[jogger08152]

This is a true story.

A good friend of mine (his name's Brian) and I were driving his pickup in a hilly, wooded, curving-road area one summer night about thirteen (?) years ago. (He was driving, I was riding shotgun.) Don't know what the speed limit was, but he was doing around 45 or 50 mph on the straightaways and taking the curves pretty fast as well.

Starting around a longish curve that became pretty sharp at the far end, Brian said, "[censored] dude, something's not right." He sounded and was visibly upset, squinting, scrunching up his eyes, and slowing down the truck. His body language was very tense, hunching down and tightening up basically. This reaction was abrupt and quite dramatic btw - we had just been talking about sports and a movie we had seen, and he'd been fine/completely normal up to that point as far as I knew.

Anyway I asked what was going on; I was thinking he'd become (suddenly) ill or something.

I can no longer remember his exact response, but he indicated that something felt threatening to him, (I believe he used that exact word), and also I think shook his head gestured forward, something like that, because I know he got me looking away from him and out into the road again. Meanwhile, he's hitting the breaks pretty hard, and we're coming down from 40 to like 10 in a second or two. We round the sharpest part of the curve (greater than 90 degrees) still decelerating, and standing in the middle of the road is a good-dized deer, at least 125 pounds. Brian had the truck almost completely stopped, and damn close to the animal, before it bolted.

My reaction was appropriately freaked. "What the hell just happened?"

He couldn't explain it other than to say he felt something wrong and knew he had to slow down.

A few points:

A) Brian is a solid, smart dude who graduated Tulane in 4 years with a triple major in history, geology and Russian language, and I've known him since we were both 5-year-olds. (We're now 33.) I put the chance of him lying to me about anything of interest or importance (EG, somehow he saw the deer run around the bend through the trees up ahead or something) at almost exactly 0%. This would be true under any conditions, and is reinforced in my mind by his visible reactions both during and immediately after the incident.

B) Based on the terrain, there is no physical way he could have known the deer was there. (And this would be equally true in full daylight.)

C) Brian was home from college for the summer at the time, staying with his parents; they had moved to this location within the last 12-18 months, and Brian was not intimately familiar with the area by any means - obviously an encounter with a deer wouldn't be unprecedented by any means, but at the same time I'm quite sure he hadn't driven through the area enough to have any particular concerns about this specific stretch of road.

D) Most importantly from my standpoint, I was personally there. We've talked about this occurence as recently as last year, and his recollection is pretty much the same as mine. Whatever else it was, it was weird.

Finally and for the record, both Brian and I were sober that night. (No chemicals other than cigarettes for me and none at all for him.)

So, do I believe in psychics or premonitions? Not necessarily, but I don't rule 'em out. I will say I've never been able to figure out a satisfactory alternative explanation for the above.

-Jogger