Kevin Wilson's Worst-Case Scenario And Blowing Up On The Spot

Analysis of Kevin Wilson’s “Worst-Case Scenario” and “Blowing Up on the Spot” Everyone has a sense of longing in life, but there are some people who can never see the good in it. The book, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, written by Kevin Wilson, has two short stories that show the best example of this: “Worst-Case Scenario” and “Blowing Up on the Spot.” These first-person stories tell us of two men who are always waiting for the worst thing to happen. In “Worst-Case Scenario,” the narrator tells others of the worst possible outcome for them or their company, but he is also worried that he will lose all his hair and become single forever. In “Blowing Up On The Spot,” Leonard is always waiting and pondering on the day he might blow up
He just goes through the motions, taking one day at a time. He does this because he feels that one day soon he will blow up. Three years have passed since his parents have spontaneously combusted and he wonders “if spontaneous combustion is hereditary” (33). He also has the job of collecting Q’s for the scrabble factory he works for, which is a boring job for his boring life. Leonard lives with his younger brother Caleb. Caleb is suicidal which really brings more stress to Leonard. With his boring, unhappy, and stressed out life all Leonard can really focus on is when is he going to blow up just like his parents
He has Joan. She has been there for him and his brother since they moved into the apartment above the candy shop. One morning Joan stayed with Leonard and he noticed something strange. The “nearness of her” (41) make him forget that he is not at work, doing something he has never done before, miss work. He has always gone to the job he didn’t like. At that moment he realized that she could change his whole world around. On the day Leonard quit his job, he found himself “running back to the candy shop, to Joan”