The Right Time

The story opens in a Nevada diner where Dr. Walter Bupp, a skeptical man of science, spots Pheola in a corner booth. She sees things before they happen. She heals with her hands. Lefty doesn't believe her until she predicts a heart attack for Pete Maragon, the Grand Master of their Psi Lodge and it strikes exactly as she warned. Now he must help her convince a man he's about to die, arrange his survival, and train her to control abilities she never asked for. The humor is dry, the stakes are death, and the romance builds between two people who can barely admit they need each other. This is 1960s science fiction at its most human: less about ray guns and more about what it means to believe in someone when the evidence is thin and the consequence is fatal. For readers who want their SF with pulse.