For Brimmer, who has the gift of long life, time is an interesting phenomenon. In this section of the story, things are about to move in a different direction:
Brimmer never figured that a miscalculation in arch width would lead to the incineration of Max Splunt. He hadn’t suspected Max for a man likely to kill thousands in one desperate act of spite.
Management called Brimmer in. “Brimmer,” they said, “you’re a miracle worker, although it is a mystery, a great mystery. That millimeter mistake of yours saved ten thousand people from being crushed and burned.”
“He’s with me now, Brimmer,” Death said. “And boy is he sorry he tried to sabotage the whole business just to ruin you.”
“I never took him for an evil man,” Brimmer responded to Death. “Horrible craftsman, yes. He didn’t become you.”
The space is comprised of four paragraphs and three links to separate paths that will all meet at a common space where the story will proceed. The reader wont need to follow all three paths to find continuity or context because each path, while offering different takes on Max Splunt’s sabotage and death, covers enough information, yet each path colors the experience of the narrative in different ways.
Management is a collective noun here. It speaks in one royal voice. It doesn’t matter where they called him in and what was on the office walls. And what is the relation between Managements and Death’s conversations? What are the times? Are they sequentially related? This shouldn’t matter. Both conversations happened and are intrinsically important not important because they follow one another. In this way, they become like objects or images in Brimmer’s experience: memories.