None of this Ever Really Happened Read Free Page A

are we going to read about next, Pete?" asked
someone.
    "Thailand. I'm going to Thailand over Christmas." I told
them I wanted to update the whole Europe-on-$5-a-day
idea of the sixties. Thailand on $50 a day and then a bunch
of other places in Asia and Latin America. "Gee, Pete," said
Steve, "how did you ever think of that?"
    "I don't suppose you got a free airfare out of this, did
you?" asked someone else.
    "Are you going, Lydia?" someone asked.
    She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm waiting for
his series on extravagant vacations in ridiculously opulent
places. This one's going to be overnight trains and bad noodle
houses and youth hostels with no air conditioning."
    By now we'd all had a couple of drinks. There was the
briefest lull in the conversation, and I pulled the trigger. "I
gotta tell you guys about this accident I saw." For the most
part they listened attentively.
    Afterwards Steve asked, "Did you have a cell phone?"
    "No. I wish I did."
    "So what do you think you could have done?" asked
Carolyn.
    "He thinks he could have gotten out, opened her door,
turned her car off, and taken the keys," said Lydia. "That's
what he thinks."
    "Okay, even if you could have done all of that, what next?"
asked Carolyn.
    "What next? I'm not sure," I said.
    She went on, "I mean, you're blocking traffic, both lanes.
Are you going to drive her car? What about your car?"
    "What if she jumps out and gets run over?" asked
Wendy.
    "You could be held responsible," said Officer Lotts. "You
could have been arrested yourself."
    "For what?"
    "What if she started screaming?" asked someone.
    "Harassment," said Steve. "Assault. Who knows? Maybe
even kidnapping."
    "But she was out of control! I mean, look what happened
for crying out loud."
    "Yes, but it wouldn't have happened if you'd stopped her."
Wendy said that my only justification for interfering with
the drunk girl was that it did happen, and if I'd interfered,
it wouldn't have. No accident, no justification. She said I did
the right thing, which was nothing.
    "How could it be the right thing if I had it within my
power to save someone's life, and I didn't do it?" I asked.
"But at what risk?" asked Steve. "Your own life, maybe?
Our rule is that you act only to help someone else when you
are sure that you are safe. Very first priority always is your
own safety."
    "How about the fireman who goes into a burning building
to rescue someone?"
    "He doesn't. He really doesn't. Not unless he's damn sure
and his supervisor's damn sure, too, that he can go in and
get back safely. A supervisor would never let his people go
in there under any other circumstance. It's rule number one.
Secure yourself first. Now if the roof caves in or the building
collapses, that's a different story, but you don't know that it's
going to happen."
    "See, I think that's Pete's problem," said Carolyn. "He
knew what was going to happen. You know what I mean?
He could see it happen before it happened, and then it happened."
(Of course I now know that even if for a moment I
could see what was going to happen to Lisa Kim, I had no
idea what had already happened to her and would not for a
long time.)
    "It's almost like a tree falling in the woods," said Wendy.
    "Or like Pandora's box." Carolyn said that knowledge of
the future was the one thing that didn't get out of Pandora's
box, and for a moment I had it and was therefore very briefly
Godlike. She also said that since I'm Pete Ferry and not God,
I wanted to do something human, like fix things.
    "I thought it was hope that didn't get out," said someone.
    "Okay," I said, "I've got a legal question."
    "No legal questions!" Wendy threw up her hands. "We're
off duty. No free legal advice. Besides, I'm quitting. I'm done
with the law."
    We all moaned. We'd heard this many times.
    "I'm done making rich people richer. I'm sick of this corporate
shit. I'm going to do something that matters with my
life." Wendy was off to the races about how she was going to
collect her bonus and