20/20

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 (approximately 6,500 words) 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).

Despite all his efforts to live a routine, planned, and safely dull life, carefully shielded from anything out of the ordinary, Elmore now has to face the fact that there's a lot more to this life than he ever imagined. It's an irreversible lesson he learns abruptly, violently, and against his will.