"It
is Friday the 13th. Write a chain of events that happen to the main
character."
Approx 2,889 words
HEXED
©2003 by W. E.
Lopez
Jerry Henning
noted the clock on the television read
He went to his
nightstand and set the alarm for
The bachelor
party his office chums insisted on throwing for him was still going strong when
Jerry left Boobies a Go-Go, but Jerry
pleaded the need to get some sleep before getting up in the morning. His flight to
With both
alarms set, Jerry slipped out of his clothes and between the covers. Helped by the few drinks at the party, he was
asleep in just a few moments.
* *
*
The clock on the
nightstand read
Screeching to
a halt just yards from the scene of the crash, the police radioed for an
ambulance, as well as a repair crew from PG&E. The fleeing suspect was arrested and taken to
the Emergency Room at Valley Memorial where his minor injuries were attended to
before he was released to the custody of the Hawthorne Police Department.
Power was
restored to Jerry Henning’s home at
* *
*
Awakened by a repeated pounding on his door, Jerry immediately
noticed the sunlight streaming through his bedroom window. He glanced first at one clock and then the
other and was dismayed to see them both flashing
“Kee-rist!” Jerry swore.
He slipped from the bed and threw a robe on as he staggered to the door
and opened it.
“Come on, Jerry!
You didn’t stay that long at the party!
It’s after eight and I don’t see how you can make your flight.” Patrick Sorensen had agreed to be Jerry’s
best man and they planned to take the flight together.
“Eight? No way
can I make it… I’ve still got to shower, shave, and get dressed. Do you think I can catch a later flight,
Pat?”
“On a Friday? I think
you have two chances, Jerry, slim and none.
Probably every flight from southern
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Let me catch a quick shower, will you? Ya’ want to take
your car or mine?”
“That
“I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll be out of the shower in a shake, Pat.”
As good as his word, Jerry reappeared in less than
ten minutes. He wore casual charcoal
slacks, a powder blue polo shirt, and suede loafers. Over his shoulder he carried a garment bag
with his freshly pressed suit, shirt, and tie, while in the other hand he
carried a small over-night case with the essentials for a brief honeymoon in
the
Pat looked up from a sports report on ESPN news and
said, “I tried to call Stacey while you were in the shower, but I guess she’s
still in the air.”
“Probably, Pat, although I always get confused with
the time changes, I can’t imagine how she keeps them straight. She left
“Lucky guy, Jerry, not only marrying one of the
prettiest stews working for Delta, but getting away from Beta-Soft while we
work our tails off on the new server firewall.”
“Very lucky, Pat. Walters
didn’t want to let me go, but I convinced him that 16 months without a vacation
should put me at the top of the list, and my own wedding is more important to
me than his firewall project.”
“Come on,” Pat said.
“Let’s quit gabbing and make tracks.
Let me have your suit and I’ll lay it out in the back for you. We wouldn’t want it to get wrinkled, would
we?”
Shortly they were headed east on the 91, intending to
catch I-15 at
By
“Just my luck,” Pat said. “As if the insurance on a ‘Vette isn’t bad enough, another speeding ticket will jump
my rates at least two-fifty per year.”
Jerry commiserated with his buddy, but sat silent while the officer
slowly wrote out the ticket and went to his cruiser to verify the license and
registration and check for wants and warrants.
“You might want to take it just a little easier on
your way to Vegas, Mr. Sorensen. Lots of
accidents on that stretch of highway and emergency facilities are few and far
between.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll be careful. Thank you, officer.” As the officer walked back to the cruiser,
Pat switched on the engine and sedately entered traffic again. “We’ve only 86 miles to go, Jerry, and it’s
just twenty past one. I told you I’d get
you there buddy! Why don’t you try your
cell phone and see if you can get hold of Stacey?”
Jerry did try, but the drop-out rate along that
hundred mile stretch of highway is quite high.
