Chapter 2
Not the end
-Five months later, 9:00 a.m., November 28, Thanksgiving day, funeral-
"And so, as these 47 souls rise to heaven, we honor them and wish them good will in the afterlife. Their passage to the next world was sudden and unexpected, and they will be missed. But as we honor death, we must also honor life, for thanks to Martin Lopez and Tony Ortega, eleven souls were saved, and we thank you for that."
Martin looked up. Ever since the accident, people had been looking at him warily, like he was some sort of monster, but here the pastor, after an hour long speech in the pouring rain about the departed, had mentioned him as if he was a hero.
But I'm no hero, he thought. I'm just a guy who was in the right place at the right time. And even if I was a hero, what's the point if you can't even save the ones you love?
"So we bless you, Martin and Tony, and we bless the souls that are now in heaven. Amen."
As he finished his speech, Martin noticed that all of the people he had saved were there.
It makes sense. They all must have lost someone close to them.
As he began to leave, he saw Joseph approach him. "Hey! Martin, right?"
"Yeah, that's me, Mr. Darin. Listen, I'm sorry about your wife."
"Sorry? You have no reason to be. I'm the one who should be sorry. If I had just gone along with you, if I hadn't argued with you, then maybe my wife wouldn't have-" he broke down and sobbed before he could finish.
"Hey, it's not your fault she died," Martin protested.
"How do you know that?" Joseph said miserably.
Martin frowned.
"Oh, I guess you do know that," he said. "But, still, it doesn't make me feel any better."
"Well, I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better."
"Don't worry about me, you've done enough already." With that, Joseph walked away.
Just when Martin started to leave again, however, he felt a hand clasp onto each of his shoulders.
"Hey! There he is! Mr. Psychedelic!" Reggie said.
Martin sighed. For every person that had looked at him funny, at least two people had asked him about his psychic powers, or asked him to read their minds, or tell them the lottery numbers.
As he turned away, however, Carl grabbed him again. "Seriously, though, we just wanted to thank you for what you did."
"Well, you're welcome," Martin said, surprised at his class.
However, Carl wasn't done. "If you ever need some killer weed, let me know. I'll hook you up, no charge!"
"Uh…thanks," Martin said uncertainly, walking away. When he looked forward, he saw Arianna standing there.
"Oh, hey, it's you! Listen, thanks for…you know. Look, let me make it up to you. Do you have a girlfriend?" she asked.
Martin winced. "I did," he said sadly.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I had no idea!" she said.
"It's nothing," Martin said, walking away.
By the time he made it out of the funeral, he was feeling considerably better.
It just feels so much better to know that you've saved actual human lives, Martin decided. To know that the people you saved have families and friends of their own, and that they won't lose all of that.
As it turned out, he was dead wrong.
-1:00 p.m., same day, Callaghan's Circus-
Joseph stood behind a curtain, eating nachos. He peeked out from behind the curtain and saw the huge crowd. He pulled his head back in. "I'm not sure about this, boss."
His boss, Jeff Callaghan, said, "Don't chicken out on me, now. This is the first time we've performed in a stone building instead of a tent, and we can't lose our only tightrope walker!"
What Jeff didn't know was that they would have been better off in a tent. You see, tents are built to funnel rain off of their tops, whereas this building, made of stone, had no such feature, and, in fact, on this building, one stone block with crumbling mortar had sagged down four inches and was now collecting a puddle of rainwater.
"Okay, I'll do it," Joseph said. He put his nachos on a nearby table, put on his helmet, picked up his pole, and started to climb the ladder up to the tightrope.
What Joseph didn't know was that as he picked up his pole, he brushed his nachos into confetti cannon #1.
NOTE: A confetti cannon works similarly to a common air cannon. The confetti is loaded into the cannon, sometimes forced in by a rod, then is fired by high-pressured air out of the barrel and into the air.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please divert your attention high above the center ring!" the ringmaster announced into his microphone. "Performing the tightrope walk is none other than Darin the Daring!"
The moment he said this, Joseph began his walk and Jeff pressed the button to fire confetti cannon #1; however, the nachos were jamming the cannon. "What is the matter with confetti cannon #1?"
"Maybe someone forgot to load it?" Vicki, Jeff's VP, suggested.
"Then load it!" Jeff hollered.
"Fine," Vicki sighed. As Joseph walked across the tightrope, Vicki grabbed a handful of confetti, shoved it into the cannon, and stuffed it in with the boom. This, at least, freed the confetti to be shot out; however, with twice as much confetti and nacho crumbs, not to mention high pressure from the first attempted blast, this would be a much more powerful blast.
As Joseph reached the halfway point on the tightrope, Vicki said, "Confetti cannon #1 loaded, your majesty."
"All right, let's do this," Jeff said, and pressed the button to fire confetti cannon #1 again.
What Jeff knew but forgot was that confetti cannon #1 was set to fire first was that it shot right into the middle of the tightrope's path.
KABOOM! The huge ball of confetti and nachos shot almost straight up, flying inches in front of Joseph's face. He slipped and fell, but landed with his crotch on the tightrope, causing a dazzling spray of pain.
"OOH! I hope that guy has all the kids he wants, because he's not having any more!" the ringmaster exclaimed.
What he didn't see was that as the mass of confetti shot past Joseph, it hit the already weakened and overburdened stone block on the ceiling.
What everybody did see was that the stone block dislodged itself from the ceiling and landed on Joseph's helmeted head, causing the tightrope wire to be forced two feet into his body, killing him.
One down.