ebola and fruit bats - which also proved true.
Precognition means only what it says - sometimes we know things are about to happen before they happen.