Too Late (3080 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryLabels: myfiction uberbook
Rating: 1.87 on 46 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Razor <Jeremy_21117.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2004-05-03 09:27:43 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
What is the significance of a single second in time?
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (6 AUGUST 2003 12:04:47 AM)
"You ready to do dis son? You ready? You fuckin' READY?"
"I dunno if this is a good idea, Rashawn."
"Too late, son. Too late."
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AURORA, ILLINOIS (15 APRIL 1976 3:11:23 PM)
Mike O'Connor, a thirty two year old roofing expert working for a man he hates on what was supposed to be his day off picks up a single grain of dust from a shingle with his boot and unwittingly carries it up a ladder and onto the roof of a house he is working on. He deposits the grain of dust, unknowing, onto a beam that frames the attic of the house, but he has other concerns.
Mike had planned on getting together with his estranged wife, Sylvia, that afternoon to try one last time to patch things up. He called her to tell her that he needed this job, and that he had to work today. He assured her that he would meet up with her that evening and take her out to dinner.
Too late. At 5:56:47, Sylvia will be turning the ignition in her beat up Chevy and will be leaving town for good, thorougly fed up with Mike's shit. In the back seat, snuggled up against a worn out blanket and unaware of the significance of the moment, their four year old daughter Susan dreams of horses.
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NEAR ORLÉANS, FRANCE (22 AUGUST 1954 12:15:04 PM)
Saul and Ethel Goldberg say their wedding vows in a field - a field in which ten years to the day has passed since Saul accepted the surrender of an entire unit of German soldiers as the Allied forces swept through eastern France. In attendance is one of those soldiers, Gerhard Straussen. Straussen credits Saul with saving his life and the two will be lifelong friends.
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O'HARE AIRPORT - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 11:56:58 PM)
Frank Perkins, an insurance investigator from New York who, according to his sister, gives no consideration to his personal life, arrives at O'Hare airport six hours later than originally planned thanks to mechanical problems in his airplane. Having already rescheduled his meeting for tommorrow, he intends to spend the night at the Raddison hotel. For Frank, it seems no different than any other night - he spends more time on the road than he does at home.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (5 AUGUST 2003 9:15:18 PM)
Susan O'Connor, a thirty one year old English teacher, is out on a blind date. She finds the man she was set up with to be boorish and exceedingly dull. Her only consolation is the steak she is eating. Finally, she thinks to herself, a place where medium rare is actually medium rare.
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 10:35:22 PM)
Alice Sullivan is sitting in the back seat of a taxicab, swearing profusely into a cellphone. She is running late for her flight to Washington D.C., and wants nothing more out of life than to get to her house, light scented candles, slip into a warm bath, and masturbate until she is ready to sleep.
The driver of the taxi cab, Ali Massouf, knows the best route to O'Hare airport, and is not taking it. He generally earns an extra two dollars per fare by simply going the long way.
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AURORA, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 7:45:13 PM)
Ruth Stein, the daughter of Saul and Ethel Rosenberg, is pulling apart boxes in her attic looking for her mother's wedding dress. Her daughter, Alyssa, has just called to tell Ruth that after
four years, her boyfriend Joshua FINALLY popped the question and she has accepted.
As she looks fondly at the dress and wonders how romantic it must have been to marry in France, a grain of dust that has sat undisturbed on a beam in her attic for twenty seven years is gently dislodged by the commotion and comes to land on her shoulder.
Later, as she gives her husband Jonathan a goodbye hug and wishes him well on his trip, she transfers the grain of dust to his suit.
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O'HARE AIRPORT - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 11:21:03 PM)
A grain of dust floats through the air, having long divested itself from Jonathan Stein's suit. It floats through the air, here in the wake of a passing traveler, there carried along on a draft by the airport's climate control system.
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O'HARE AIRPORT - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 11:23:04 PM )
Jeffrey Lewis, of Shreveport, Louisiana, inhales a grain of dust and pauses to wipe his nose. He is unaware that he is now moving through the airport exactly one second later than he otherwise would have been. His mind is occupied with trying to recollect the name of an actress he recently saw in a movie.
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O'HARE AIRPORT - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 11:26:22 PM)
Alice Sullivan, running through the airport in an attempt to make her flight on time, plows full force into Jeffrey Lewis. Her laptop computer hits the ground and its LCD screen cracks open. By the time she and Jeffrey have extracted themselves from each other, Alice is now running three mintues later than she otherwise would have been. She makes it to the terminal.
