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Short Story

Street Entertainment

Luke Tarassenko is determined to make a splash.

I was reflecting on the idea that all of us are shackled to the dictates of determinism as I took my Sunday afternoon stroll through town when I came across a large crowd of people.

A huge herd of them stared with open mouths and empty heads at a muscular man with a shaved head and a demented grin who was standing at the top of a small flight of steps leading to a wooden platform. Next to the platform was a transparent cylinder about as tall as two men, filled about three-quarters of the way up with water.

The man held a rope in one hand and was gesticulating with the other in time with the rise and fall of his frantic speech: “Any one of you can tie me up with this rope, and I’ll escape from it while submerged in the water – quickly enough not to drown, you’ll be pleased to hear! There’s no reason to worry, of course.

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