What If...

In his memoir, On Writing, Stephen King opines that any work (specifically his) can be boiled down to one question...what if?  From his work...what if you were stuck in a car with a rabid dog outside?  If you're Stephen King, you have Cujo.  For the rest of us, it works for every piece of literature that we read.  You can boil it down to the simple question...what if?  What if the person you loved unconditionally asked the unthinkable?  What if you could trade your life for someone else's?  What would you give up for "true love"?  How far would you go to chase a dream?  The questions are limitless, and many of us will never have the opportunity ask, much less answer, them.  Which is why I find literature so amazing.  For a short period of time, we get to experience the unthinkable, we get to look into lives that we can't imagine, and we get to step outside ourselves and ask...what if?