20/20

By: Michael Hearing

Narrated by: Jay Wohlert

We all think we want 20/20 vision, don't we? But in the metaphysical and psychological realms we often prefer our accustomed blindness. It's far more comfortable.

Here are two stories that take a close, 20/20 look at these things.

"The Thanatos Solution"

Just a few years down the road, the new health-care plan is firmly entrenched. A new bill, Ethical Assessment of End-of Life Care, has also been enacted into law. And the authorities are ruthlessly implementing it throughout the land - no more medical resources wasted on the defective and dying, equitable distribution of quality medical care, no more lingering half-lives sustained by expensive machinery. The Thanatos Solution has arrived. But there are, as always, unexpected ramifications, especially for those who wanted it.

"Elmore's Accident"

It was that most loathsome of all things: an uncanny, routine-disrupting inconvenience and anomaly.

That's what, as the result of an unforeseen event, unexpectedly invades and upsets Elmore Wiggins' safely ordered life. For Elmore had never reckoned on the paranormal or the preternatural. But now that he's had his accident, he is "seeing" certain events in the near future – including his own (although he doesn't know it yet).

©2013 Michael Hearing (P)2013 Michael Hearing