Nothing important happened here today…
Just before six, the doorbell rang.
“Hey” he said by way of greeting as he let her in.
“I got your message” she told him, “what are we celebrating?”
She caught a hint of grin on his face as she following him through to the living room.
“Well it occurred to me”, he told her “that there was not an earthquake today. There was not a violent takeover of the government by an evil dictator, a gigantic monster did not rise from the sea and attack the city, neither was there a plague of locusts, an epidemic of an incurable disease, an alien invasion or an asteroid falling from the sky destroying all life on earth”.
She gave him a bemused look. “And you decided we should celebrate these, hmm, these non-events?”
“Oh yeah!” His grin was broad now. “Grab yourself a glass, pour yourself a drink and let’s watch the sun go down because let’s face it, nothing important happened today, life is good!”.
She thought about it. No tragedies. No disasters. No shocking news, at least not in this town and the sun, low in the sky and painting the world in a hundred shades of orange and gold was spectacular. She had to concede, he had a point.
“Nothing important happened here today” she echoed. “Ok, yeah, today life is good. I’ll drink to that”.
She grinned and they filled their glasses and watched the sun go down.
(A note on the text. This story was written as the first hints of the Corona Virus outbreak in China were hitting the news and directly inspired the line that refers to "an epidemic of an incurable disease". At that point few, if any of us, had any idea how serious the situation would become. The central point of the story is that if you have a day, or even a moment when nothing terrible, nothing drastic is happening it should be celebrated. Basically, be thankful for what you've got because as we've seen, it could be a whole lot worse. Hopefully when things do get better I'll be able to revisit this story and write an optimistic sequel to it. Until, stay healthy and keep your distance).
Just before six, the doorbell rang.
“Hey” he said by way of greeting as he let her in.
“I got your message” she told him, “what are we celebrating?”
She caught a hint of grin on his face as she following him through to the living room.
“Well it occurred to me”, he told her “that there was not an earthquake today. There was not a violent takeover of the government by an evil dictator, a gigantic monster did not rise from the sea and attack the city, neither was there a plague of locusts, an epidemic of an incurable disease, an alien invasion or an asteroid falling from the sky destroying all life on earth”.
She gave him a bemused look. “And you decided we should celebrate these, hmm, these non-events?”
“Oh yeah!” His grin was broad now. “Grab yourself a glass, pour yourself a drink and let’s watch the sun go down because let’s face it, nothing important happened today, life is good!”.
She thought about it. No tragedies. No disasters. No shocking news, at least not in this town and the sun, low in the sky and painting the world in a hundred shades of orange and gold was spectacular. She had to concede, he had a point.
“Nothing important happened here today” she echoed. “Ok, yeah, today life is good. I’ll drink to that”.
She grinned and they filled their glasses and watched the sun go down.
(A note on the text. This story was written as the first hints of the Corona Virus outbreak in China were hitting the news and directly inspired the line that refers to "an epidemic of an incurable disease". At that point few, if any of us, had any idea how serious the situation would become. The central point of the story is that if you have a day, or even a moment when nothing terrible, nothing drastic is happening it should be celebrated. Basically, be thankful for what you've got because as we've seen, it could be a whole lot worse. Hopefully when things do get better I'll be able to revisit this story and write an optimistic sequel to it. Until, stay healthy and keep your distance).
Nothing important happened here today. Dominic Fonde 2020. Handblown drinking glasses and sheet glass base drill engraved with original short story and imagery. Image by Yasutaka Akane.
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