Eye Contact

When an ordinary person looks into someone’s eyes, they aren’t able to see much about that person. Of course, they might be able to tell how they are feeling, if they wear their heart on their sleeve, or maybe you could tell if they had a long, sleepless night with little sleep and their eyes were tired. Other than that, looking into someone’s eyes usually does not tell you very much about a person. That is what words, conversation, and communication are for. 

  What if I told you there was someone out there, somewhere in this world, who did not apply to these rules. Someone who, when they looked into people’s eyes, knew everything there was to know about them. Their deepest secrets. Longings. What kept them up at night. Someone who could speak, but rather chose not to- for what was the point in asking about someone’s life when they could stare into their eyes and know everything? 

Well, Oliver Newman fit that description pretty much to a T. Oliver was a very odd being, if you asked his peers. When he was in primary school, the other kids avoided him- as they thought he was peculiar because he was often caught staring at the other children, fascinated at what he was learning about them. 

“Don’t look Oliver in the eyes- he might stare you to death!” They teased. 

Oliver didn’t mind very much. He was fine with them poking fun at him, didn’t even notice it most of the time, really, as he was too caught up in staring into people’s eyes and reliving every moment of their lives. He found it quite exhilarating. 

He learned that Millie had just gotten a new puppy and she thought of him quite often whilst at school. He realized that Jacob was teaching his older special needs sister to read. He found that Fredrick’s mother had just gotten a promotion and they were finally moving out of their aunt’s house. Fredrick was quite happy about that, Oliver could tell.

But he didn’t always find out happy things about people. Before he got his license, Oliver often rode the public transport bus on his way to school as his family was too busy to drive him places. One day, he was walking toward the bus stop, making eye contact with people as usual- he found that one person was headed to buy a car he had been saving up for his entire life, and that another was hosting a party for her one year old and was headed to pick up a cake. Typical things he normally saw, nothing out of the ordinary. 

He walked up to the bus stop, and a few seconds later the bus pulled up. Oliver immediately noticed that the bus driver, an older man in his sixties or seventies with graying hair, looked extremely downcast. Oliver stepped onto the bus, trying desperately to make eye contact with this man, wanting to know why he looked so depressed. Like everything was over. But this man did not look at him, or anywhere for that matter. He kept his head lowered and his eyes were blankly staring ahead. 

Oliver frowned but continued walking onto the bus, taking a seat. Perhaps this man was just having a bad day, he must be fine. Oliver thought, trying to convince himself.

However, as Oliver stepped off the bus, this time the man was looking at him, so Oliver decided to steal a glance, and he immediately regretted it. His heart had dropped to the floor in sympathy. He wanted to give the man a hug, or talk to him, or something but before he knew it he had already walked off of the bus and it had driven away, leaving Oliver standing in the middle of the sidewalk trying not to cry.

He had seen every piece of everyone he had ever made eye contact with’s life, mind you. Every heart shattering moment. Every death. Every person who’s dreams had been crushed. But he had never seen something quite as devastating as this. 

This man’s name was Anthony. His parents were killed in a fire set by his uncle when he was seven years old and he had suffered eleven years of being in the extremely abusive foster care system, never to be adopted. When he was eighteen he lived with his girlfriend, the love of his life, who became his wife two years later. She was his everything. She, along with a stray dog they had rescued, Scout, slowly healed him from his trauma. She became pregnant, but was unknowingly sick with cancer. She birthed the baby but died during the birth, and then it died just three weeks later. Scout was hit by a car and killed one day after that. Anthony went into an extremely dark place, and only was saved by another dog just short of twenty years ago, a cocker spaniel puppy. He named it Scout, just like his old dog. All was well again. 

Until a week ago, when Scout, the one thing holding him together, had died. 

Mind you, Oliver was only thirteen years old upon finding out this terribly sad life story. He had never learned something this tragic about a person before, and something in his mind told him that he had to do something about it. He was very concerned for this man.

