When had the wrench begun tightening?

It felt as if every time he turned around nuts and bolts and other facets and fasteners of his life would come undone and disappear forever.

THE YEAR OF THE WRENCH BY JED WYMAN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 32

He came to calling it The Year of the Wrench. The year the wrench of perspective began tightening and loosening things he was familiar with so rapidly that it felt as if every time he turned around nuts and bolts and other facets and fasteners of his life would come undone or spill out of his pockets and roll between the bars of the sidewalk grate and disappear forever. The name The Year of the Wrench came to him while he was waiting at the DMV for his number to be called. Across from him an Oregon old timer with tattooed hands wearing an Edelbrock sweatshirt, who he guessed to be an ex-con, was telling a younger man about his family history, how his relatives had been some of the first to settle near Lincoln City. Real Sometimes a Great Nation shit. He wanted to listen, but he was …