On a not so ordinary day in a not so ordinary house there lived an ordinary man. His name was Bill and he spent his days working hard and trying to be a role model to his grandchildren. Bill's home was full of unique art that his late wife had accumulated over her lifetime as well as odd and peculiar electronics that seemed to have no function. Bill never paid the objects in his home any attention and for that reason he could never tell you what any of them were. Any art historian that took a walk through this home would find the whole place very fascinating. In Bill's eyes this was just his home. His mind was occupied with other mediocre aspects of life. To his grandchildren he was a magical being from another world. They all too enjoyed going to visit their alien wizard and playing with his space ship house, time machine, or interdimensional communicator depending on what their imagination brought out. Bill's friends were quiet, stiff gentlemen that drank tea and contemplated the art in the house.
The life Bill lived may have seemed ordinary to him but to others there was much more than comfort in his life. On this not so ordinary day something extraordinary happened in Bill's town. We'll get to that soon enough for this event was so life changing that we should first establish Bill's early day. He awoke from his bed at six in the morning as he usually did. He used the loo and washed his hand as he did every morning. Bill then took a shower where he shaved using a strait razor and a mirror he kept below his shower head. The suit he would wear was left out from the previous night, as anyone that knew him would have expected, and he dressed himself neat and clean. At Bill's age he had not driven himself to work in a long time so he walked to the corner of his block and waited for the community carpool. As he waited he thought about how nice the weather was on that day. The temperature was a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky had a thin sheet of altostratus cloud cover. Bill didn't know much about clouds so seeing this did not worry him.
This is where the most unusual thing caught up to Bill. His carpool did not arrive to pick him up. Bill thought to himself that he could walk back home and check his phone messages as he may have gotten a call while he was out waiting. If there was no message he could call his co-workers and ask them if there was something the matter with the car. He also thought that if he moved from this spot and the car did arrive they would see that he wasn't there and drive to work without him. He thought about this so long that he hadn't even noticed that the temperature had started to drop. On the other side of town this had even more meaning. A few hours earlier, probably as Bill was taking a shower, an electrical fire had started at his place of work. No one had shown up yet so the fire went unchecked until it had reached an uncontrollable proportion. The fire department was on their way to stop the fire from spreading as Bill was walking to the corner of the street. Bill could not hear the sirens without his hearing aids that he kept turned off while waiting for the carpool. His co-workers were aware of the situation and had decided to stay away until told otherwise.
No one had thought to inform Bill of what had happened, all assuming that this was something he would not have missed. If not for his interest in the nice weather and his hearing aid being off he would have been much more alert to the situation. The fire fighters cleared out the immediate area quickly and prepped nearby buildings to lessen the damage as the fire raged on. They also severed the supply of electricity to the block and started to fight the fire. Several minutes went by without much hope in sight that the fire would be controlled or stopped. The town had never seen a fire like this before. It was large and powerful, producing more heat than any of them had ever felt before, and consuming everything it touched. As the fire had reached it's peak of intensity, something happened that few would call a moment of grace had they been there but from an outsider it would have been seen as a miracle. The temperature had dropped to around 39 degrees Fahrenheit and rain poured down from the sky. The fire had stopped but this was not all that the sudden change had brought to the town.
Bill never decided on what to do while he waited for his ride to work. He had stood out on the street corner as the weather changed and the rain came. On that very day, within those very hours, the humble and ordinary man... simply died.
Story by: James D. Gray
1/2/2018
The life Bill lived may have seemed ordinary to him but to others there was much more than comfort in his life. On this not so ordinary day something extraordinary happened in Bill's town. We'll get to that soon enough for this event was so life changing that we should first establish Bill's early day. He awoke from his bed at six in the morning as he usually did. He used the loo and washed his hand as he did every morning. Bill then took a shower where he shaved using a strait razor and a mirror he kept below his shower head. The suit he would wear was left out from the previous night, as anyone that knew him would have expected, and he dressed himself neat and clean. At Bill's age he had not driven himself to work in a long time so he walked to the corner of his block and waited for the community carpool. As he waited he thought about how nice the weather was on that day. The temperature was a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky had a thin sheet of altostratus cloud cover. Bill didn't know much about clouds so seeing this did not worry him.
This is where the most unusual thing caught up to Bill. His carpool did not arrive to pick him up. Bill thought to himself that he could walk back home and check his phone messages as he may have gotten a call while he was out waiting. If there was no message he could call his co-workers and ask them if there was something the matter with the car. He also thought that if he moved from this spot and the car did arrive they would see that he wasn't there and drive to work without him. He thought about this so long that he hadn't even noticed that the temperature had started to drop. On the other side of town this had even more meaning. A few hours earlier, probably as Bill was taking a shower, an electrical fire had started at his place of work. No one had shown up yet so the fire went unchecked until it had reached an uncontrollable proportion. The fire department was on their way to stop the fire from spreading as Bill was walking to the corner of the street. Bill could not hear the sirens without his hearing aids that he kept turned off while waiting for the carpool. His co-workers were aware of the situation and had decided to stay away until told otherwise.
No one had thought to inform Bill of what had happened, all assuming that this was something he would not have missed. If not for his interest in the nice weather and his hearing aid being off he would have been much more alert to the situation. The fire fighters cleared out the immediate area quickly and prepped nearby buildings to lessen the damage as the fire raged on. They also severed the supply of electricity to the block and started to fight the fire. Several minutes went by without much hope in sight that the fire would be controlled or stopped. The town had never seen a fire like this before. It was large and powerful, producing more heat than any of them had ever felt before, and consuming everything it touched. As the fire had reached it's peak of intensity, something happened that few would call a moment of grace had they been there but from an outsider it would have been seen as a miracle. The temperature had dropped to around 39 degrees Fahrenheit and rain poured down from the sky. The fire had stopped but this was not all that the sudden change had brought to the town.
Bill never decided on what to do while he waited for his ride to work. He had stood out on the street corner as the weather changed and the rain came. On that very day, within those very hours, the humble and ordinary man... simply died.
Story by: James D. Gray
1/2/2018
Comments
Post a Comment