by chance

The short story of Arthur Haddin.

The world was peaceful that day. Sun shining, the breeze gentle. Not a speck of dust out of place or a word misplaced. Nature taking it slowly and mankind for once acting mellow. Yes, everything seemed to be at place that day.

As Arthur Haddin, crossed his usual path, a coffee in hand, an umbrella just in case. Everything was as usual. The same road, the same people walking by. Some even taking a moment to smile or wave back... For you see, our Arthur was the kindest of souls, though sometimes a bit of a grump. But only on rare occasion that required a more feisty spirit... Yet, all in all, a good person taking place in the world and frankly being very efficient about it. But enough of that, for that is not the point of this story.

As mister Haddin walked down the path, that he had in deed walked for the millionth of time or even more, if one was inclined to ask. He reached the end of the sidewalk and was about to cross the road... when a peculiar thing occurred. Well, maybe not that special. One is prone to exaggerate at times. When Arthur took a step forward an unfortunate series of events took place.

The street's stop light didn't change, which led to a bit of a hold-up...

A man on a bike slipped on oil that dripped out of a truck standing nearby...

Which led him to fall and scare a child, age of four to be precise.

That child ran up to his mother, making her groceries fall to the ground.

A bunch of oranges rolling down the sidewalk, to be once again precise by the high number of eight...

One of them bumping into our Arthur and causing him to stare down and lift the juicy fruit, and as he did so, the light finally changed bringing the cars back to life. As the luck may be, one of those cars rode with too much speed... do to the oil spill, caused very unintentionally by the owner of our truck... and all of those tasty oranges just rolling around the sidewalk and the street.

Kind of like being in my personal theme park.

But back to the point, I shall be fast... or at least I will try.

Now if it wasn't for all those events, that day would have gone by smoothly for our dear Mr. Haddin, but as it is today was not the case. Our peaceful soul was meant to die exactly on this day. Exactly to the minute, right on scheduled time.

Yes, I'm afraid it is true.

It was time to end this man's mundane life...

Arthur took a step to cross the white lines, unaware of the situation and his upcoming doom. Too busy to notice anything, still focused entirely on the fruit. I watched him walk and heard the breaks squeak loudly. A car speeding without the chance of return.

It was close, the finale ending to my show. Just seconds and it will all be done...

...and then I felt it, a change of wind.

A shift in structure.

Something different then it was meant to be. I looked around, searching for the cause of this sudden rebel occurrence. My eyes gazing in each direction as my stare turned into a deep frown. My eyes wandering to the ground and the nearest green patch of grass. Because strange as it may seems - and this shouldn't be a bother - someone has left an

ice-cream cone and shifted a single strand of grass... yes, that might not seem like a big deal to be concerned about, however that particular strand of grass that shifted was not really meant for today, but for the year 2035...

such a strange mistake, definitely not mentioned in the files.

I stare at Arthur, as he steps shakily back, a hand placed sternly on his forearm...

that of someones' mum...

to be more clear, that of our crying child...

scared by a man that fell of his bike, because of some oil spilled from a truck...

I put a hand to my face and moan in silence. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for our lad Arthur, such a peaceful soul, that he is. However, this changes things. I look into my little black notebook and sigh yet again.

Just wonderful, it seems that the Apocalypse is misplaced by 2 000 000 years.

If I had a nickel for every ice-cream that stopped the ending of mankind... I could buy a new notebook, to stuff all of the reports that were coming soon. Tons and tons of reports to the office. No employee of the month for this worker. That's for sure.

Very amusing Universe

Yet you strike again...

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