"You should wait for the light to change," the old man said.
Waiting at the corner of Madison Park Avenue South and Seventeenth Street, Don Forrester responded with a bemused smile. Dressed in a sharply tailored suit and holding a shiny leather briefcase in his hand, he glanced at the short white-haired man to his left.
"You should wait for the light to change," the old man said without looking at Don. He had a voice like the Emperor from "Star Wars," and he looked like Gollum from "Lord Of The Rings."
As he glanced back and forth, Don chuckled.
"I appreciate the advice, old-timer. But there are no cars coming, and I'm very busy."
Don Forrester was indeed a very busy man. Besides writing contracts for the Jenkins Company, Don supervised the accounting room where men and women added up figures and typed up reports.
"You should not call me 'old-timer,'" the old man said in the same flat tone he employed earlier. There was still no eye contact. "Talking like that might violate the respect-and-decorum rules at your company."
"That's why I talk like that outside work," Don mumbled. He prepared to cross the street. The old man thrust out a pale thin arm, bringing Don to an abrupt halt.
"Wait for the light. Bad things can happen if you do not wait, if you go at the wrong time. Good things can happen if you will only wait."
Employing a heavy impatient sigh, Don circled around the extended arm then hurried across the street. As he did, he narrowly avoided a car that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Once he arrived safely on the other side of the street, Don dodged a person who almost bumped into him. There was then another near-collision with a different person and another after that. In fact, as he continued along, he constantly found himself almost bumping into someone. This happened with alarming frequency.
It was the same when he arrived at his office building; in the halls, he found himself almost bumping into every person he encountered. He managed to dodge them all but when he arrived for his meeting, he found the door locked. He was only a few seconds late but Old Man Jenkins locked out anyone who was even a little late.
A dejected Don retreated to the break room and plopped down in a chair. When it almost slid out from under him, he quickly stood up. When he tried again to sit, the chair slipped even further away and more quickly. Don grabbed on to the chair and held it tightly with both hands as he slowly and carefully sat down.
Once Don felt confident he was firmly seated, he sat there looking puzzled and perplexed. That was when someone spoke.
"I told you to wait for the light."
When Don suddenly turned, the chair moved under him but he grabbed on to the back of it to keep from falling. Once he was turned around and steadily in place, he saw the one who spoke. It was the old man.
"Hey!" Don shouted. When he quickly stood up, he almost fell but he managed to steady himself. Once he did, he continued shouting. "Are you following me? How did you get in here?"
The old man didn't even look at him. "You are now out of sync with the universe. That is why you are having all these troubles. That is why you are almost bumping into everyone. That is why you missed your meeting."
Don made a face. "How'd you know about that?"
"I know a great many things, Mr. Forrester," the old man said in a stoic tone.
"How'd you know my name?" Don shrieked.
"Don't be alarmed. I am here to help you. And I will tell you this: To get back in sync with the universe, you will need to retrace your steps."
"I'm calling security!"
When the security guard arrived, the old-timer was gone. The two conducted a thorough search of the area but the old man was not to be found. Once the guard left, the old man, no surprise, reappeared.
Looking directly at Don with blank empty gray eyes, he spoke in that flat low voice.
"You may call security again but I will simply disappear again." His small pale hands were casually folded in front of him but he rocked gently in the swivel chair even as he wore that blank bored look.
Don sighed as he threw his hands up.
"I guess there's no point in that."
"I'm glad we have that settled," the old man said. "Now, retrace your steps. Just know that as you do, you will face a lot of resistance and opposition."
"Oh, really? And how exactly do you know so much about this?"
"I am one of the Caretakers Of The Universe. I clean up messes like this. And this is a bit of a mess."
"I'm not sure I believe in any of this nonsense."
"Then go on with your day. The more mishaps you face, the more you will know you are out of sync. Once you retrace your steps, I will make it so you go back in time and reverse everything. You may start over, Mr. Forrester. A new beginning."
When Don went to the break room, he took his lunch out of the refrigerator. When he turned around, he found a tall skinny coworker blocking his way. With the coworker right in front of him, Don dropped his food. The lid popped off the plastic container, and the egg salad splattered all over the floor. The mute coworker simply advanced to the refrigerator.
Once Don cleaned up his mess, he tried to pour coffee but several times he spilled it and burned himself. With a heavy sigh, he quickly moved to the nearest exit and began the trek back to the intersection, the place where all this "out-of-sync" business began.
As Don walked, he faced a wall of people moving toward him. He also faced fierce winds that he could barely move against. It was like he was Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd in one of those funny old silent movies where the poor guy was out walking in a hurricane.
Despite the fierce winds and the wall of people, Don kept moving. As he did, he heard a loud roar, and it created a pounding in his head. Pain spread to all of his body. As he struggled to move, his pain increased. But he kept moving, slowly and with great effort. Sometimes he found himself standing still but he took that one more step. It was painstakingly slow but he kept taking each step, step by painful step.
Finally, he was there, back at the intersection. The people around him briefly moved backwards then they moved forward. Almost like a rewind was taking place.
Don waited for the light. As he did, a sharply-dressed woman moved next to him. For a moment she stopped but then she started to move forward.
"Wait!" Don shouted, and he even put his arm out in front of her. When she stopped and gave him a curious look, Don laughed nervously. "Sorry. I didn't mean to be so….It's just that bad things can happen if you go too soon. Good things happen to those who wait."
The woman smiled. "Let's see if that's true." When the light changed, she gave him another smile. "We can go now."
They walked the crosswalk together, giving each other the occasional smile, even with people and cars around them.
Once they were safely across, Don turned to her.
"I'm Don."
"Sherry," she said.
"Where you headed?"
"It's my first day at the Jenkins Company."
His face lit up. "No kidding! I was just on my way there myself."
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Or did you just now decide to go that way?"
He laughed. "No, I actually work there."
"How fortuitous."
He loved that she knew the word "fortuitous" and that she said it in such a playful way.
"Lead the way," she said with a great sweep of her collared hand. She was like Susan Howard from "Petrocelli" or "Dallas." Don loved Susan Howard, even more than Susan Haywood, Rita Hayworth or any of the glamorous movie stars from Old Hollywood.
"Better, let's walk side by side." Don adopted a slight British accent, which just made her smile even more.
"I like the way you think," she said in a charming Susan Howard voice and way.
As they walked side by side, without almost bumping into anyone, Don turned to her with his most pleasant grin.
"I think it's going to be a very good day now."
"I think so, too." Now her smile was an almost blinding million-watt Farrah Fawcett smile and her hair, Don noticed, was at least as wavy as that of Farrah.
As you picture the two walking away, imagine the voice of Rod Serling.
"Mr. Don Forrester and Miss Sherry Lancaster have just learned a very important lesson: Good things happen to those who wait. As we have seen, that is a saying that has proven to be true. At least in this case. Because we've just seen it played out in 'The Twilight Zone.'"