“It is Friday the
thirteenth. Write a chain of events that
happen to the main character.”
Approx. 1,186 words
FRIDAY THE 13TH
©2003 by Mae Ondracek
Mike laughed
when he looked at the calendar. Today
was Friday the thirteenth. Well, he
wasn’t superstitious, so nothing was going to go wrong today.
He hurried to
take a shower but the hot water quit when he was only half rinsed off.
“Drat! I knew I should have had that
fixed last week.”
As Mike was
dressing, two buttons, on his shirt, came off in his hand. The bottom one didn’t matter but the next to
the top one would show. He quickly
ripped that shirt off, grabbed another one and carefully buttoned it. Finally he was all dressed but only fifteen
minutes before he had to leave for work.
Not enough time to eat his regular breakfast of bacon and eggs, so he made
two slices of toast, grabbed his briefcase, and ran out the door, not noticing
there was toilet paper peeking out from under his jacket.
He was a
quarter of a mile from work when the car choked and died. He managed to coast onto the shoulder of the
road but nothing he did would start the car again. He grabbed his briefcase and sprinted the rest of the way to the office, which made him
fifteen minutes late. As he opened the
door, all eyes turned his way, “Good morning.
Get back to work everyone.”
He shut his
office door and took one step when he heard,
‘ri.i.i.ip.’
He threw his briefcase down, opened the office door a crack, and removed
the tail of his suit coat.
The intercom
blared, but only gibberish came over it.
Mike jerked open the office door and yelled, “Who has been messing with
the intercom? It doesn’t work.”
Miss Lark,
whose desk was the closest to his office, looked up and said, “You were
supposed to call the man to have if fixed two days ago, Sir.”
“Thank you,
Miss Lark. I completely forgot,” he said
as he turned around.
“A-hem,” Miss
Lark said as she choked back laughter.
“Mr. Break, there is toilet paper hanging down the back of your pants.”
Mike reached
back, felt the paper, and quickly ran into his office, slamming the door
shut. He tidied himself up and got a
spare suit coat out of the closet. Mike
then called the intercom people to come fix the system. “Sorry, sir, we are swamped with work and
can’t make it until Monday afternoon.”
“All right,”
Mike said and jumped as the intercom blared.
He quickly switched it off, opened the door, and announced, “No one is
to use the intercom until it is fixed Monday afternoon. If you have something to say, come to my office.”
Mrs. Brown
stood up, walked to Mike’s office, and lightly rapped on the door. “Come in,” he said.
“Yes, Mrs.
Brown. What can I do for you?”
“I..I..I just wanted to let you know you have two different
colored sox on today, Sir.”
Mike quickly
looked down at his feet, then back at Mrs. Brown. His face turned red as he stammered, “Th..th..thank
you, Mrs. Brown. I hope nothing else is
wrong.”
“No, sir,” and
she shut his office door.
She stood
against the door jam, holding back her laughter and noticed everyone else was
snickering behind their hands. They
wondered what had gotten into Mr. Break.
He was always such a well-dressed, proper man, and this really was
something different. They couldn’t help but laugh.
Everyone
jumped as they heard a crash from Mr. Break’s office. They waited expectantly for the door to open
and when it didn’t, Miss Lark knocked on his door, “Is everything all right,
Sir?”
There was no
answer, so she knocked again, louder, “Mr. Break, are you all right?”
The door slowly
opened and he said, “I’m Okay, but can someone please come in and clean up this
mess. I tripped and knocked my pictures
off the desk and there is glass all over the carpet.”
“Sure, Mr.
Break, I’ll call maintenance right away.”
Mr. Break sat
at his desk, somewhat afraid to touch or do anything. He had never had such a terrible day before
and then he remembered he forgot to call for a tow truck to take his car to the
garage. That done, he looked at his
schedule and saw Mr. Worth was supposed to see him at
“Fine! Fine! Please come in.”
“Well. Mr.
Break, it looks like the pictures didn’t get any scratches. This is one pretty young lady.”
“Thank you,
Jim. She is a wonderful girl and I miss
her while she is visiting her grandmother.”
Mr. Blake
finished his cleaning and left as another knock sounded on his door. Miss Lark said, “Mr. Worth is here, Sir.”
“Send him in,
Miss Lark,” Mike said.
As Mr. Worth
entered, Mike rose from his chair, catching his suit coat button on the
drawer. The button came off and ripped
the material. Mike sat down, put his head
in his hands and said, “I sure hope nothing else goes wrong. This has been a very bad day and it isn’t
over, yet.”
Mr. Worth
laughed and said, “Surely you don’t believe in bad things happening just
because it’s Friday the thirteenth, do you?”
“Ordinarily,
no, but today has been one bad thing after another. Just ask my co-workers.”
“I’ve had bad
days like that,” Mr. Worth said laughing, “and it wasn’t even Friday the
thirteenth.”
“I
understand,” Mike said. “Let’s get down
to business.”
They talked
for over an hour and as Mr. Worth rose to leave, Mike came around the desk and
shook his hand. “It has been a pleasure,
Mr. Worth.”
Mr. Worth went
down on one knee and cried out in pain, grabbing his right hand. Very concerned, Mike asked, “What is the
matter, John?”
“It feels like
you broke my hand when you squeezed too hard.”
“Oh, my God! Let me see and I’ll take you to the doctor.”
As Mr. Worth
stood up, Mike said, “Drat! I forgot, my
car broke down this morning, but I can call you a cab.”
Mr. Worth shook
his hand and said, “Forget it, Mike, its fine.
See, I can move it okay. I guess
things inside just rubbed together the wrong way. I’ll see you again, Mike, but take it easy.”
“I’m sorry,
John. Hope it doesn’t affect your golf
game tomorrow.”
“If it does,
I’ll know who to blame.”
The phone rang
and the garage man said Mike’s car was fixed and he could pick it up
anytime. Mike stuck his head out the
office door and asked, “Miss Lark, will you please drive me to Erick’s Garage
to pick up my car?”
“Yes, sir, how soon?”
“Right now! This has
been a very bad day and I want to get home before anything more happens. I guess even a boss-man can have troubles on
Friday the thirteenth.”