most of us are blissfully unaware of The Near Misses; the calamitous collisions with Fate that could have Changed Everything but, improbably, didn’t when the seemingly inevitable conclusion of the chain of Could Have Beens doesn’t actually make itself manifest – much to the chagrin of The Cosmic Oddsmakers – and allows one to continue to hold the belief while watching the nightly news that The Horrors only happen to other people.

but occasionally the veil is lifted, such as when you find a burned out plug that likely caught fire, given the wisps of carbon on the wall above the outlet, just a few feet from your child’s bedroom that leaves you left to ponder What Is and What Could Have Been.