Abra Warns of Wanda Judkins’s Fall and Saves Her is a childhood episode in which Abra Stone’s warning brings her family to a neighbor who has fallen and cannot call for help. The rescue turns an ordinary holiday afternoon into evidence that Abra can perceive danger at a distance, and that acting on her warning can change its outcome.

The Warning

In the summer of 2003, while Concetta Reynolds was spending the Fourth of July weekend with the Stone family, Abra was playing with plastic blocks in the living room. On Sunday, July 6, David Stone had gone to a 7-Eleven for a fresh Blue Rhino canister for the backyard barbecue. Concetta and Lucy Stone were in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher when Abra began screaming.

Concetta hurried to the living room, expecting that Abra had been hurt. Abra was physically unharmed, but she clung to Concetta and urgently said that Wannie needed help and had fallen. Lucy recognized Wannie as Wanda Judkins, the widow who lived across the street. Wanda was a favorite neighbor: she brought Abra cookies with the child’s name written on them, sometimes in raisins and sometimes in frosting.

Finding Wanda

Concetta and Lucy went across the street, with Lucy carrying Abra. At the door, Abra specified that Wanda was in the dining room, had hurt herself, and was bleeding. No one answered their knock, but the door was unlocked, so they went inside.

They found Wanda on the dining-room floor beside a stepladder, with the dusting rag still in her hand. Lucy found a pulse. Wanda had fractured her skull and suffered a small brain bleed, but she woke the next day. The emergency-room doctor later judged that a longer delay could have left her dead or in a persistent vegetative state. The family’s prompt response to Abra’s warning had therefore prevented a potentially fatal delay.

The Story’s Significance

The episode is presented retrospectively: when Abra’s pediatrician, John Dalton, hears about her abilities, David prompts Concetta to tell him what happened. Concetta recounts the incident as a specific, consequential instance of Abra’s perception, rather than as one of the less measurable patterns her parents had grown accustomed to noticing.

The warning arrives before the family knows that Wanda is in danger, and Abra identifies both the neighbor and where to find her. Her ability is thus shown not only as unusual knowledge but as knowledge that can prompt an effective rescue. Wanda recovered in time to be expected at Abra’s upcoming birthday party, a practical, forward-looking detail that underscores how the emergency ended in survival.