The Omen

by David Seltzer

It was the sixth month, the sixth day, the sixth hour.

If a child were that important to her, she could adopt. But she would have none of it. The child had to be their own.

Oops

All war is fratricide. It was Adlai Stevenson who said it, Thorn who quoted it, and in the interest of peace the Thorn fortune multiplied.

"On this night, Mr. Thorn … God has given you a son."

Or could it be... SATAN?

Immediately after his birth they dutifully brought the infant to church, but so abject was his terror upon entering the cathedral that they cut the ceremony short.

I know the feeling.

The boy was growing into an artist's rendering of the ideal child.

Photographers ran everywhere, out of their minds with greed, but to Jennings there was nothing there to photograph.

"You know how to tell a good nanny?" she laughed. "By the size of her breasts. These little girls with pigeon tits, they come and go in a week. But me, the big saggy ones like me. These are the nannies that stay. Go look in Hyde Park, you'll see it's true."

Well, that explains Mrs. Doubtfire...

"The head's what they leave, not what they take. Whatever killed this did it for fun."

The fear that passed between them was a fear that other parents had known: the first realization that there was something wrong with their child.

"He doesn't get satanic power from MY side of the family."

"Well," she said, "the best thing to do with a bad day is to end it. I'm going up to bed."

"Its mother, sir … was a jackal!" A sob escaped the priest's throat. "He was born of a jackal! I saw it myself!"

Democracy is equal opportunity. And without equal opportunity the word 'democracy' is a lie!"