Another one of those things that happen when I think too much. What is going ON in my head?

Honestly...

Let me know what you think!

-Jasmine

They say, "everything happens for a reason." By "they" I mean the creatures that are populating the earth. You know the ones I'm talking about: humans. They really are silly little creatures. They dress in odd costumes, have abnormal traditions, and and kill one another over land. Land! Ever heard of compromise? They really are greedy little buggers... But enough about that. I won't rant to you about humans and their idiotic tendencies, though; are you wondering who I am?

Hello, my name is Destiny. Or Fate, God, the Great Decider; really, any of those titles are appropriate.

So what do I do? Well, I make everyone's life the way it is. That whole, "everything happens for a reason" and, "you're part of a bigger scheme" shit is totally made up. Trust me: if your life sucks, it sucks because I was having a bad day and MADE it suck. So... sorry? I would apologize, but I really don't care. It's your stupid life you're stuck in, really.

I'm not totally mean, though. I have good days. I remember the day that Elvis Presley was born... I was really happy because I found twenty dollars in my pocket. See how he turned out?

Now, I am all around you. I blend in with you humans. Have you ever seen me on the street? Well, I'm not sure. Have you ever been around when something terrible happens? Have you ever been there to witness a car crash? Have you ever been sitting with your best friend when he opens a letter that is informing him that he has been drafted? If you have, you've been near me. You can always count on me to be there when something bad happens. You may not always see me, but I am always there.

So where am I right now? I am at one of my most-visited places: a hospital. I have been to far too many hospitals in my time. Too many dying people's bedsides. No, I'm not there to kill them, oh no, they've been doomed to die for a while. Getting the souls is not my job; that task belongs to Death. My job? Impact the people there.

Here I am, Tulsa Oklahoma Hospital, and I am once again bumping into Death. Death does not stop to chat. He never does. Death just comes in, takes the soul, and leaves. Not even a nod in my direction. (People can be so inconsiderate.) Who has just died, you ask? Johnny Cade.

I know Johnny Cade very well. I changed his future when he was five. He wasn't born to die like this. Truthfully, he was born to be the fortieth president of the United States of America. But a few weeks ago, while I was going through his file, I stubbed my toe. So this happened. I don't care too much, but because of what I did then... I have a lot of rearranging to do.

Johnny's ex-wife is now going to end up becoming a prostitute in order to feed her children. That's a bit of a step down from being the First Lady, don't you think? Either way, her husband (who was going to be Johnny's VP) will be killed in a bank robbery. Eventually, Johnny's ex-wife will kill herself on her daughter's sixteenth birthday, which is conveniently the same day that her husband was killed. She will be found in the bathroom, dead from a drug overdose.

So Johnny is now here, dying because he saved little kids. How noble of him! He should be rewarded! Don't you think he deserves a medal? No? Is it too soon to start making those jokes? Oh, well, I thought it was funny.

Now it is time to impact the two at his bedside. Ah, Ponyboy Curtis and Dallas Winston. I have changed their futures, as well. Theirs, Steve Randle's Sodapop Curtis', Darrel Curtis', and Keith Mathew's.

Dallas Winston has gone through quite the change. At birth, I had decided that he would become the one of the most powerful people in the Catholic church. Shows how well that worked out. He did tempt Fate, though. His family was far too good. I simply had to fix it! So, I got his father fired and turned him into a drunk. Then his mother just became mute. I felt it evened things out nicely. I didn't really say to Dallas' soul that he couldn't be a cardinal so I guess he changed that one all by himself. Besides, I don't think he would have liked living in Vatican City anyways.

Then Steve Randle. I know his fate. That was a bad day for me. That was also the day that I decided when John Kennedy would die. I guess I was feeling somewhat morbid. Then again, when aren't I feeling morbid? I'm surprised that there are really any happy and well-off people in this world, honestly. Anyways, Steve Randle. Oh, I look forward to seeing his death. Not that I don't like him; I'm sure he is a darling person, but his dying will be extremely interesting. Is that why I cause all these horrible and horrifying deaths? Because I want something interesting? Who knows? Not me.
Steve Randle would have had a perfectly fine life. Nothing too amazing. He would become a multimillionaire because of his invention of a portable music played named something awfully odd. My-pod or something. He would have had a fine time living in a nice house with three kids, marrying his high school sweetheart, but where is the fun in that? So, I changed it.

Now, Steve Randle with die the day before he returns to the US. Yes, that's correct. Exactly two days after the court case with Sodapop, Darrel, and Ponyboy, Steve will be getting drafted. Poor him. Sodapop will join him, naturally, but that is a story for another time. While Steve is oversea, he will watch all the other members of his platoon be tortured and killed. He will be nearly dead himself but will be rescued right in time! Though the day before they ship him back home, he will die. Boo-hoo. Poor him.

Sodapop, on the other hand, will indeed make it back home from the war, though he will be severely wounded. He would have been stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but he will die before that is much of a problem. Angry anti-war citizens will attack him because he was at war. (I will never understand human reasoning.) Sodapop will be killed.

Sodapop was going to end up sharing a house with his little brother Ponyboy, who I am still on the fence about-but we'll talk about that later. Sodapop would have owned a successful chain of woman's footwear that has hundreds of stores across the country. No one will really miss that, will they? I don't think so.

Darrel Curtis. The Curtis that had the most promise. The Curtis that everyone looked at and said, "I bet he's going to be a pro football player!" That was, until his parents died. Though I can tell you one thing: Darrel Curtis was never going to be a pro football player. I'm sorry (not really). He was always going to be stuck caring for his brothers because his parents died. I didn't change his fate at all. His fate has been and will always be to live in Tulsa and do fine. He won't go anywhere, but he won't be struggling to live. (Not like Tim Shepard will be.) He'll just be... there. He will marry some girl, Samantha or Sarah or something (I didn't pay too close attention to the name), and they'll have nice kids, and it will be all chipper and dandy. A little boring sounding, though. What do you think? Should I have one of his children be murdered? I don't know. I'll sleep on it.

Keith Mathews. Oh, Keith. He was going to become a cartoonist for Disney. Fun job, right? Well... no. Actually, changing Keith's future was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. At his other job, he would have been kidnapped and brutally murdered. I guess he owes me a thank you, then. I'll be expecting something in the mail sometime soon. Now he'll just be a gym teacher at Will Rodgers. I don't see anything wrong with that, do you? I think he'll do just fine.

Actually, I know he'll do just fine.

Then there is Ponyboy. Oh, Ponyboy Curtis. I just don't know what to do with this kid. I have two futures lined out for him. There is one future where he stays in Tulsa all his life. He becomes an English teacher at Will Rogers. That's good, right? He'll see Two-Bit every day. Though in that future his high school crush leaves him because she doesn't want to be with someone who will never amount to anything (AKA: Ponyboy). So Ponyboy slowly goes into a spiraling depression about that, and then on the 10th anniversary of his brother's death, when someone makes a joke about Vietnam, he kills himself.

Now, that is what I call interesting.

There is another future that I'm still on the fence about, though. He could leave Tulsa and go to college. It seems a little odd but, hey! I've been feeling nice lately. He publishes a famous book about his friends and his life. He becomes famous, and finally feels like he's done something good in the world. He finally gets closure for all his friends' deaths.

A little too cheesy for my taste, though.

I still don't know; maybe I'll give him a good future, maybe I won't. I'll just leave it for now and see how cards fall. I'll just let Fate decide this one.

Oh, wait. That's me.