A man walks down the street not going anywhere in particular when, from the corner ahead, comes a man’s voice.

            Drawing closer, the walking man begins to make out what is being said…“Doom! The End is Near!” the man on the corner yells. A crowd of over a dozen onlookers have gathered to watch the spectacle. Gesticulating with his hands, the man on the corner launches into a further diatribe of how everyone is not long for this world.

            Irritated to say the least, the walking man slows and gives the man on the corner a good looking over. He finds him to be a rather nondescript man of middling years. Clean cut and with the look of intelligence in his eyes, yet this prophecy of doom makes him seem…slightly off center.

            “You are crazy!” the walking man exclaims, bringing the steady stream of doom to a stop. His words draw the attention of the man on the corner. Eyes of glittering intelligence gaze at him with a slight upward curving at the corners of the mouth. The man’s expression elicits yet more annoyance.

            “Crazy am I?” the man asks. Gesturing to the growing number of people gathered around him, the man says, “Very soon, all will be gone.”

            “Gone?” the man laughs derisively. “I think not.”

            “Man and beast. Rock and stone. All will be as dust.”

            “Ha!” replied the walking, now standing, man. After glancing around at the bustling of streets, cars, and people moving along quite normally, he turns his attention to the crowd gathered about the man. A few of the faces show concern, maybe even a touch of fear. The affects this man’s words were having on these people aggravates him still further.

            “Don’t scare people with your stupid words of doom!” he commands. “You are nothing but a crazy fool.”

            Again the crooked grin comes to the man’s face. “Do you not believe that all must turn to dust”?” he asks in a calm and reasonable voice. “It will you know.”

            “I seriously doubt that,” replies the man. His turns his attention once more to the crowd. “Do not believe the words of this man,” he says. “He doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

            “And do you know everything that I know?” the man on the corner asks. “Or is your truth the only truth?” The grin widens as the other’s face grows redder. “Can not another know a truth that you do not?”

            Anger fills him as he stares into the mocking grin. “I know enough to know that the world is not going to end today, or even tomorrow!” he shouted. “In fact…”      Continuing to argue, he grows more and more infuriated at the mocking grin.

            A third man emerges from the drug store and pauses upon seeing the crowd of people on the corner nearby. From where he stands, he sees one man yelling at another. Red faced and appearing to be borderline homicidal by the way he’s acting. The third man shakes his head. “Crazy fool,” he mutters then turns and walks away.

            As he makes his way down the sidewalk, the third man hears a laugh come from the corner behind him. “What is soon in the span of the universe…” a voice began then the third man moved too far away and the rest of whatever was said went unheard.