Ten Moments at Which the Words “Excuse Me” Would Have Sufficed

Ranked by how completely they would have

There exist moments resolved entirely by two words, freely available and requiring no preparation. The Collection ranks ten such moments by the completeness of the resolution forgone, and notes that the first would have resolved not merely a moment but the subsequent twenty-five years.

No. 1 · The Standing Entry The Cumberland Farms register, Concord, New Hampshire, the 9th of November, 2001. (See the record.) Two words. The entire Collection — every page, every bulletin, the seal, the wax stamp, this enumeration — occupies the exact space those two words would have filled. They were available. They were not said. Here we all are.
Reaching across someone at a buffet.An arm crosses a face. Two words would have excused it.
Squeezing past in a theatre row.Knees turn. The film is missed by everyone but you.
Interrupting, mid-sentence, with something unrelated.The sentence is never recovered. It is gone now.
Taking a call on speaker in a quiet car.Both halves of the conversation, offered to the whole carriage.
Backing into someone in a crowd.Contact made, blame distributed silently and unfairly.
Correcting a stranger who was, in fact, right.The words would have prevented the correction entirely.
Arriving forty minutes late with no preamble.An entrance that two words would have converted into an apology.
Reading over a shoulder on the train.The page is turned, pointedly. You keep reading.
Beginning a list, such as this one, without warning.The Collection acknowledges that it, too, might have said the words.

Bulletin No. 013 will rank ten acts of quiet, dignified remembrance. The first cost $2.78.