This represents my first idea for a scene between Patricio and Randy, and I considered using it as the basis for a "one shot". The concept is real, and I have encountered it in several SF/ fantasy stories.

Patricio was unusually reserved as they watched the Bengals game. Randall eyed the crooked remotes. "What, no juju?" he said.

"Fuck the juju," said Patricio. "Maybe God just wants to watch the fuckin game."

Randall nodded. After a while, the Eagles scored, drawing into the lead by four points. "The odds on this game are close," he said. "Everybody still calls Cincy the Bungles, but this season they've fielded their best team in a decade. And after the loss to the Giants last week, the Birds need this game if they're going to stay in the running for the playoffs."

"We'll see," said Patricio.

At the half, both teams had scored again, but the Bungles had earned an extra point to narrow the lead to three. "You know, Patricio, there's something I've been thinking about with the signs... Have you ever heard of the term `synchronicity'?"

"Nope," Patricio said. "Sounds like engineering crap."

"Actually, it's a concept of metaphysics, proposed by the psychiatrist Carl Jung," Randy said. "He called it `an acausal theory of relationships'. The general observation is that sometimes, two things happen that are so similar and close together that it seems like they should be related, even if there's no apparent way that they could be. If you go by cause and effect, then you have to look for some hidden connection, like a third event that could effect them both, or discount it as coincidence. Jung figured, maybe there was a third possibility. Maybe there's a force or principle in the universe that guides seperate events to similar outcomes at about the same time. That's what he called synchronicity.

"Take that Cardinals game. At the end of the day, the reason the Birds choked- I mean the regular, cause and effect reason- was that they just got cocky. They figured, it was the fuckin Cards, what could go wrong. And you let the juju go because you were cocky, too. That's not cause and effect, and it's not coincidence, it's synchronicity. And maybe it happened with Junior, too. He went into a marriage without really being prepared for what it would take to make it work, and he tried to keep it going by coasting along instead of making the effort. He was just plain fuckin cocky, just like you and the fuckin Birds were about the Cards. Synchronicity."

Patricio nodded, pursing his lips in thought. After a while, he straightened the remotes. "Patricio," Randy said, "do we need to talk about next Sunday? Because I've been hearing some talk. There's talk Junior and that girl might be breaking up. There's even talk Junior's wife might be coming back in the picture. Then there's some crazy talk that the police are looking at the girl for something. It seems to me, maybe it's better if they do back out."

"Don't worry 'bout none o' that," Pat said, "everything's going to be fine." He thought to himself, synchronicity.

The Eagles won by 14 points.