Friday the 13th

As he left for work that morning he felt a kind of foreboding. He couldn’t understand why. After all, it was Friday, the last day of his work week, so he had two days of fun and relaxation to look forward to. He shrugged it off, just as he had done earlier when the coffee maker had sent up a little cloud of smoke and refused to provide him with his morning wake-up coffee.

He turned the key in the ignition to start the car but instead nothing happened. No sound or anything. It didn’t even try to start. Dead battery he supposed. He felt his stomach tighten as the first twinges of stress kicked in.

He didn’t have time to deal with a balky car so he went back to the house to phone for a taxi. When he got to the door he discovered he had left his keys in the car. What if he’d locked them in? The stress climbed to a higher notch. But no, the door was not locked because the dead battery wouldn’t allow it.

He retrieved the keys and went into the house. Going into the kitchen he picked up the phone. No dial tone. He tried replacing the handset and picking it up again. Still no tone. He felt the stress take another jump.

He slammed the phone down and headed upstairs to get his cellphone which he had left plugged into the charger. Halfway up he stumbled and nearly fell back down the stairs. His temper flared.

Finally upstairs, just as he reached for his phone, he noticed the calendar. Friday the 13th! He freaked. Friday the 13th was bad news. No wonder things were going wrong.

He decided then and there he was not leaving the house for the rest of the day. In fact, he was going back to bed and stay there until at least after midnight when it would be the 14th.

He grabbed his phone and called his boss. Told him he had a terrible pain in his leg and wouldn’t be in. As he ended the call he smiled. He had lied to his boss, but it was just a little lie. No harm done.

He walked over and sat on the bed. He slipped his shoes off but decided to just leave his clothes on. He eased into the bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. He sighed with relief. No more bad Friday the 13th things could happen to him while he was in bed. And he drifted off to sleep.

Sometime later he was jarred awake by pain. Intense pain. During his sleep, he had rolled over and fallen out of the bed. And when he hit the floor, he had broken his leg.

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