How The Universe Ended

Oliver walked into his office, at exactly 7:01 Coffee mug in hand. His desk was
pristine, completely empty except for a pile of papers, precisely stacked on top of each
other. Oliver sat down in his chair, and placed his coffee mug down on the desk, in the
exact same place he had put it yesterday. He looked at the computer monitor in front of
him, something was wrong, the keyboard was out of place. The cleaning lady, she
always moved it, people were so incompetent, so imperfect. Oliver didnt like people,
they were unpredictable, you never knew what people were going to do. Numbers were
predictable, Oliver thought, why couldnt the universe be made of numbers? Everything
would be so much simpler.

Oliver looked at the clock, it was 7:03! He was behind schedule, how could he let
this happen! It was all the cleaning ladys fault, they should replace her already. He
turned to his computer and began looking through his email. At the top was an email
from Barbara titled: FOR THE LAST TIME WHO KEEPS MOVING THE COFFEE
FILTERS. It was typed in all capitals, Oliver hated people who typed in all capitals, he
hated Barbera for a lot of reasons. Oliver opened the email and began to read.

WHOEVER IS MOVING THE COFFEE FILTERS NEEDS TO STOP I have put

them on the counter every day for the past week and someone keeps
moving them back into the cupboard please stop because it is really
annoying i spent FOREVER looking for them this morning and now Im
getting yelled at and I cant even handle it.

Oliver sighed, why couldnt people understand! He put the coffee filters in the
cupboard because that is where they were supposed to go, it was proper that they were
kept in the cupboard, that was the way it was supposed to be. And people like Barbara
and the cleaning lady kept messing everything up! Maybe they would just kill each
other, that would be nice, thought Oliver. He looked at the clock, he was behind
schedule again. It was Barberas fault, more proof that the universe would be better off
without her.

Oliver began typing a reply to Barberas email, then he stopped. What was the
point? Barbera would never understand, she would just complain more. She wasnt
worth the time it would take him to type an email. Oliver pulled up a spreadsheet on his
computer and began looking through it, occasionally editing a cell, assuring that
everything was perfect and precise, as it should be.

After a while, Oliver closed the spreadsheet and leaned back in his chair.
Numbers were so satisfying werent they? Everything made perfect sense, nothing was
out of place, no error was unexplained. As he sat there, Oliver became aware of a
strange sound. He looked at his coffee mug and noticed it was shaking, rattling against
the table. That was odd, coffee mugs werent supposed to do that. He grabbed it and
it stopped shaking, but as he let go it began to bounce again. Oliver became aware of a
second rattling sound, he turned around and noticed that the framed award he had on
his office wall was also shaking. As he watched it teetered and fell off the wall, the glass
frame shattering on the ground. Oliver stood up to inspect the

damage, as he moved closer, he felt the floor move beneath his feet. An earthquake?
Perhaps, but not here, there were no fault lines nearby, Oliver had made sure of that
when choosing where to live.

The ground shook more violently, oliver collapsed to the ground. Oliver glanced
out the large window behind him and saw a large crack appear in the street, a truck
caught on the edge fell in, disappearing into the earth. Oliver tried to stand, but
immediately lost his balance and collapsed to the ground. As he half crawled half
stumbled out of his office toward the stairs, he began to panic. This cant be happening,
he thought, things like this dont happen, this isnt real, it looks real. He must stay calm,
he told himself, but at the moment he was anything but calm. I must remain calm, he
told himself out loud. People who panic die, people like Barbera panic, they are
irrational, Oliver was not like Barbara, oliver was not irrational, Oliver would not die.

Oliver reached the stairs and began stumbling down them. Suddenly, before
him, a section of the staircase gave way, and tumbled down the stairwell, smashing into
the cement floor below shattering into dust. Oliver readied himself and jumped the gap,
then began picking up speed as he traveled down the staircase. Oliver tried to slow
down, he knew that running was unsafe, his mother always said running was unsafe,
yet Oliver couldnt stop, he just kept going, the animal in him desperate to escape the
impending doom of the office building.

Oliver was almost at the bottom, he could see the lobby, he was going to make it!
Suddenly he heard an ominous creak of metal from above. As Oliver looked up, he saw

the wall fall inward, crumbling into smaller chunks that plummeted toward him. He
didnt have time to be afraid before the world went black.

Far away from Olivers tiny world, a small girl, about 6 years old, stood in long
narrow room. The room was filled with row upon row of polished wooden shelves,
stretching from end to end of the room. On the shelves sat row after row of small glass
objects, at first they appeared to be perfect spheres, but upon closer inspection, the
edges fluctuated, expanded, and warped spontaneously. Within the orb there were
millions of small points of light, and within each point of light, there were billion more
points of light. Although the orbs are small, barely bigger than ones hand, all the
details, down to the tiniest speck of light, are visible. The girl had one of these orbs in
her hands. As she spun the orb, the lights flew and collided, with each other. She
giggled and began shaking the orb, watching as the lights shattered and burst with
energy, like a miniature firework show.

Oliver, slowly awoke, he began to raise his head, but pain shot through his entire
body. He lowered his head to the ground and glanced down. His shirt was stained red
with blood, a piece of metal was sticking through his side. Oliver realised that Barbara
would have been afraid here, but Oliver wasnt afraid at all, he was too tired to be afraid.
Oliver glanced to his left, the ground was split, forming a massive crevice, the rubble
that was once a city scattered everywhere. The sky was black with smoke. Oliver
coughed, his lungs hurt, the very air burned his skin, yet Oliver didnt care. He Looked
up at the sky, briefly through the smoke he caught a glimpse of the sun. As he watched,
it collapsed in on itself and then expanded outward, filling the air with bright light.
4

Minutes later, a massive shockwave of energy slammed into the Earth, killing
anything that was still alive. Far away from Earth, another star went supernova then
another. An entire galaxy began collapsing in on itself, planets and stars folding into a
massive black mass in the center.

Oops! said the girl, looking at the pile of glass on the ground before her, which
seconds ago had been the orb. As she watched, the tiny points of light that had been
contained within the orb pulled together into one larger ball of light, flickered several
times, then blinked out, leaving nothing but a scattered pile of glass. Suddenly, the door
opened and a tall man walked in.
There you are! said the man We were looking for you everywhere, I told you, for the
last time, you cant come in here! You know they are very fragile!
Sorry, daddy, I was just playing, said the girl, looking at her feet.
The man walked over and looked down at the pile of glass.
What have you done now, I knew I should have kept the door locked, Oh well, Ill have
to make a replacement tomorrow.
Can I help you! said the girl, looking up.
Not now, but one day, one day youll make orbs of your own. he said.