Christina Hermes
As fate cascades down through twists and turns of catastrophes, it also keeps itself entertained bobbing back and forth on kindness and suffering. It twirls its strings between its fingers, a cat’s cradle of infinite possibilities, and then unravels to show that in the infinite possibilities that could have been chosen, only one path was ever a real possibility.
Fate enjoyed its relationship with the beings around it. From the dogs anxiously clawing their way at metal fences, the long forgotten billboards rotting away on the side of the road, adobe structures abandoned decades prior, and the people in cars with dust flaking off the sides, everything had been constructed to be just right in this moment, in every moment coming before and after it.
Today, fate was going to choose a playmate, and predict how they would handle things.
Of course, this person was stout in their beliefs: they cared about their friends, hated being late but were almost never on time, and were more than willing to walk long distances to get to where they needed to go.
Fate could choose to focus just on the problems this person was having today, but it was even more interesting to look at the potentials where something like this never could have happened.
If this person’s roommate hadn’t had to go to the hospital this morning, for example, they wouldn’t be walking back to the mechanic.
If they hadn’t cut their finger last night while cooking, they wouldn’t have had to leave the mechanic in the first place.
Going further back, if they hadn’t decided to become roommates with the person in the hospital, they wouldn’t have had to drive out this morning, and wouldn’t have been greeted by a flat tire.
If there hadn’t been free food in the lobby of the dorms, those two people never would have been so eager to get to know one another.
If they hadn’t seen each other’s faces in passing, they never would have bonded over the free food.
The connections between everything were so deliciously complex that fate could nearly be satiated by just those alone, but it was so fun to watch everything unfold as it pleased. Simplifying the causes and effects made it nearly delirious with glee.
` If they hadn’t cut their finger, they wouldn’t have gotten a sunburn.
If they hadn’t liked Chinese food, they wouldn’t have been living in this apartment.
If they hadn’t been living in this apartment, they wouldn’t have needed to drive their roommate to the hospital.
If they hadn’t had to drive their roommate to the hospital, they wouldn’t have noticed the flat tire.
If they hadn’t worn workout clothes, they wouldn’t have been willing to change the tire.
If they hadn’t been willing to change the tire, they wouldn’t have been able to make it to the mechanic.
If they hadn’t made it to the mechanic, they wouldn’t have had to walk back to campus to get to the doctor’s.
If they hadn’t had to walk back to campus to get to the doctor’s, they wouldn’t have gotten a sunburn.
Fate was excited, too, to see what lay in the future consequences of these actions.
Because of the cut, they will get a tetanus shot.
Because of that tetanus shot, they will go to Walgreens.
Because they went to Walgreens, they will pick up more bandaids.
Because they picked up more bandaids, they will be significantly less anxious.
And, of course, the most important of all, the despites.
Despite the series of events, they will still have a good day.
Despite the roommate’s chronic illness, they will not mind emergency hospital visits.
Despite the cut, they still made a soup, and that soup will be waiting for them when they get home, cut, dirtied, honked at, injected, tired, and satisfied from a long, long day.
Christina Hermes is a senior in the English department at New Mexico State University. She has been writing since she was a child, and has featured creative works at both Undergraduate Research & Creative Arts Symposium as well as Research & Creativity Week After Hours here at NMSU. She hopes to pursue her love for books by becoming a librarian, which she is soon to go to graduate school for.
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