No sooner would Stacey’s phone begin to ring than they would round a
curve and the connection would be lost as Jerry’s phone indicated “No Service.”
“No luck, Pat.
Perhaps when we’re over
Pat pushed the ‘Vette up to
85 again as they began that long climb to the summit. Jerry, a little anxious, said, “Pat, pushing
the car that hard is sure to overheat the engine before we get to the top. Why don’t you shut off the air conditioning,
or at least slow down a little and down shift to a lower gear?”
“Slow down a Corvette, Jerry? You’ve got to be kidding. The needle has barely creeped
up a notch anyway.”
Ten minutes later, Pat couldn’t help but pull the car
to the side of the road when the needle went dangerously into the red
zone. “That will teach me to mouth off
at you, Jerry. I’m sorry; it looks like
we’ll be delayed again.”
“It can’t be more than a mile before we reach the
top, Pat. Are you game to try pushing
this buggy?”
“Okay, okay, it’s my fault anyway. I’ll give it a try if you’ll put your back
into it.” Under the glaring sun, they
pushed and pushed the ‘Vette up the hill. By the time they had barely made it to the
down-grade, both men were soaked with perspiration and dead tired from the
exertion.
“Hop in,” Pat yelled.
“When we start coasting, the air flowing through the engine compartment
will cool it down quickly.”
“But, isn’t it illegal to coast with the engine off,
Jerry?”
“You want to make it in time for your wedding, don’t
you? Don’t try to teach your grandmother
to suck eggs!”
The car picked up speed slowly, but soon they were
doing almost sixty as they hurtled down the long down-grade. Pat kept the key on to keep the dash
instruments live. As soon as the
temperature needle dropped below the warning mark he started the engine. The well tuned machine began purring like a
tiger and he turned on the air conditioning again.
“Sheesh! I thought I
was gonna die with that heat, Jerry. Next time you decide to get married, I hope
it will be some where north of the
Jerry was about to make a reply when he heard a sound
like a gunshot and Pat began fighting the wheel.
“Damn!” Pat said.
“We must have blown a tire!
Jerry, this wedding is certainly turning out to be a jinx for the both
of us. For two cents, I’d turn us around
and save you a lot of grief for the rest of your life…, but before I can do
that, we’ve got a tire to change.”
Pat found an off-ramp, fortunately nearby, and they
got the car off the heavily traveled freeway where they could change the tire
in safety. They found the right rear had
blown, and the rim had been slightly damaged when the steel hit the
asphalt. “Damn! It looks like I’m gonna
have to spend four hundred bucks for a new wheel, Jerry. Let’s get the spare on this puppy, and we’ll be on our way again before you can shake a stick.”
Pat retrieved the jack from the luggage compartment
and handed it to Jerry who began the task of loosening the lug-nuts before
jacking the car up. “Sorry again, Jerry,
but you can save yourself the trouble.
This toy-doughnut is flatter than last year’s pancake batter. I’m sorry, I’ve never needed to use it and I guess I sort of forgot to check it.”
“Well, that just about tears it, Pat, but I can’t
blame you because I missed my flight.
What the heck can we do now?”
“If you’re dead certain you want to go through with
this wedding, Jerry, why don’t you hitch-hike the rest of the way. It’s less than fifty miles and I’m sure
you’ll make it on time. Do me a favor
when you go through Jeane, won’t you? Stop at a garage and send a tow-truck back
for me.”
“That will be the least I can do, chum. You sure you won’t mind my leaving you here?”
“Go on, mule-head. Get yourself
to the church on time and marry that girl.”
Jerry didn’t need to be told twice. He began walking down the on-ramp and stuck
out his thumb as soon as he hit the road way.
As luck would have it, he caught a ride in just a few moments.
Jerry was mildly surprised to see an attractive young
woman driving the Volvo, while her boyfriend (husband?) sat in the back
seat. Perhaps the man had been napping
while the lady drove?
