The sun barely rises behind the apartments around the park, its rays painting the tops of trees a hue of orange. The coarse gravel crackles under David’s running shoes, and although covered by his thick green sweater, he feels a soft cold breeze blow on his hands and exposed neck.
David scans his immediate surrounding and finds a young woman walking her brown lab, a man selling hotdogs in a stand, a few joggers here and there, and an old couple holding flowers and balloons. More people than he anticipated this early in the morning, but not too unmanageable in case something goes wrong. Still, the possibility and uncertainty of how things could go south sent a creeping sensation down his back. He walks slowly and cautiously.
Lost in thought, David unwittingly knocks over an empty trashcan which spooks the nearby old couple. Dread immediately drops on him like an anvil in a cartoon. He desperately apologizes and the couple were kind enough to accept. Seeing as something haven’t exploded yet, David relaxes his shoulders… until something popped above his head.
The old lady apparently let go of her balloons and now they’re caught among the branches above them. Another one pops and a squirrel falls down on the young woman walking her dog. She screams and David looks on in suppressed horror as the brown lab pounces and knocks her over. He quickly runs over to help her up. Her dog however, continues to chase down the squirrel which is now running under the hotdog stand. David and the woman both winced as the dog crashed into the hotdog stand, sending sizzling hotdogs flying towards the poor vendor. The woman frantically calls over her dog when they hear a whistling sound. The vendor screams and runs away and everyone followed suit. Everyone except David.
Before David could fully process the mayhem he caused, the toppled stand erupts into a ball of smoke and burning debris. Oddly enough, none of those hit him but shrubs and trees around him start to catch on fire. He runs in the opposite direction to the flames and into the distant horrified onlookers.
Perhaps it was the flames, the adrenaline wearing off, or the bystanders- or all three- that’s causing David to sweat profusely as he blends into the crowd. Although he didn’t mean any of this, guilt starts to weigh him down. He also had a sneaking suspicion that people were starting to connect him to the string of recent disasters.
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