Sebalec was special. He was special, and he knew it. Not because anyone had ever really said he was special in any way…In fact, now that he thought about it, he was probably almost unique in the fact that not even his own mother had ever said he was “her special little boy” or any such thing mothers commonly say to reassure themselves that Their offspring are not as meaningless as all the other children.
He had known that he was special for as long as he remembered, not special in any specific way, at least to his knowledge, but just special. He was quite certain that he would be someone of significance, maybe not someone famous, someone remembered in history as a Great man, but someone who would change the world in some way. A man in the background, yet someone who made a true difference. Of this he was quite sure, confident even. He had been all his life, and had found no reason that could convince him otherwise, not yet at any rate.
He had, as a child, imagined that he might be a doctor or a researcher who was part of a team trying to find the cure to a dreadful disease. As the one who actually, perhaps even almost* by accident, found the missing key and thus solved the problem that had held them back for so long. Of course he would let the acclaim go to the whole team in general, and to the men with the money. That was the way things worked, he knew. He would not mind, because for him it was enough that he knew it had been His discovery that lead to the cure. He would know, just as he knew that he was special.
Unfortunately, as he lay there thinking, in a pool of his own life’s blood, feeling his strength fade away, he realized that he had been dead wrong. This was that reason, the idea came over him with a crushing force, pushing his last breath out of his body; a faint spiral of air in a dank back alley somewhere where even sunlight neglected to visit. Sebalec would never be special, never change the world in any special way. He would never achieve that personal satisfaction now, because he was dead.
* * *
* He did have give himself some credit and not let it be a fluke, of course.
