A World Without String Is Chaos 9 Chapter 9: Going With The Flow

Fred's boss was named Bill. He was the owner of the deli. Fred had said hi and bye to him whenever he got a sandwich, and Bill would always greet him with a smile.

Fred's job was to keep the inventory in stock, work as a cas.h.i.+er, and make sandwiches for the customers once in awhile. The guy who usually made the sandwiches was named Charles. He made very good sandwiches, and Fred realized it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. Getting the right amount of meat, cheese, and especially the mayonnaise was a tricky thing. Charles taught him how to make a good sandwich, and it took Fred awhile to make a decent sandwich. He would rather work the cash register, and let Charles do his thing.

There was another worker named Susan. She was a plain looking girl, and she was very gabby. Fred would have to listen to her talk about the weather, her favorite bands, and her Friday night escapades with various boys. Fred found it hard to remain polite and respond with "Oh's" and "I see's", but he quickly realized that Susan didn't care if he responded or not. So, he would just look mildly attentive as she talked at him. He didn't mind. Much.

Fred told his parents about the new job. His father told him it was a step in the right direction, but his mother seemed disappointed that her son was working at a deli. Fred told them he was making minimum wage, and that he would pitch in for the rent now. His mother looked pleased about that. Fred felt proud. He was contributing to his family, albeit just a bit. Fred just gave his first paycheck to his father, but his father told him to keep it, save it in the bank. Fred felt his little gift was being rejected, but he felt touched that his dad seemed genuinely proud of him.

All the while, Fred would look into the fates of the many customers that came to the deli. Most of them were ordinary, but for some reason, he saw a lot of divorces coming up in their lives. Like, a lot. He saw the couples fight over child support, alimony, the car, and custody over the children. He saw a fair number of relatively amicable separations, where each person just went their own way. At first, Fred cut the fates of these future divorcees, the ones where the divorce was especially contentious. But, when he saw them come back, he saw how now the couples were stuck in a failed marriage, either fighting all the time, or ignoring each other completely. Also, it was just too common of an occurrence, so Fred just stopped messing with them.

A lot of kids would come to the deli to buy candy after school. Fred found the fates of the kids the most interesting. He would see the most bratty of middle school students grow up to become a lawyer. Made sense. Quite a few of them would drop out of high school, and Fred cut those futures, regardless of how the kids might feel about that. It was odd to see the kids being adults, like he was skipping a few decades.

After awhile, Fred didn't bother looking into the fates of the customers. They lived ordinary lives; they were ordinary people. He "changed the setting" of his fate sight to look out for high school dropouts or something like murder or a car accident, but that was about it.

Fred saw that such tragic events were few in number, fewer than the happy moments. A communion here, graduations, marriages, divorces, funerals. First kisses, last goodbyes. Looking at all these little, inconsequential fates began to change Fred to be a little more appreciative of the simple life he was living.

Fred wondered whether his power even made a dent in fate. Life seemed to flow, regardless of whether or not he cut the futures. He didn't mind. He wasn't looking to change the world or anything like that. But he did worry, worry that he was getting too used to the life he's living now. Part of him did want to rock the boat. See something different. A little novelty couldn't hurt, right?

Then, Fred remembered the knife, and what it told him in his dream.

"Remember Fred. There will be consequences."