Leave Things To Chance

• Estelle Afonso, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2021

The woman sat in the frosty morning air, carefully making delicate strokes of paint on yellowed parchment. She worked in brisk silence, her breaths resonating in the room. But the silence was welcome. Silence meant that she could complete her work in peace, without him interrupting her and ruining her years, decades, centuries of labour. Her hands danced gracefully over the paper, making flowing strokes of lustrous, thick black ink. As she worked, a sudden warm gust of wind infiltrated the room, making her dark, heavy velvet curtains flutter. Her head whipped up sharply, her grey eyes darting around the room like trapped animal. He couldn’t be here, not today. Not when she had made so much progress on the map she was working on. This was an especially important one; a Greek soldier, Achilles, destined to change the course of history and die a heroic death.

And then as suddenly as it appeared, the mysterious wind retreated. The woman looked around, her face a mask of confusion. Huh. Maybe she really was just overthinking things. Flustered, she turned her back to the window and faced her work, but she was unfocused. She couldn’t work in this paranoid state. As she threw down her quill in frustration, a melodic voice spoke from behind her. “Hello, Fate.”

Fate whirled around in a panic, her raven black hair whipping around with her. Standing at her window was a man, sunlight surrounding him in a glowing yellow halo. His messy auburn hair glittered in the rosy morning sunlight, and his honey golden eyes glinted mischievously. He stood there casually, hands in his pockets, leaning lazily on the ivory balcony railing. That was just so annoyingly him, always lazy, leaning on something, never taking things seriously. Never taking her seriously.

“Chance.” she hissed at him distastefully.
“Yes I’m well, thank you for asking.” He said, sweeping slyly into the room before she could object.
“What are you doing here?” Fate snapped.
“It’s lovely to see you too.” Chance teased, taking a step towards her work table. Fate strode in front of him forcefully, blocking him.
“I know what you’re here for, and you’ll never leave with it.”
Chance smirked at her, raising one eyebrow in mock surprise.
“Oh really!” he laughed. “And why is that?”
Momentarily stumped, Fate stuttered. “Well, because I… um, you see…”
Chuckling, Chance took another step towards her desk. “You’re so adorable when you’re flustered. Now hand over the map.”
“Make me.”
“I already have.”

Fate looked at him questioningly, and the man in front of her disintegrated to dust. She turned around to her desk, where Chance was squatting, her precious map in his hands. Ugh. She hated it when he used that clone trick on her. “You’ll never leave without it. You can’t change every human’s fate.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Then suddenly, he pointed behind her and exclaimed, “Oh my Gods, what is that!” Stupidly, she turned around, and he jumped off her desk and sprinted for the window. “Stop!” Fate exclaimed. “You’ll never change his destiny, it’s his fate to die!”
“Fate?” he inquired, already jumping from her balcony. “I think I prefer leaving things to Chance!”