One Second
by Tobie Abad

"Have you made up your mind?" the man asked with a detached expression. Greg looked back at him and reached unconsciously for the pack of day old Winstons in his breast pocket. With the shush of the match, he lit the cigarette and took copious amounts of smoke into his lungs. The man smiled this time and then reached for the cigarette between Greg�s lips. Gently, he plucked it out and took a huff himself. "I guess you haven�t decided yet?"

"No no I have. I have," Greg hurriedly replied when reached for the cigarette with trembling fingers, "In exchange, all you want is just one second?"

"Just one second in the world," the man confirmed.

"But why me?" Greg asked, suspicion lacing his query.

"I could be quiet traditional and say �The Lord works in Mysterious Ways� but that wouldn�t satisfy you, would it? Come to think of it, it never really worked all these years. But, returning to your question, as to why you were selected� quite frankly it just so happened that you were the first one I saw when I was given this task. I guess you can say it has been preordained to happen," the man ended his explanation with a chuckle.

"And you promise me you cannot harm me in any way?"

"I�m here to offer you what you want. Its is not my role to harm you. It is against my laws to kill you."

"That�s because your an Angel?" Greg felt a bit sheepish after he stated it aloud. The man claimed he was a member of the heavenly host. But Greg recalled many stories of the Devil in the guise of the Light. He had no idea if this could be one. Come to think of it, he had no idea how any of this could really be happening. But the opportunity was there within his grasp. He knew, if this were real, that such a chance would never come again.

The Angel, as he called himself, appeared before Greg while he was sitting at the park, watching the beautiful women walk by with their arms holding either purchases from the nearby mall or a lover�s arm. Greg hated the fact that his love life never worked out. Once he had a girlfriend, but that was when he was 13. It was puppy love and nothing more than a need to have someone to brag against others during the hormonal years of puberty. Now, 26, Greg felt as if he had lost a lifetime in opportunities. He was supposed to go to the United States to study. He was supposed to get a scholarship for Masteral studies as well. He was even supposed to be working, thanks to his parents� connections, in a high paying firm. But he gave those up because of a single woman named Frances, who never really returned his offerings of passion. She was two batches lower, and he consciously delayed his graduation, destroying the three plans prepared for his future, in hopes of graduating with her. The woman toyed with him, giving him false hopes and allowing him some opportune moments of contact with her silken flesh. But these moments were all the figurative hook, line and sinker that lured men to the lairs of the Sirens at sea. When she found love elsewhere, or perhaps an easier prey, she dumped the poor man and even claimed it was he who caused the separation. Only three years later did Greg accept the fact that she used him and that it was for the best that they never spoke.

The Angel was very open, and not to mention approachable. And to say the least, the Angel had a wonderful sense of timing. Greg was sitting alone on a bench with one hand caressing a warming bottle of beer while watching the silhouettes of lovers in the park when the Angel walked up to him and called him by his first name. Startled, the bottle fell and broke, shattering the illusion of perfected love.

"Greg?" The Angel asked again, "Have you decided yet?"

Greg looked at the Angel again and tried to find any hint of evil behind his eyes. As they say, "the eyes are the windows of the soul" and if the adage proved to be true, Greg hoped to see past any possible deception the Angel concealed himself with. Nothing. There was nothing behind the waiting gaze of the Angel but patience.

"All I want in exchange is just one second in existence. One second to never ever occur."

Many would have probably jumped at that offer. What was one second to anyone anyway, right? But not Greg. Greg, tired of being fooled and lured around blindly, had learned to study what he heard and find the logic between each letter. One second, the Angel claimed to want. Just how important was one second?

Nine billion One hundred ninety two million six hundred thirty one thousand seven hundred seventy periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of celsium-133.

At least one tree is being cut down and not replaced in the world.

At least one man or woman is dying due to the one second chance he or she could have adverted the accident being removed.

At least one child in the world is not born due to the one second the heart stops beating while the baby is in the womb.

At least one person suffers because someone did not change his or her mind about the cruelty he or she was to inflict within that second.

At least one life is saved because a doctor lost that second of second thought and stuck to what actually would have saved a life.

At least one person finally heard from a long lost friend because of that one second that they chanced upon each other.

At least one person is lonely in the world for that one second he or she decided to live alone years back.

At least one lightning bolt was halted from possibly hitting someone in a day.

At least one person undergoes one second of less pain in his life.

At least one person loses one second of the "best day of his or her life."

At least. At least .. At least�

"Have you decided, Greg?" the Angel asked again.

With a smile, Greg looked up at the Angel and found the loophole he wanted to find. The one second to be removed would never really be important, for in as much as something bad could have been removed in that one second, something good could have been prevented as well. Nothing would really change when the one second is lost. The man feeling pain would never realise that for one second the pain was not there. He would never even realise that that very second existed. The Angel, had it truly been an angel, had tied itself up in a loophole. One that Greg decided was his chance to finally be the one to use others to his advantage. Karma does exist, for Greg it seemed, and this was his chance to get back at the world for everything that he hated about it. And the beauty was that even if this were the Devil and not an Angel, the second lost still would not matter. It was perfect! Greg grinned and decided he was ready.

"You have to promise me something first, Angel," Greg challenged the spokesperson of the heavenly host, "Cause I will not find myself in Aladdin�s shoes getting a wish not exactly what I wanted simply because the wish was wrongly worded."

"I see, very well, what do you want me to promise you?" The Angel asked, amused.

"I want you to promise me to grant me my wish exactly as both my heart and my head wants it. That the wish is perfectly the way I intended it to be. No wrong translations. No miscommunications. Nothing of that sort."

"Done," the Angel replied without delay. "Now, have you decided?"

"I have. I wish you to grant me a world where nothing bad or evil ever occurs. Where everything is good and nice and perfect."

Greg stared blankly at the silhouettes at the park. The trees still swayed with the wind. A man in the distance continued to smoke his cigarette. Two friends walked down the path, one apologising to the other without halt. He turned and looked back at the angel and wondered what had happened. It seemed as if nothing had changed. Could there have been some way that the wish was worded wrong? Then it dawned on Greg, as the Angel gave a smile and began to walk away, that the very second the wish was to be granted, the second ceased to exist.