So, instead of heading to the library as he originally intended to, he went off to a nearby pet store. He had decided he was going to gift the old man a dog. 

He walked into the shop determinedly. For once in his life he did not make eye contact with anyone else, partly because he did not want to get distracted but also he was slightly afraid of what he might learn about these people. So he kept his head low and walked over to the dogs. 

To Oliver’s dismay, all of the crates were empty. There was no dogs left. He sighed, and was about to walk out of the store when he decided to ask an employee where else he might be able to adopt a dog, because he was not quite ready to give up on this mission yet. 

“Hello, I was just wondering where I might be able to adopt a dog?” He asked an employee politely, making a point not to make eye contact, as he still wasn’t quite ready to do that again yet. 

The worker’s eyes widened. “Our last dog has just been sent to the… er, the chambers to be, uh, put to sleep…” She said carefully, trying not to upset Oliver, as he was a child. “I can go rush to see if she’s, um, y’know… still able to be, um, adopted?” 

“You mean not killed yet?” Oliver responded grimly.

“Er, yeah. I’ll go see.” She walked away, slower than Oliver thought was reasonable, given these few seconds could mean life or death for the dog. 

His stomach churned with anxiety.

Fortunately, the woman walked out a few minutes later with a small, fluffy dog. Oliver was never a dog person so he was not sure of the breed but she looked very cute and Oliver was sure Anthony would love her.

“What’s her name?” Oliver asked inquisitively. 

“Er... dunno. She doesn’t have one, I guess. And since she was technically already on the euthanasia list to be put to sleep twenty minutes ago, she does not have to be traditionally adopted so you can just take her, we’re closing soon anyway.” 

Oliver’s eyes widened, but he didn’t complain- he walked out of the store with the dog in his arms. 

If he walked quick enough, he would be able to make it to the bus stop in time for the next bus, so he sped up into a bit of an awkward run- it’s hard to run with a squirming dog in your arms, no matter how small it is. 

As Oliver approached the bus stop, he was thinking about how he would play this out. He couldn’t be too obvious about it, or the man would get suspicious about how Oliver knew that he needed a dog. Soon he had everything planned out just as the bus pulled up. 

Oliver walked up onto the bus, and sure enough it was the same bus driver, Anthony. 

Instead of finding a seat, Oliver stood next to the man and cleared his throat. 

Anthony raised his head slowly, and grunted as if he was asking what Oliver wanted. 

“Um, excuse me sir. I found this dog on the side of the road, and my mum would never let me keep her, would you mind taking care of her?” 

Anthony grunted again. “No. Take your seat, son. You don’t know me.”

Oliver started to panic. This was not going the way he had expected. 

“Please, sir. She really needs a home. I’ve named her Scout…” 

At that, Anthony’s eyes lit up and the corners of his mouth tugged upwards. 

“Scout, huh?”

He reached for the dog, petting it softly. 

“How ‘bout that.” He murmured. 

Oliver stood there, holding his breath, hoping he would take the dog. 

Anthony’s slight smile had turned into a full on grin as the dog was now licking his face. He looked up at Oliver, and as they made eye contact again, Oliver was astonished in how much had changed. 

His aura was no longer depressing and broken but now felt hopeful, and.. happy. 

“I guess I’m keeping her then,” he chuckled. “Thanks son. You know.. I’ve been having a tough time. This feels like a miracle, If I’m being honest.” 

Oliver fought back a smile, biting his inner cheek. 

“Take good care of her,” he replied, taking his seat.

That felt… good. Oliver thought to himself. From then on out, Oliver realized that with his… ability to understand people in ways that no one else could understand them, he had the power to make things happen for them that sometimes they didn’t even know they needed. He did this quite often, create “miracles” for others. He reunited mothers and sons. He gifted large amounts of money to people in clever ways. He delivered children to mothers who had lost their own children’s doorsteps. He set people up unknowingly on dates that would shape the rest of their lives. It made his day to day life more exciting and happy- and it made the people who received these miracles even happier. What made his day made other people’s lives.