The Events That Shape Us

This story, and the cover image were created during the Make Literally Anything '26 Game Jam, under the theme Fun Fact. The cover image is my terrible depiction of a dinosaur because facts = museums = dinos. The story was inspired by the nonfiction title Determined and considerably more time was spent on that than my pixel dino. This is my first time doing any creative writing, I hope you enjoy it. 

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It is a cool evening in the mountain town, Y2K parties are winding down as people are saying their goodbye’s, emotions running high from drugs, alcohol, and the world computer systems not crashing. Two women leave their respective parties, clearly too inebriated to drive, but they are in an unfamiliar place, with people they do not know, their partners could not take off work to celebrate with them. 

Each woman shuffles for her keys to their ‘91 blue Honda Accord, in their red clutch. Upon successfully retrieving them, they try to unlock the door, one misses and places a one and three quarter inch scratch to the right side of the handle, the other a one and one third scratch to the left. 

They each manage to make it inside eventually. A man witnesses her struggles but says nothing. She is probably just a clumsy woman, he thinks to himself, I don’t want to cause a scene questioning whether she should drive. 

The first woman pushes in the clutch to start the engine. Her heel is caught on the floor mat. Frustrated by this she throws them in the backseat. Her engine fires up and she pulls away down the road. 

The second woman pushes in the clutch to start the engine, it fires up, her heel gets caught on the floor mat as she tries to press the gas. The engine stalls. Frustrated, she throws her heels in the backseat and tries again. She pulls away down the road. 

At the end of the street is a T intersection. A left would take the women through downtown, a right would take them to the highway loop around the city. The left is shorter distance but slower roads, the right is longer distance but higher average speed. Both women decided for the shorter distance and higher speed.

The first woman crosses front street and is now driving through the empty downtown, she is surprised that on a night like this there would not be more going on. Clearly a bunch of people who were too scared of the world collapsing to live in the moment she says out loud to noone as the clock on her dashboard flips to 5:13 am. 

The second woman, passes the sign for front street, and navigates the empty roads of downtown, shocked at the lack of people. Clearly a bunch of people who were too scared of the world collapsing to live in the moment she thinks to herself. The Honda’s dashboard clock flips to 5:14 am.

An unhoused man, a veteran of the Vietnam war cursed by demons of what he needed to do to survive, wakes up at the corner of 8th & Broadway. The bitter cold of the early morning has made it impossible to sleep any longer. The veteran puts on an extra set of socks and boots. He needs to walk around until the sun comes out to keep his body temperature up. As he exits his tent a second wave of cold strikes his bones. I better wrap myself in the sleeping bag, he tries to mumble to himself. 

The veteran grabs his black sleeping bag and wraps himself up like a mummy and begins walking. The relief of the warmth his muscles generate is nearly instant and he sighs a moment of peaceful relief. I’ll walk 5 blocks west and back. That should do it, the veteran determines. He always feels more in control when he has a goal to work towards. He begins to walk. 

The two women continue their drive down Broadway through the center of the empty town, driving far above the speed limit, anxious to get home and get some rest. They have both been feeling off recently. 

Just passed 7th street, the first woman notices a black splotch in her line of sight, what the shit?, she thinks as she blinks her eyes a few times. 

Just before 7th street, the second woman notices a black glob in her field of view, what the fuck?, she thinks, and blinks her eyes a few times.

A moment passes, the universe takes a breath. 

“FUCK!” yells the first woman.

“SHIT!” yells the second woman. 

Each brake pedal, on each Honda is pressed with 100% of the required pressure to fully apply the brakes. Thanks to the consistency of Japanese manufacturing, each Honda will stop exactly within 240 feet from the time of applying the brakes. 

The women’s neurons are not operating under ideal conditions. A combination of alcohol, drugs, and recent hormonal changes has dulled her senses and made her movements lethargic. Each woman takes a full 1.5 seconds to identify the target as an obstacle to avoid. 132 feet are covered in this time. Another 0.9 seconds are required for the women’s neural path ways to propagate the signal from her brain to her right foot in order to apply the pressure to the brake pedal. Another 79 feet are covered. 

In total each vehicle will cover 451 feet. 

Thanks to a city planning decision 63 years prior, decided by brothers Eric and Frank Schmidt each city block is 400 feet. Eric and Frank loved each other deeply but fought constantly over decisions and this extended to their roles on city council. Eric wanted the city blocks to be 300 feet to be more similar to other cities of similar size. Frank wanted 400 foot blocks to give the city a more domineering feel. After months of arguing they gave up and settled the matter with a  coin flip. 

“No, no, no, NOOO”, sobs the first woman as tears already begin streaming down her face. 

“Please. No. Stop.”, demands the second woman.

A life of pain has ended, a life of struggle begins. 

A life of pain continues, a life of opportunity begins.

9 months later the two women are giving birth to their first and only child. 

One from the university hospital at the center of downtown, blocks away from where her and her child’s life were sent down a path of love, connection, success. 

The other woman gives birth from a correctional facility 2 hours from the location where her and her child’s life were sent down a path of abuse, loneliness, defeats. 

The resident at the university hospital looks at her watch. She is meticulous about keeping it as accurate as possible. After one final push a healthy baby enters the world, everyone in the room celebrates. The resident, ever striving to be as accurate as she can, glances at her watch while catching the newborn, and proudly declares the birth date as September 1st! Although the resident did not consciously recognize her brain subconsciously processed the unusually specific time of 12:00:14.

A physician, promised from birth that he would be the next great neurosurgeon just like his father, attends a birth at a penitentiary. How did HE end up in OBGYN, he thinks to himself while moving forward with the c-section on the patient. He was always promised everything so never worked for anything. When his mediocre grades landed him with no surgical residencies his father convinced the chair of OBGYN to give him a slot. At least you get to cut something, he remembers his father’s words as he finishes his current procedure. He looks up to the analog clock briefly enough not to notice the unmoving second hand, 11:52 so I guess your baby is born August 31st he states as fact. He goes back to finishing the procedure as the newborn cries. A nurse brings in a fresh towel, and as the door slams shut the vibrations knock the second hand loose and the clock continues. The new digital clock on the nurses arm reads September 1st, 12:00:13.