Scenario Number One

You wake up to discover that it is a Saturday, you have a day off from work, and the entire morning is open to possibilities. You are so intrigued by this prospect that you forget to turn off the alarm clock, and hurry downstairs instead. Having the whole morning to yourself, you decide it is an excellent day to make pancakes. However, you seem to have run out of mix. So you make your mind up to run to the store and get some.

On your way out the door, you remember that your alarm clock is still going off. Deciding that it can wait a few minutes, you exit the house and walk three blocks to the nearest grocery store. Upon arrival, you see a woman with an extremely familiar face has just exited the store, who, if you had gone back to turn off your alarm clock, you surely would have missed. After a few moments of thought, you recognize her as a childhood friend, long since moved away, and immediately catch up with her.

The two of you spend the rest of the morning reminiscing, until you realize how hungry you are and remember that you forgot to buy your pancake mix for breakfast. This you explain to her, and she suggests the two of you go out to lunch together—which sounds like a lovely plan, except for the fact that you only have four dollars with you, as you were originally intending to buy pancake mix.

Not a problem, the two of you decide, as you offer to take her back to your house (which is the closer of the two residence choices) for lunch. Unfortunately, as it has been many years since you have seen each other, you have forgotten that your friend has an extremely severe allergy to cats—of which you have three. After about thirty seconds in your home, her throat closes, and you quickly call an ambulance. They rush to the scene, and, thankfully, get her to the hospital in time. The doctor who treats her has not had a successful patient in weeks, and is on his last legs as a medical professional. Her survival is just what he needs to keep himself going.

So all is well, despite the fact that by now it is quite well into the afternoon, and you have yet to eat all day. Still, things are not all bad. Once she is discharged, your friend, greatly enchanted by your saving the day (she seems to have forgotten that if it weren’t for you, no saving would be necessary), suggests the two of you go out for dinner—as a date.

The night is successful, and within six months, you propose. She is delighted, and immediately agrees, setting about planning the most lavish wedding she can think of. To pay for it all, you must take out a loan to be paid off over the course of five years, but it is worth it—the wedding proves to be exactly what your fiancée dreamed of, and more.

Two years go by, and soon, your wife gives birth to two sons—twins. While they are double the love, they are also double the expense, and times get hard very fast. Meanwhile, your wedding loan payments are several months behind, and time is running out. Finding yourself with absolutely zero money to pay for your next installment and no friends willing to lend you any more, you must go to your mother for help—someone you haven’t spoken to in years (she wasn’t even invited to the wedding.)

The two of you have quite a spat, and in the end, all you succeed in doing is making her remember about several loans from her you have yet to pay back, and the amount of money you need far from drops. Finally, fed up with it all, your wife files a divorce with you, and gains total custody of your two sons.

Struck by the tragedies of divorce at such a young age, your children never recover to a normal mental state, and once they reach adulthood, each follows an unorthodox career choice. The first, who sees the world much differently due to his warped childhood, becomes a famous writer, and his inspiring works of fiction help save 412 people, who otherwise would have committed suicide due to their despair (they also inspire 29 other children to become writers, who also inspire 29 others, and the chain continues.) His brother, however, becomes one of the most dreaded serial killers to have ever been, murdering a grand total of 412 known people (and several who are never documented), including himself.

And all because you didn’t turn off you alarm clock.

Scenario Number Two

You wake up to discover that it is a Saturday, you have a day off from work, and the entire morning is open to possibilities. You are so intrigued by this prospect that you forget to turn off the alarm clock, and hurry downstairs instead. Having the whole morning to yourself, you decide it is an excellent day to make pancakes. However, you seem to have run out of mix. So you make your mind up to run to the store and get some.

On your way out the door, you remember that your alarm clock is still going off. Deciding that you really shouldn’t leave it on, you go back to turn it off, delaying your progress by several minutes. Once it is off, you leave the house once more and walk three blocks to the nearest grocery store. You enter, buy your pancake mix, leave, and enjoy a pleasant morning eating pancakes.

Because you never met up with your old friend, the doctor who should have treated her is presented instead with an incurable cancer patient, who dies in four months. That night, he joins her.

However, the two sons that you would have had together are never born, and the serial killer’s 412 victims live full, happy lives (minus himself, of course, seeing as he was never born.) Unfortunately, the 412 people who would have been saved by his brother’s writings are not, and the 29 children who would have become writers never do. Instead, twelve of them, as well, fall to despair; two of them become high-ranking government officials; six of them fall to unemployment; one of them finds a cure cancer; and the remaining eight of them become: a musician, a dog breeder, a grocery store owner, a chef, a teacher, a photographer, a clothing designer, and finally, the pope, changing far more lives than any of them ever would have as writers.

(Plus, you get to eat your pancakes.)

And all because you remembered to turn off your alarm clock.