String Of Fate
You do not see us. We are not of you, nor you of us, and yet some of you may feel our pull. We have tied you to a destiny, and connected each of you to each other. A string from one to another that pulls, and ties, and unravels. We are of three; past, present, and future. We are Fate. Untouched, unbiased, long have we existed to twist your lives. Some fates are less fortunate than others. Some fates only serve the purpose of pushing others towards theirs. Some fates offer the spoils that every person longs for. We decide, we follow, we tug on the string.
Elliot is late for work today. By our design he has not awoken from his alarm. Such a trivial device, as if it could change our work. Nevertheless, he tries and tries again. He is not a foolish young man, and like everyone else he has dreams and goals that he wishes to attain. We know of your desires, your hopes, your wishes. Elliot is only twenty years old, a mere babe in the grand scheme of it all, and yet this world would consider him of age to be called a man. He’s faced trials and tribulations of our doing, yet he has only ever wished to travel, and roam the world around him. It is such a simple desire, and perhaps with just the right tug, he would find his fate suits him.
He works at a simple coffee shop down the street as a way to make ends meet. He was passing by nine months ago and saw them hanging a sign on the door. Not by coincidence but by us, Fate. Nine months later and Elliot is late, jumping out of bed and rushing to throw on his clothes. Of course he will make it out the door by the skin of his teeth, but there will be traffic stopping him in his tracks. Mom’s on the way to drop their children off, business men heading to work, various people there for various reasons, and all by our design. Elliot will be late to work by exactly five minutes and thirty-two seconds. As he fumbles his way through the door of his work, he runs right into Jack, knocking the coffee Jack is holding all over his shirt.
Jack had decided to stop for coffee that morning after he’d had a poor night of sleep and woke up to his coffee pot malfunctioning. He put on his nicest suit, got in the car, and drove to the coffee shop closest to his work downtown. All Jack desired was to impress his father, and show his coworkers that he wasn't just promoted because his father had once owned the company. He wanted respect. He strode into the establishment and got his coffee, and on his way out a young man stumbling into the store, bumped right into him. He spilled his coffee all over the front of his nicest suit. He didn’t bother listening to the boy as he apologized, he was already out the door and on his way to work.
Jack had had a poor morning by our design, and to his dismay when he arrived at work his coworkers had decided to give him a hard time about the coffee stain running down his shirt. He was infuriated, he wanted to show the whole office how he would command respect if they wouldn’t give it to him. Oliver was the unfortunate soul to make his way into Jack’s path. Like we have mentioned, some fates only serve the purpose of pulling the strings of others. Oliver had worked this job for fifteen years under Jack’s father, and now was being fired by Jack himself after an unfortunate morning unfolding.
Oliver’s fate is not only his, but also his wife’s. Kristen has been battling with cancer for years, and they’ve been able to afford her treatments because of Oliver’s job at the firm. When he came home from work early, tears in his eyes, she knew how their world would be turned upside down. Their strings were intertwined so deeply that in every which way their worlds would collide. As we’ve said, we are unbiased, but their union was one that we celebrated. We are not unfeeling, only aware that fate is constantly in motion, and that we must direct the consequences. Now it will be their separation that we mourn. A necessary chord that must be plucked.
Oliver had never wanted for much more than his wife, Kristen. He wanted a love deeper than he could imagine, and when he found her, when we pushed her into his life, he was fulfilled. He would do anything for her, including working the same dreaded job for over fifteen years so that he could support her and the family they had once hoped to start. Perhaps if they had been fated to have children, things could have been different. A different ending unfolding for Oliver and Kristen. Instead, she was diagnosed with a cancer they could only treat for so long. When Oliver lost his job, they lost the stability that was keeping her on the edge. It would be months before she would pass into the ether. Fate takes time. It would be months more before Oliver could no longer stand this life without her. As we’ve said, some fates are less fortunate than others.
Leah had worked as an emergency room nurse for three years. She didn’t need to, she came from one of the richest families in the state, but she has a desire to help people. She felt the fated pull to become a nurse. She could quit her job and live ten different lives of luxury. Instead, she is there when a man is brought into trauma after having leapt off a nearby overpass. Amazingly he was still in and out of consciousness, his eyes fluttering open and then shut again as she called out his name, Oliver. He only mutters his wife’s name over and over again as the trauma surgeons work to figure out his current state. Leah could have left, but she felt our pull to stay with him, holding his hand. She would hear words tossed around about him, how he likely wouldn’t make it. In the rush of adrenaline before he left this world, he grabbed Leah’s arm, and said how he couldn’t live without her. He’d never done anything more than want her, he had her, and then she was gone.
These words impacted Leah to her core. His eyes were filled with sorrow. She wondered about his wife, the life he had lived and the life he hadn't lived. She remembered him and his wife from not long ago, when she had come into the emergency room with an upper respiratory infection. She’d been in and out of the hospital, choosing to leave each time because she didn’t want to live the last of her life in a hospital room. But that night, it would be her last. Her fate was chosen, and Leah’s fate sent reeling on a different path when she saw the husband come in. Leah didn’t leave the hospital until early the next morning, when Oliver’s life had too come to an end.
Leah was a spectacular young woman, she had only ever wanted to help people. Seeing these two people torn apart by something out of their control was a blow to her heart. She wanted to do something, but didn’t know where to start. That morning, she left the hospital and just began walking down the street. In her mind she was aimless, but we knew where she would go. Her path already chosen and her strings already being tugged. She wanders until she feels she can walk no further, and finds herself walking into a coffee shop. She sits down at a table, when a young man with kind eyes approaches her. He smiles and asks if he can get her anything.
Leah does not know how this young man has been burdened. How he lost his parents at a young age, how he fought his way through the foster system, how he works so hard at this small coffee shop to pay his bills and occasionally make somebody smile. She asks him for a small black coffee, and upon his return she asks him what his dream is, what he wants more than anything in the world. He tells her he wants to travel, he wants to wander, and bring joy to everyone he meets. She smiles at his name tag, the same name as her brother.
Elliot watches as the woman leaves, and is left in tears when he reads the note she left and a check with enough money to travel the world twice. The note says that life is too short. Elliots fate was decided. All their lives intertwined. Fate is but a string.