Microserfs

by Douglas Coupland

What happened was this: I was looking out the window and Todd was fighting with his parents out on the Strip, down below the Hacienda's sign. How long was this going to go on? I decided I had to help Todd and so I went down to see if I could "Stop the Insanity!" Just as I joined them, Karla came running out. We all turned, and I saw her coming, and I could tell something was very, very wrong.

 She collected her breath and said, "Dan, I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, but there's been an accident."

 I said, "An accident?"

 She said that she had just spoken with Ethan in Palo Alto. Mom had had a stroke in her swim class, that she was paralyzed, and no one knew what would happen next.

 Right there and then, Todd and his parents fell down on their knees and prayed right there on the Strip, and I wondered if they had scraped their knees in their fall, and I wondered what it was to pray, because it was something I have never learned to do, and all I remember is falling, something I have talked about, and something I was now doing.