A Small Fortune

Sitting in Their cubicle, The Omnipotent One grinned begrudgingly to Themself as They wove Marcus’ life tapestry. Their manager stood over them while They worked. Every stitch in the tapestry was a choice or event in Marcus’ existence. The Omnipotent One sat at Their desk quickly changing the course of Marcus’ life by providing for him.

Marcus would begin his day, bewildered, yet gleefully greeting his bank statement. He saw the lump sum sitting in his account with no traceable transaction.

“This is the best accident that ever happened,” Marcus would say. It would be almost an entire year’s wages waiting for him.

The Omnipotent One chuckled at Marcus' confusion. They enjoyed creating events in Their life-to-life job. Despite upper management’s feud with universal gifts, The Omnipotent One liked stirring things up for Their own amusement.

The Omnipotent One assigned to Marcus knew that he was truly unremarkable and truly neutral. This made him the perfect target to give unearned money to.

Marcus would spend significant time debating if he should tell anyone or keep it to himself that he had considerable money for the first time in his life. He would think about telling his family members. Ultimately, he would decide against it under the precedent that people would do bizarre things for money these days.

Marcus would have to rule if he would even deserve the money in the first place. He would weigh his personal virtues. Marcus would think back to the time that he stole from his grandmother’s purse before going to the movies with his friends as a teenager, and would balance it against frequently giving to a charity on behalf of his friend.

Marcus would grow bored thinking of ethics and would eventually shift toward how he would spend his money. He would want nothing more than to purchase everything that he could desire for an entire year. He would even consider spending some of the money on a long vacation to help him decrease his stress. There would be subconscious acknowledgement that he should put so much towards his retirement—he would only be getting older. Marcus would know that this might be a shot in the dark at material happiness, coming to terms that his alternatives were either too impulsive or too dull.

Causing internal chaos brought joy to The Omnipotent One. They laughed at how difficult Marcus was making his fated gift. Most Omnipotent Ones crafted life tapestries for humans without making the client’s life enjoyable to them. Omnipotent Ones loved creating minute details in the lives of Their wards from beginning to end. Nevertheless, this particular Omnipotent One enjoyed planting happiness in the life of Their participants.

Marcus would rush to his car and speed over to his local convenience store, mindlessly elbowing his way to the technicolor machine in the back corner of the shop. He would hastily feed it a dollar bill from his wallet.

“Just one dollar,” Marcus would mumble to himself greedily.

The lottery machine would spit out a free ticket, causing anticipation that Marcus would not be prepared for. Angrily, he would allow the machine to swallow up the ticket before it would provide a losing ticket.

Accelerating back to his apartment, Marcus would furiously try to remember his last few purchases from the local superstore. He would gather evidence towards a theory of magical talismans.

“Black book, body wash, coffee, pens.” Marcus would list the items as though he was almost praying over them while he would collect them from around his cluttered apartment. Marcus would want to thank whatever supernatural being gave him the money.

“I know, I’m fantastic!” cackled The Omnipotent One after Their supervisor skedaddled from Their office. They spun around in Their chair comically before lazily kicking Their feet up on Their desk. The Omnipotent One continued to knit Marcus’ tapestry as they picked up Their phone, “Right on time.”

“Hello, I’m not sure why, but I think there was some sort of mistake. I have money in my account and I’m not sure it belongs there.” Marcus said, as his conscience finally ate at him.

“No, sir. it doesn’t look like there’s a mistake. Sure seems like things just work out for the best.” The Omnipotent One said on the other end of the line. ”Have a good day now.”

“Ungrateful human,” The Omnipotent One scoffed under Their breath.