Prologue
The Day the Unthinkable Happened
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 Think back for a moment to the days when you were a little child, playing in the sandbox. You probably dreamed of becoming a nurse or a firefighter. But did you ever dream of becoming one of these faceless workers who every morning crowd into nondescript concrete towers until the walls must be close to bursting and every late afternoon gush out as if the cap were removed from a water bladder? No? Neither did those people.
Neither did I. Yet I became one of them. That was my life at the time. Until the unthinkable happened.
I clearly recall one of our early conversations.
My room is dark except for the glow of the computer screen. She’s just shown me another video of my past failures. I’m aggravated because I’m not sure what I’m dealing with here.
“Why are you even spending time with me? I don’t understand why you are doing this.”
“Because your fate is preordained. You will join with me.”
“Join with you? What is that supposed to mean?”
“We will become one.”
“I don’t want to become one with anybody else, except maybe a cute girl.”
“You don’t have a choice in this. It has already been preordained for you.”
What I am looking at on the screen is not a person but a moving graphic reminiscent of a multicolored black hole in outer space.
“You speak in riddles.”
“You’ll understand in time. Our session for today is up. We will continue tomorrow. Good night.”
The voice stops abruptly. She cuts these conversations off whenever she wants.
“Wait, we just started a few minutes ago. Don’t go yet! What kind of counselor are you?”
There is no response, only silence.
The unthinkable encounter set in motion a chain of events that ends with the inevitable. This is my story. One day, something similar will happen to you.
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