He spoke of tremendous mysteries buried in numbers.
“Right under your nose,” he would say.
He’d spend an hour on the symbolism etched into the dollar, fill a notepad with calculations of its hidden meanings.
He counted everything.
Once I found him in the yard counting the needles on a pine tree, convinced the numbers would reveal a code.
Once I found him dissecting a robin, studying the entrails with a magnifying glass.
He said it held the secret.
“The secret of what?” I asked him.
He pointed at the world.
“All this.”
He tapped his chest.
“And in here.”
Beautiful writing and a great idea for a story. But as an aside – I’m not sure if your guy’s seen The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy…because I can tell him, the answer’s 42 ;-)
I think he was too busy counting the words in the book to read them. ;-)
Dear J Hardy,
He reminds me of someone I know who once showed me the significance of the numbers on his odometer. Spooky. Well written piece.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Fantastic writing, but I worry what will become of him. Will he stop at robins?
This is a beautiful piece The flow, the rhythm. Well done.
Accepting life’s mysteries is never easy, but it seems to be particularly difficult for this person. I hope he learns to accept this before he hurts himself and others. Beautiful story.
OCD or extraordinary wisdom? Are we too blinkered to tell?
I have a friend with generalized anxiety disorder who lectured me for 20 minutes on the evils of the number four and how it can be found all along the block where he lives–all this on the first day I met him. Your story brings Paul to mind. I like the tender touch of your tale–the way you write it without passing judgment on the behavior. Nice work.
All my best,
Marie Gail
This could be the beginning of something big. I can see a person like this will go places… dark or bright? that’s for you to tell.
100 words! 100 words exactly in your piece. 100 words is exactly what Rochelle wanted us to write. Your 100 hundred words perfectly fit what she said. That’s like getting a 100 percent. 100 hundred congratulations then to you. 100 kudos. 100 bottles of beer on the wall…
from,
Randy who is less than 100% (much less) ;-)
I can’t imagine having a date with him!
Rosey Pinkerton’s blog
Seems to me that this person is highly antalytical and has OCD. Very interesting story!
Some people see what is hidden behind what others see. Love it!
An interesting story, well done. I can’t go up or down stairs without counting them, I wonder if I’d get on well with your character.
Great story! If that’s my little robin he’s dissecting his tiny broken heart indeed might hold the key to the universe, if of course there is one.
I loved the lyrical tone of this story. Nicely done.
That dollar bill is such a mystery and it’s getting more colorful all the time. :) Well done! Nice writing.
I wonder how he would behave on a date :/ Interesting take on the prompt!
Wonderful character building. I’m in awe.