Living Things

Once upon a time, on a strange planet that was composed mainly of water and which orbited a sun almost 93 million miles away, Gilbert Salmon entered through the front door of his high school for the 595th day. That time was called 7:56, and that planet was called Earth.

It was a very nice planet, as planets went. It was in places too hot, and in places too cold, and it was very often wet and very rarely gentle, and it was where Gilbert Salmon and everyone he would ever meet (except one person) would live out their entire lives.

Gilbert Salmon was, at this stage in his life, a very slight youth with brown hair and vaguely twisted glasses. He fancied himself a writer, and one day indeed he would be. He liked video games, poetry, and dogs, and was afraid of heights, pretty girls, and most of all, himself.

The 595th day of Gilbert Salmon's high school education began like any other. It would continue in this manner for most of the day, until he had a chance encounter that would change his life forever. As he walked through the halls, he was surrounded by a crowd of faces, the owners of which paid about as much attention to him as he did to them - which was to say some, but not really very much.

The first person he spoke to on the 595th day of his high school career was a girl named Jessica Gram, though he would have been hard pressed to recall this fact. She was a short girl with a kindly face and a confusing haircut - Gilbert probably couldn't have explained why it looked exactly the way it did, if he had the desire to do so. They spoke outside the door of their class while waiting for their teacher to arrive.

She was a quite capable science student, and aspired to have a career in research. Eventually, she would go on to be employed at a respected chemical research institute, where she would publish several moderately well-received papers of passing quality. She would be married at the age of 31, and she would have two children, and she would be happy. Gilbert didn't know any of this at the time, however. What he also didn't know was that he loved her.

"Nap time," she said, closing her eyes, in that traditional greeting of the unwilling early-riser.

"Agreed," he replied, and their interaction for the day was over.

Gilbert loathed himself terribly, most days. In his mind, his most terrible and poorly-kept secret was the truth of his own soul. He was angry, and greedy, and cruel, and afraid, and he wanted more than anything else to be a good person. His sole occupation most days was pretending to be good, and he feared greatly the outbursts of temper that made the ruse so hard to maintain.

His parents got along very well, as a rule, and his family was generally happy. Sometimes they fought, in that way families so often do - more passive than aggressive. He was well-raised and always well-fed, and was usually afforded more than his strict share of the failing planet's resources.

Later that same day, Gilbert spoke to another student. This person's name was Marcus Berman, and he was a friend of Gilbert's. He was tall and red-haired, and had that kind of good-natured loudness that made him both pleasant and harrowing to be around. He loved ice cream and was deathly afraid of clowns. He had a birthmark on his knee that was shaped like a cat. One day he would be an old and venerated English Professor at a North American college, and he would most days be happy. Gilbert didn't know this, and he didn't know yet that he loved him.

"I'm telling you, it's not going to work," Gilbert was saying. "They can't do the Civil War arc in one movie while they're also doing the Infinity Gem story. And they won't kill off Iron Man or Captain America, they're too popular."

"That's because you're not listening," Marcus replied. "It's not really the Civil War arc, it's a version of it centered more generally around..." and so forth.