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O'HARE AIRPORT - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (5 AUGUST 2003 11:34:01 PM)
Too late. Despite Alice's vehement protests, Delta airlines has no interest in delaying Flight 401 for a single passenger. After talking matters over with the airline, she finds to her dismay that she will have to wait until the next morning to take a flight to Reagan International Airport. No bubble
baths tonight, she will have to settle for a hotel room. She calls her sister, Sarah, and tells her that she will not be coming in tonight.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (5 AUGUST 2003 11:42:00 PM)
Sarah Sullivan, freed from the obligation of picking her sister up at the airport, instead decides to drive to the local convenience store to pick up a pack of cigarettes. Leaving the parking lot, she is having difficulty making a turn onto the road due to the thick traffic. Eventually, a kind
hearted soul, Susan O'Connor, waves her in with a smile.
Susan O'Connor is thinking about her date. She is thinking that perhaps he was not so bad after all. Perhaps, as her psychologist tells her, she holds men up to the impossible standard of an idealized father figure she has not seen since the age of four.
Two lights later, Sarah Sullivan makes it through a yellow light, and Susan O'Connor arrives at the intersection too late. She will have to wait.
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O'HARE AIRPORT - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (6 AUGUST 2003 12:04:17 AM)
Alice Sullivan sits down on an airport shuttle next to Frank Perkins. She is his type - lean, brunette, business suit. Frank strikes up a conversation and eventually asks her if she will join him in the hotel bar for a drink.
What the hell, she thinks, and accepts his invitation. Neither Frank nor Alice is aware that they have exactly four months, eleven days, seventeen hours, six minutes, and thirty eight seconds between now and the moment that Frank will get down on one knee and propose to her.
Again, she will accept. What the hell.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (5 AUGUST 2003 11:53:15 PM)
The light at the intersection Susan O'Connor is waiting at turns green; she puts her foot on the gas and her Nissan Altima moves forward.
At right angles to her line of travel, a nineteen year old boy named Brandon Appleby has accidentally dropped a cigarette in his lap. By the time he looks up, it is too late. He slams on his breaks but still plows into Susan O'Connor's car at a speed of thirty-five miles per hour.
Police are dispatched to the scene. By the time they arrive four minutes later, it will be too late.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (6 AUGUST 2003 12:05:13 AM)
Rashawn Wallace and Leroy Hill enter a 7-11 store with the intention of committing an armed robbery. The nearest police car has already been dispatched to the scene of Susan O'Connor's death, and for that reason it takes the police an additional one minute and thirty seconds to arrive at the scene of the crime.
Too late. Rashawn and Leroy are already running. The police will come close to catching them... from Leroy's perspective, terrifyingly close. He will make it around a corner and hide behind a dumpster with a single second to spare. The police will drive by the dumpster, and speed around the next
corner looking for him.
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CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA (6 AUGUST 2003 6:13:22 AM)
Sylvia O'Connor makes the hardest phone call of her life. She has not spoken to her ex-husband Michael in over twenty five years, and now she has to tell him that he will never see his daughter again.
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BOSTON, MASSACHUSSETS (17 JUNE 2008 3:52:41 PM)
Leroy Hill, scared straight from a life of crime by his close brush with arrest, walks across the stage of Boston College, having graduated with honors. He will, over the course of his life, become famous for his anthropological fieldwork with the remaining hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari desert. Future generations of anthropology undergraduates will find his work to be required reading.
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PERTH, AUSTRALIA (1 JANUARY 2005 12:00:06)
Mary Elizabeth Perkins, the first child of Frank and Alice Perkins, is also the first child born into the world in the year 2005. As for what the world has in store for Mary... who knows?
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The average adult human being lives to the age of seventy-six years. During those seventy six years, approximately 2.4 billion seconds will pass.
How important is any given one? How many divergent eternities exist within each? How many have you spent on this story?
Weren't you counting?
Too late.
User Reviews
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2007-04-06 18:44:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
fantastic.
Submitted by ess2s2 (user info) at 2007-03-03 11:27:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Still one of the greatest pieces of short fiction I've ever read. Superb.
Submitted by Razor (user info) at 2006-11-17 00:31:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by d_prime (user info) at 2006-09-15 21:28:29 (#)
Ranking: -2
yawn. seriously; this isn't spite.
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Sadly, it really is.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2006-09-20 12:38:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No comment necessary.
Submitted by ess2s2 (user info) at 2006-09-19 21:52:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I just wanted to come here and give this post the score it deserves. A plus two if I ever saw one. See you all in December.
