"THE MOST IMPORTANT THING HAPPENING" (2013)

A short story excerpt from the published collection "The Most Important Thing Happening" (2013) David C. Cook Publishing

(Author’s Note: The entire collection "The Most Important Thing Happening” is subtitled “A Novel in Stories.” There are eleven stories in all and this one, the one that bears the collection’s title, is the second. If there seem to be some moments that lack clarity, they make sense as you read the other ten stories. Published in 2013 by David C. Cook Publishing)

I am above the chaos. Always above it. Observing without the ability to help. Though sometimes I prefer to be across the street from the chaos in an eatery of some sort. They have large windows and pie, and I can observe with a mustard pastrami on sourdough. At this moment, however, I am above the chaos. Prostrate on a fire escape with my nose smashed to the grate, peering seven floors below into the alleyway where the stranger I am observing cannot imagine life continuing as she has previously recognized it. But, she is incorrect. I know. I’ve witnessed this sort of incident every day of my adult life. Ever since the age of twenty-one—the birthday itself, actually. Without so much as a whisper of warning, my surroundings disappeared. I found myself whisked away, and I’ve kept whisking away ever since. It isn’t time travel, because my watch has never been inaccurate, save the time zone in question. Funny. But it isn’t all bad.

I mean, yes. Much of what I witness is bad. Ugly. That’s the nature of this modern age. At any given moment, the Most Important Thing Happening is more than likely destructive. That seems to be the way we like it. And by “we,” I don’t mean Magnets. I mean people. I don’t think there are any other Magnets. At least, I haven’t met any. Perhaps there has never been another. Perhaps there is only one of us at a time.

So, yes, I suppose some would call me special. I do. I call me special. I’ve seen the Gaza Strip and inaugurations and death-row executions and Ground Zero. I observe and I take notes. I’ve attempted to do more, but—well, I’ll explain later. I’ve seen lives begin and end, sometimes simultaneously. I’ve observed treaties signed and contracts betrayed and, last Tuesday, I watched a three-year-old girl almost drown, except an eleven-year-old boy jumped in and saved her. I don’t know if I’ll ever unearth the long-term significance of that. My best guess is that she will grow up to either save the world or destroy it—or, perhaps the boy will. He was the one who did the saving, but maybe doing the saving turned him into someone significant. Despite the patterns, it’s actually quite challenging to tell what makes any moment the Most Important Thing Happening. My hand gets tired writing that out so many times, so I have shortened it to MITH. Get it? It’s an acronym—or maybe an acrostic.