Heart Attack
A car travelling down a residential street at 30 kph toward a main street.
A red-haired woman with a red-haired girl in a stroller shopping at a fruit and vegetable store.
A tall slick man strolling down the main street stopping occasionally to look in store windows.
A blond woman walking her dog.
A husband and wife arguing over their morning coffee.
A store clerk re-arranging items in the display window.
A group of rambunctious schoolchildren on their way to the subway for a field trip.
A policeman on a bicycle watching the children.
The driver of the car has a heart attack.
The woman in the fruit and vegetable store hangs her purchases on the handles of the stroller.
The window-shopping man watches the store clerk hang up a map.
The dog sees a squirrel come down out of a tree.
The wife slams her coffee cup down and heads for the front door.
The husband takes his phone out of his pocket.
The teacher tells the schoolchildren to get out of the way of the other people on the street.
The heart attack victim’s foot comes off the brake and the car continues to cruise toward the intersection.
The window-shopping man makes eye contact with the clerk and they smile at each other.
The dog lunges at the squirrel who jumps away into the street.
The wife gets into her car, slams the door, and starts the engine.
The husband phones the man who’s been having an affair with his wife.
The children reach the intersection, stop, and look at the Walk/Don’t Walk signal.
The woman with the stroller reaches the intersection.
The squirrel stops in the middle of the street.
The car passes over the squirrel and the squirrel continues its crossing of the street.
The window-shopping man turns and sees a car moving too quickly toward him, the clerk, and the display window.
Two of the children step into the intersection without looking at the signal.
The policeman yells at the children who don’t pay attention to him.
The woman with the stroller remembers she left her purse on the store counter, and turns back from the crosswalk.
The wife slams her car into reverse, backs into the street without looking, and hits a car which has been travelling down the street and now crashes into a tree.
The woman with the dog and the window-shopping man call 911 and rush over to the accident.
The policeman cycles down the street.
The wife gets out of her car, looks at the heart attack victim, and thinks that she’s killed him.
The signal changes to Walk and the schoolchildren continue on to the subway, where they barely miss a train that has an accident down the line, injuring five people.
The dog jumps at the running window-shopping man and knocks him over.
The woman with the child in the stroller comes down the street and sees her husband’s car crashed into a tree.
The woman with the dog looks into the crumpled car and sees the dead body of her brother.
The window-shopping man turns away from the scene when he recognizes a woman with whom he had once had an affair.
The heart attack victim’s phone on the car seat continues to ring.
The woman with the dog briefly hugs her sister-in-law.
The policeman takes notes and waits for the ambulance to arrive.
The window-shopping man and the woman with the dog laugh about his getting knocked over and, after the ambulance leaves, go for a coffee.
The wife is charged with dangerous driving causing death.
The husband moves to another city.
The woman with the child in the stroller has another red-haired child five months later, and then marries the bicycle cop.
The woman with the dog and the window-shopping man divorce three years later.
The tree is slightly damaged but lives another ninety years.
The wife is acquitted due to the medical report on the driver but never drives again.
William Kitcher
Bill’s stories have been published, produced, and/or broadcast in Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czechia, England, Germany, Guernsey, Holland, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, the U.S., and Wales. His stories have appeared in Fiery Scribe Review, Ariel Chart, New Contrast, The Prague Review, Helix Literary Magazine, Granfalloon, Eunoia Review, Defenestration, Pigeon Review, Yellow Mama, and many other journals. His novel, Farewell And Goodbye, My Maltese Sleep, was published by Close To The Bone Publishing in October 2023.
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Comments
I so love the sequencing in this story! The way each event is layered and interconnected builds fantastic momentum and anticipation for me. We're reminded small actions are crucial. Brilliantly done and fun, Bill.
Thank you, Richard. I thought it might be fun to write a story in a completely different way, excluding all unnecessary exposition.
All of these people coming together in woven ways gives me a real stricken sense of how we are connected, and frequently in ways we may not even realize. Thanks, William.