Coincidences

"I believe in coincidence. Coincidences happen every day. But I don't trust coincidences. "
Elim Garak quoted from'Cardassians'.

Coincidences are either manufactured by mortals or they are the product of blind chance. It's the manufactured ones I don't trust; especially those particularly engineered for me.

Most of the Bajoran inhabitants of the station see their coincidences divinely sourced. I observe that this makes up a good proportion of their spiritual lives. Forinstance, the new Jumja confectionary seller Doran Matar emoted to me yesterday that it was the Prophets who had led him and his business to the station.

"For what purpose?" I probed.

"It was to save the life of a Revered monk - curator of the temple on this station. He collapsed in front of my stall on the promenade - right at my feet. It was me who attended to him and signalled a medical emergency. Clearly the prophets guided me to be there at that precise place and time to save his life." said Doran, with a voice of reverance.

"Was there no one else on the promenade at the time who could have helped this poor man?" I questioned - hoping for some reasoned debate; knowing full well that during trading hours on the promenade it was always busy.

Doran looked at me darkly. "It was the will of the prophets!. I was meant to save him. Now if you will excuse me I must see to my customers."

I turned around expecting to see a queue of hungry Jumja connaisseurs behind me. None were to be found."Who am I to stand in the way of a flourishing enterprise?" I smiled, briefly allowing the surreal moment to suspend a little more.

I continued to smile. "But before I go, you might be interested to note that Prilar Toran, ex temple curator has been incarcerated for fraud. He took half of the donations given by hardworking worhippers such as yourself to try and fund weapons for a renegade political group called 'The True Way'. Isn't it remarkable how the course of a life can change?. Good day to you Doran."

I added a polite "Excuse me." to the fictional line of his salivating customers before returning to my humble shop - to hopefully service some real flesh and blood clientel.