Jerry was not as pleasantly surprised ten minutes
later when he found himself walking along the highway again, after having been
relieved of his wallet, cell phone and the wedding ring he was carrying when
the man pulled a Saturday night special on him.
Should he dare try to hitch another ride? He could see the casinos at Stateline just a
few miles ahead of him, why not play it safe and just
keep walking?
Jerry heard the brief ‘whoop’ of a siren and glanced
behind him to see a highway patrol cruiser pulling to the side of the road and
the officer motioning him to the passenger door. What luck!
He would be safe riding with this fellow as far as Stateline anyway.
“Get in,” the officer told him gruffly. “You got any ID?”
“I’m sorry, officer, I was just robbed by a couple
who gave me a ride. I’m on my way to
Vegas to get married.”
“And I guess you don’t know it’s against the law to
hitch hike on a freeway in this state?
I’m sorry, but I’ll have to write you up.”
“But it’s the truth, officer! My buddy was driving me when we blew a tire
just a little ways back. Surely you must
have passed a red Corvette?” He realized,
with Pat pulled off the highway at the off-ramp, the officer couldn’t have seen
the car. “I was walking because our
spare was flat, and planned to call a tow-truck as soon as possible. Then this couple in a Volvo picked me up, but
then they robbed me.”
“Look, I’ll give you a break, buddy. We’ll turn around and if you can show me
where your buddy is parked, I’ll call a tow-truck for you and let you go. Has your buddy got any money to pay the
bill?”
“Of course, he’s gonna be
my best-man and probably plans to spend a few hours gambling after the wedding
before he drives back to
The officer put the car in gear and crossed the
highway during a lull in the traffic, then raised a cloud of dust as he made a tire-spinning
U-turn on the gravel median between the lanes.
“Okay, we’ll check out your story.
You don’t suppose this could be fate’s way of advising against this
marriage? What’s your lady doing in
Vegas anyway?”
“She’s an airline hostess who just returned from a
European hop,” Jerry said. “She was gonna dead-head from
The officer quickly took the off-ramp and then the
bridge across the highway where they found Pat sitting in the scarce shade next
to his Corvette.
“You know this fellow?” the officer asked as he and
Jerry stepped out of the police cruiser.
“What have you done now, Jerry? Sure I do, officer. As you can see, we had a blowout and the
spare is flat. Jerry was headed down the
road to see if we could get a tow-truck.”
“Okay, Jerry, I guess that verifies your story. Now, if you’ll give me a description of the
car and the couple that robbed you, I’ll radio it ahead and we’ll alert the
Jerry told the officer all he could remember, not
forgetting to remind the officer about calling for a tow-truck. For once, Lady Luck smiled at them today,
when the tow-truck operator offered to bring them a new tire, although the
price he was asking was un-armed robbery!
“Any port in a storm,” Pat sighed. “Ask him if he’ll take VISA,” he said to the
officer.
They did, they would, at
“I’ve had a few problems, Stacey. I’ve had one delay after another, but I’m at
the wedding chapel now. Where are you?”
“Jerry, I’m stuck in
“I guess our luck has been running the same course,
honey. You sure you still want to go
through with this wedding?”
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet, Jerry. I’ll be there in five or six more hours and I
still want to get married. But you
better book us a hotel room, because it’s highly doubtful we’ll be able to make
a flight to
“You betcha, honey. I’ll call you
again as soon as I book us into a hotel.”
“I’ll be waiting, Jer. Kiss-kiss!”
“Kiss back,” he said before disconnecting.
“We’re still on,” he relayed to Pat, “but I hope
you’ll advance me the cost of a hotel room on your credit card. Bonnie and
“Of course I will, Jerry. I plan to be the only man in line to kiss the
bride, but let this be a warning to you in the future.”
“Eh? A warning? About what?”
“Don’t plan your next wedding for Friday the
Thirteenth.”