Glint

When a person holds something long enough, they eventually lose feeling of it in their hands. Their mind habituates to its texture and its uniqueness disappears. If you study something from a different perspective, however, you can find new meaning in the mundane.

Henry thought about this from time to time and it helped him re-experience the world in a new light. It first started when he was a child. He and his father would look up at the ceiling, readjusting their eyes until the ceiling started to look like the floor. It freaked him out at first; he really felt like he could stick his foot out and take a step onto the chandelier.

After he stood back up, the world resettled itself, but it didn't stop him from thinking about that moment as he got older. It was easy to recreate with words. Say a word over and over again and it suddenly loses all meaning. A word that's merely a symbol for the thing it represents becomes a cluster of foreign syllables that no longer seem familiar.

He usually enjoyed this little game. It was a way to find pleasure in the simple things that were often taken for granted. It was like the first few hours after getting over a sickness where you suddenly appreciated that sense of smell or taste that was taken away from you. Henry often went about his day focusing on his job, his family, or things that needed to be done before the sunset, but how often did he notice the little things in his life? How often did his mind go on autopilot from the world? Would he recognize any of the people on his morning walk to work if they were put in front of him again? Probably not.

He was currently in the middle of one of these moments, but this time it wasn't so enjoyable. These thoughts circled through his brain as he stared up at the light in front of him. He must have passed by similar lights hundreds of times each week, but how often did he notice them? He was curious about the moment when it switched from red to green. Was there an unperceivable pause where the entire traffic light was unlit? Or was there a millisecond where the green and red lights were lit up at the same time?

He was currently waiting at a red light, and while he usually zoned out during these moments, he noticed every single red light on his way to the hospital. He was being rather philosophical during his drive, and he wished he had something to write on so he wouldn't forget the lessons he wanted to teach his son.

At least he thought he was having a son. Alyssa didn't want to know the gender, and he was fine with that, but his gut feeling told him it would be a boy. As the light remained red, he started to switch his thoughts to gut feelings. He figured people trusted their gut because they only remembered the time it was right, not the times it was wrong. He was sure he was having a boy, but if it turned out to be a girl he would move on with his life and use other moments to reinforce his gut feeling.

The light turned green now, and he slammed on the gas, hoping to catch the green light in the distance. He had been unable to tell if there was a pause or not before it switched, but he figured he could look it up later. You could look up anything nowadays. In fact, his wife was probably googling for divorce lawyers at the hospital, cursing him out for being late. He knew this wasn't true, she had encouraged him to go golfing after all, but maybe she would blame it on her pregnancy brain. She would tell him he shouldn't have taken advice from someone who lost her keys in the freezer the previous evening.

No one had expected her water to break three weeks early, but that was the predicament he found himself in now, and it caused him to see each traffic light in a different way. One of these new perspectives was intense anger, as he missed the following green and became stuck at another red. He had been dreading it, but he peeked at the time; 6:15. She had called him almost two hours ago, but the traffic was horrible. Her sister Emily had texted him thirty minutes ago with an update... she was getting close.

He refused to miss the birth of his son. The thought brought him back to his ponderings on gut feelings. How many did he have per day? Per week? He probably had more gut feelings than he was even aware of.

He wondered what really counted as a gut feeling? When he was deciding whether to get a hot or iced coffee in the morning could that count as a gut feeling? He didn't think so. He decided it had to do with something beyond his control. A prediction of something based on all the experiences he had in his life.

Were they accurate? He tried to remember the last gut feeling he had. It was probably three days earlier when he, Alyssa, and Emily were talking about the baby pool. Their family had created a prize pool for the closest to the delivery date. He thought she'd be a week late ... wrong.

Gut feelings were zero for one in his official rankings.

The light turned green again, and he decided there was a millisecond where green and red were on at the exact same time. He'd be sure to check later to see if it was right.

As he raced ahead, he heard his phone vibrate. Without thinking, he reached over to it and read a message from Emily: Any minute now. He quickly lifted his eyes back up towards the road. He was still about fifteen minutes from the hospital, but his gut said to slow down and stay focused.

A few minutes later, he was glad that he did. If he hadn't, he would have sped through the next intersection as the light in front of him turned green.

Instead, he turned to his left and saw a car speeding towards it from the opposite direction, trying to race through their red light. He slammed his foot on the break and skidded to a halt, right beneath the green light. One for two, he thought to himself.

***

A few hours later, Alyssa was resting with their beautiful baby boy. It seemed like she had been through a lot during childbirth, and he would never forgive himself for letting her go through most of it alone. He vowed to never leave her side again.

As the doctors grabbed their boy and brought him into another room, she smiled. He took a moment to truly enjoy it again. It had always brought joy to his heart, but right now, he noticed the light in her green eyes and the softness of her lips. He hadn't really studied those details in years. Now, they brought him peace.

When her sister came into the room, Allyssa's smile started to fade, "I am going to kill him."

There was a long pause as Emily came over to her bed, "I didn't want to tell you until after you'd given birth, Alyssa.”

“Tell me what.”

Henry had been dreading this moment, and the look on her face was worse than he could imagine.

“Henry was in an accident on the way here. He didn't make it."

Her joyous face turned to anguish, and the glint slipped away from her gorgeous green eyes. He stared into them, hoping she could feel his presence. It reminded him of the last thing he saw before the crash.

His car had stopped beneath the green light, and he had looked up at it while the car behind him slammed into his rear, pushing him out into the intersection. The world stopped for a split second, and he had time to continue his final thought before the speeding car crashed into him:

He's going to get his mother's green eyes.

And baby Henry did; Two for three.