Submitted by LongestPants (user info) at 2006-09-16 16:29:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Best ever.
Submitted by d_prime (user info) at 2006-09-15 21:28:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
yawn. seriously; this isn't spite.
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2006-09-15 21:05:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by comicbookguy (user info) at 2004-08-04 08:35:20 (#)
Ranking: 2
This blew my fucking mind
Submitted by DeathJester (user info) at 2006-09-15 19:45:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Brilliant.
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2006-07-22 18:32:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is the best post ever.
You sir, should write a book.
Submitted by Oxymoron (user info) at 2006-03-21 17:15:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent.
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2006-03-21 17:06:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Clearly brilliant.
Submitted by Anansie (user info) at 2006-03-21 17:00:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I remember this.
Submitted by RyuFu (user info) at 2006-03-21 16:51:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yep, this was a good one.
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2006-03-21 16:43:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
yep, it's awesome.
Submitted by a_reader (user info) at 2005-12-30 06:02:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I absolutely loved this.
Submitted by MyOwnLittleWorld (user info) at 2005-03-14 17:36:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
If you liked this post u have to read 'The five people you meet in heaven' by Mitch Albom
Submitted by the_lone_stranger (user info) at 2005-01-31 16:12:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Razor, will you please make sweet sweet man love to me so that I can poop out your offspring?
Submitted by Slighty_Obnoxious (user info) at 2005-01-31 16:04:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great stuff indeed.
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-01-31 15:49:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No comment needed
Submitted by Faith (user info) at 2005-01-24 10:45:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
HOLY FUCK!
That was amazing, I'm actually speechless.
Faith
Submitted by bossk (user info) at 2005-01-06 14:47:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I have to wonder what you guys are doing when you're not writing kick-ass stuff for this site. Probably working at Hardee's.
Submitted by ornerybastard (user info) at 2004-12-15 16:29:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Tense.
What kind of gaylord didn't give this a +2?
Submitted by Shaun_Rocks (user info) at 2004-12-01 01:15:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
It's times like these that make me wish the ratings could be higher then +2
Submitted by Dead_0hi0_Sky (user info) at 2004-12-01 00:54:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
warning: this post is best understood while under the influence of LSD.
Submitted by RouteTwo (user info) at 2004-12-01 00:49:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2.
Submitted by SumYumGuy (user info) at 2004-08-05 04:04:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Two words. Fucking Wow
Submitted by Disektor (user info) at 2004-08-05 03:44:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow..
Submitted by Philst82 (user info) at 2004-08-04 08:53:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow.
Submitted by Method (user info) at 2004-08-04 08:48:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
fuckin dick, this was too good
Submitted by Shay (user info) at 2004-08-04 08:47:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by comicbookguy (user info) at 2004-08-04 08:35:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This blew my fucking mind
Submitted by A.Tyrael (user info) at 2004-07-27 01:25:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So awesome.
Submitted by Charred (user info) at 2004-07-23 10:54:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I concur.
Submitted by spedmonkey (user info) at 2004-07-23 10:45:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'd just like to say that this still kicks insane amounts of ass.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2004-07-23 10:39:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This story is brilliant. Beautiful. Thank you to FilthyAssistant for recommending it. I very nearly cried at work.
Submitted by Sambuca310 (user info) at 2004-07-15 11:52:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Great Story - couldn't stop reading until the end
Submitted by disAbled (user info) at 2004-07-14 12:32:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
definitely worth reading
Submitted by aliasjxc (user info) at 2004-07-14 11:57:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Amazing.
Submitted by Gnome (user info) at 2004-07-14 11:48:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
loved it.
couldn't stop until it was done.
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2004-07-13 20:55:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I think I may have to start worshipping you as a god. This was fucking amazing - the last two lines killed me.
Submitted by polly (user info) at 2004-07-13 20:35:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
this was terrific.
Submitted by spedmonkey (user info) at 2004-07-07 09:51:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I think this might have been my favorite Ubermadness entry.
Submitted by Feather <feather.at.pinehurst.net> at 2004-06-07 11:32:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Well written and kept me reading to the end...
Submitted by ruthless <musicbug23.at.hotmail.com> at 2004-05-27 19:45:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Razor - I liked this enough that I am printing it out to read to my boyfriend over the phone this evening. Fantastic. Gave me chills.
Submitted by Luckystar (user info) at 2004-05-19 19:57:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by chipolatte (user info) at 2004-05-19 19:39:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
HELLA good....fucking NorCal.
Submitted by Fenrir (user info) at 2004-05-18 07:52:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment