Twenty Years Later

by Charlie Donlea

Also called “dislocation of expectation,” it was the mind’s response to a traumatic situation. The brain attempts to correlate the current situation with a known experience from the past. As the frontal lobe loops in repetitive circles, trying but failing to find a similar situation to work from, the body freezes and waits for directions from the brain. It’s the science behind the proverbial “deer-in-the-headlights” phenomenon.

Because if there was one thing that spurred the public’s interest even more than watching the birth of a young starlet rising to fame, it was watching them fall from grace. Schadenfreude had become the new American pastime.

You know, when a loved one dies young your perception of them is placed in a time capsule. You’re only able to remember them as they were then, not as they would be today.

as if each trip into the body of the deceased pulled the man further from life. Not so much toward death, but rather to some in-between place that left him alienated from the living and only able to associate with the corpses that filled his days.

“Love or the law. They’re man’s only two problems in this world.”

“Sorry to ramble for so long,” Walt said. He felt Avery place her hand on his wrist. “It’s not rambling if you have a captive audience.”