Orson Scott Card is an author of many fictional novels and short stories, most known for his science fiction work...in particular, the very popular Ender's Game, which was recently adapted to the screen. I own a collection of his short fiction, titled Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (Orb Books, 1990). The book itself is 662 pages long, but the story I'm discussing today, Deep Breathing Exercises, takes up only 5. And it is one of the most intense short stories I've ever read...
Dale Yorgason is a young man living in Denver, Colorado with his wife and their two-year old son. By all accounts they have a bright future ahead of them...and then Dale begins to notice situations when people around him are breathing in unison...all inhaling and exhaling at the same time. This alone would be an incredible coincidence, but Dale also sees that these incidents portend something ominous...
In spite of the brevity of Deep Breathing Exercises, the events described in it are momentous. Yet Card was able to skillfully develop the protagonist's character and explore the philosophical basis for arguments about predestined fate...and whether a warning from the future is even logically possible. This story would be perfect for Twilight Zone and reminds me of Stephen King's best short fiction. A good read, albeit pretty disturbing...
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