“The world is changing.” I say. “I thought I knew what was
happening, but some things are happening differently than – “
She interrupts me. “You knew that this was happening to me?
You knew about the lottery?”
“Not quite,” I say. “I know that you have some… abilities.
The geek references suggested that this was you. So it just - ”
She looks at me, her eyebrows creasing into a frown. “Abilities?
What are you talking about, abilities?”
She had never let me actually make a point without
interrupting me when we were going out either. “ You can…. “ Actually, I could
do with her interrupting me here, as I’m not quite sure how to put this. “This
isn’t quite how I was expecting this conversation to go. I was expecting you to
explain it to me.”
“The point. Get to it.”
“You can make things happen. You can make things come true.”
“No,” she said. “I can tell something is going to happen. Well,
I can’t, but I… “
“That’s not how it works,” I say, and I reach out and take
her hand. “It’s you. You’re making it happen. You can make it happen.”
She sits down, putting her elbows on the table and her hands
clasped in front of her. “That’s ridiculous.”
Her knuckles are whitening. “I know it is, but that doesn’t
mean it isn’t happening.”
“I don’t believe in predeterminism. “
“You write horoscopes.”
“That’s why I don’t believe in it. I make them up and sell
them to magazines for idiots.”
“But other people believe in you.” I point out. “That’s part
of it. That’s part of how it’s happening.”
“Nobody believes what I write.” She says.
“People… every day, people read your horoscopes and some of
them believe them. Some of them take your words and they live their life by
them.”
“They’re idiots.” She says. “Why would someone put any stock
in them?”
Because… because for some of them, just due to coincidence,
your words came true. Someone made a decision based on your writing and they
then started believing in you.”
“And that led to me actually being able to see the future?”
She asks.
“No. It led to you being able to create it.”
She stands up and walks to look out of the window. “That can’t
be true. What if I… what if I said someone died?”
“Then they could.”
“I suppose I could do humanity a favour and predict that
Margaret Thatcher dies tonig -I’m joking. I’m joking, okay?” she amends herself in response to me looking at her.
I laugh. “I know. But yes, you could do that and it might
happen.”
“Why ‘might’?” Why not “would”?”
“You want to kill people?”
“No. Well, no more than anyone else,” she says. “No. No, It’s
Just – It’s a lot to take in. That’s…some serious power.”
“It’s why I’m talking to you about it.” I say. “Because you
need to know, so you don’t do anything dangerous.”
“I don’t want it”, she says. “How do I get rid of it? This is
too much power for me to deal with.”
“You don’t get a choice,” I tell her. “I mean, you can just
not write it, but…you can help people with this.”
“…” She tries to think of something to say, but for the
first time in a long time, I see her at a loss for words. Eventually, she just
mutters. “This is ridiculous.”
“I know,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
“How do you know about all of this?”
I think about how to phrase the answer. “I’ve seen it
before.”
“You saw the future?”
“Yes.”
“You know how that sounds, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I mean, it sounds crazy.”
“You’re saying that, and you just predicted the lottery
results and the number of people who won.”
She nods, fear slipping back into her eyes. “Yeah…”
“So I can tell the future. You can tell it what to do.”
She stands up and makes her way to the door, opening it for
me. “I want you to go now. I need to take this all in. Go back to skinny bitch.”
I follow her. “If you need to talk about this at any point,
just call me. Talk to me online. Whatever works for you.”
She nods. “This is all going to get bad, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“How bad?”
“Bad.”
“Take care, Darren.” She says, softly closing the door. “I’ll
talk to you soon.”
I am making my way back through London when I receive a
phone call.
It’s Nina.
“Hello, you.” I answer.
Her voice is cold and angry. “Where are you?”
“What?”
“You told me you were in work. I popped in to see if you
wanted to join me for lunch. I was trying to be nice. And they told me you’ve
not been in for days.”
I don’t know what to say. “Oh.” I feel pathetic and stupid.
“Darren, I want you to stop lying to me and tell me what’s
going on.”
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