At the threshold, Damian realized something was amiss. He rushed to his numerology table.
All was, as it should be. Except the calendar…
12.19.19.
Raising his hooded head, Damian rested his chin on penitent fingertips. And pondered.
Surely, an omen.
The young century would never again emerge, with a number “1” in First Place.
Where it belongs.
T’was the end of Order.
A cardinal number ipso facto presumes its ordinal number. That is, its–one’s–place in a series.
The place being First, of course.
First. Such an ordinary ordinal number.
But supposing First is no longer first.
What then?
I never did have the head (nor desire) for numerology… and lookit your poor chap, He’s all verklempt at the situation!
Quite. People have their passions.
Numerloogy, and superstition are human constructs, surely. We make believe as much as we care – unless it is true!
For a bunch of fiction writers, many of these comments seem surprisingly rational, protesting against such feeble constructs of the imagination as numerology.
Puzzles are fun, which is why numbers fascinate many, I think.
I also think this story was influenced a bit by that old classic horror book and movie about the end of times, from the ’70s, The Omen, in which a certain three-digit number “figured” prominently. Damian was the main character, if Im not mistaken.
Yes, and everyone loves the challenge.
I guess you just have to wait a very long time until the year becomes 10000 🙂
Yes granonine. And judging from this numerologist’s level of concern, it may be a Dark Age, indeed, when the first are last and the last first (although biblically that would imply judgment day, i think?) Not so good, if you are not among the Righteous…(time for Dale to chime in with a Bwa-ha-ha!😊)
I’ve never gotten into numerology—never was much good at numbers 🙂
Not sure I understand the numerology bit but I too envisaged a male, overly obsessed and paranoid monkish figure who took to numbers because of his failure to interact with others. Funny how a few words portray a character. Nice take on the prompt.
Thank you siobhan!
Interesting character, but oh, his thinking about numbers makes my head hurt.
Sorry about that Liz. 😊Very cerebral in a slightly deranged way, I know. A la the Russell Crowe character, in A Beautiful Mind.
Perhaps this guy has scraps of paper on his walls, and pins, holding bits of yarn, to forge connections between his obtuse, scatterplot thoughts.
Think nothing of it! The numerical issues are mine. 😉
It’s astonishing how much time people waste on numerology. While number theory in mathematics provides profound insights into the universe, numerology is simply superstition. Am I right in thinking that your main character is male and a member of some form of religious order, whose particular superstition about first justifies a significance in his own eyes?
You are on the money as usual, Penny.
I did picture him as a monkish sort of guy, perhaps a member of a secret order, existing in defiance of the powers that be.
He definitely strikes me as an obsessive, clinging to his understanding of the significance of numbers, in order to calm his fears about the topsy-turvy nature of the world around him.
Only his beliefs are cold comfort on this day.
This picture struck me as the kind of detritus the secret police might leave behind after a search, in a more totalitarian state than our own.
YOf course all of those details got left on the cutting room floor, and the result, I’m afraid, is bare-boned, cold, philosophical. More symbol, than plot.
Thanks for your insight Penny!
Ha ha – what Iain said!! 🙂
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
Some stories speak only to some audiences. 😊
1/1/20
First place in each part of the date, month day and year. Never enough words! 😊
Unless she moves to the UK and starts writing the date in the correct way – day.month.year 😉
Haha. We see things differently, even numbers, on this side of the Atlantic. Funny, in my head the character had an English accent!
I take your point, if you look only at the left most number. But I was thinking about it obsessively, as a numerologist might 😊–
If you look at the three sections of the date separately, even the UK-Euro-(rest of the world?) way, it would be 19.12.19, with a “1” coming first in each section. Whereas the next day, it would turn over to 20.12.19 and never again in that century would there be a one in the leftmost position of each segment of the date.
Still, you may be right. This story may speak more to Americans, as we undergo this perilous, arcane, confounding and messy procedure of impeachment.
(I actually heard someone use the term “ipso facto” in Congress last week! How often is Latin spoken, on US national TV?!)
Thanks for the comment Iain!
I personally prefer year.month.date – leaves zero room for error!
Interesting!