Jinxed
 

It all started as a normal day. I woke up, complained about how I had to wake up, brushed my teeth, took a shower, etc. The weather was terrible, as a freak rainstorm had come in overnight, and the city of San Francisco was in a constant state of downpour. On my way out the door I grabbed my umbrella but I must have hit a button on the end, and it popped open, knocking over a flower vase. It crashed to the floor and crumble into millions of tiny pieces. If you ask anyone, they would say I am the most non-superstitious person they know. The only reason that umbrella stuff was made up was because no one wants to open an umbrella inside because it's going to wreck something. I started the tedious job of picking up every bit of ceramic there was because I don’t know about you but I don’t want to step on little bits of glass every time I walk by. Knowing that I was late already, I rushed out the door to work in hopes I could make it there only a few minutes late I’m a marketing manager at corporation in downtown San Francisco, so I didn't have that far to go.

Once I got to work, the umbrella in my hand was thrown into the umbrella holder, because I already knew I was late. As soon as I got up to my office and realized that I was missing a meeting right then, so I grabbed my briefcase and headed to the conference room. On the way there I stopped in a mirror to check that I looked presentable and my briefcase must have accidentally hit the mirror and it shattered to the floor. The custodians were cleaning today so I ran to the meeting.I felt like I had just sat down when the meeting concluded and it was time to go. On my way out the wind picked up and my umbrella blew out of my hands. It was a cheap umbrella, so I wasn’t worried, but I didn't want to get soaked, so I ran for cover and I happened to stumble under a ladder that a roofer was using to fix a leak. Since it was still pouring, I decided to hop into the nearest restaurant to grab some dinner which happened to be a Chinese restaurant around the block from work .Everyone knows the alley is the fastest way to go, so I headed to the nearest one. In the alley I accidentally knocked over a trash can, and, as soon as I did, a black cat and its little kittens ran across my path. I was careful to step over them and ran into the Chinese food place and started to look at the menu. My friends called to see if I wanted anything to eat because we were having a board game night that night and I didn't know what the food plans were. I told them I was at a Chinese food place and they said to pick up some fried rice to bring so I got that and my go to, orange chicken. Before I left, I grabbed a fortune cookie as a snack and just for a good laugh I read the note in the cookie. It said “ Be wary of what lies ahead.” It was a strange fortune, so I tossed it in the garbage and headed over to my friends house.

As soon as I knocked on the door it opened and my friends were already gathered around the table. Yahtzee was laid out on the table, ready for us to play. The couch called my name, so I sat down and pulled out the chinese food. I always like things a little salty so I grabbed some salt from the cabinet and sprinkled it on my food. When I set the shaker back down it tipped over and salt spilled all over the table. My friend said no worries and swept it off onto the ground. As I ate, I watched my friends play until it was my turn. With an extra shake of the dice for good luck, I threw them out on the table. I read each dice and I had rolled three sixes in line with each other, and two ones.They weren’t the best, but I marked them down on my paper and passed the die onto the next person in line. It was a fun filled night of Chinese food, games and yelling of the word Yahtzee.

That night, I curled up into bed, read my book, and then started to fall asleep. I checked the time on my phone and it was eleven o'clock on friday the thirteenth. Only an hour left in the day. As my brain started to drift off, I sat straight up in revelation. The umbrella inside the house, the mirror breaking, accidentally running under a ladder, the black cat crossing my path, the weird fortune, the three sixes, spilling the salt, all on friday the thirteenth.They were all superstitions. The ones I claimed I didn't believe. But if all of them happened on the same, superstitious day, would that mean that it was a bad omen? I had never thought of them as real before, but all of them combined in one day was just crazy. They started to convince me that these were real, and that something terrible was about to happen.

The next day I woke up and then I realized what had happened yesterday. I tip toed around my house, deciding to stay in all day. Every light was never left off, every corner checked, I lived in that house in fear. I didn’t want to leave, cereal was my breakfast lunch and dinner, and all I did was watch the news to make sure that there was no natural disaster headed straight towards me. My imagination wreaked havoc on my day. Every drip, every creak, every squeak made me flinch in fear, expecting that someone would walk through my door and stab me, or a freak sinkhole swallowed the entire city. I was so fearful, I barely even remember what I did that day. Finally, I climbed into bed, weary from my constant state of vigilance, and flipped on my light switch to read my book. I had made it through the day without anything as much as a bump, bruise, or lightning strike. The feeling of relief that I felt as I grabbed my book off my bedstand was unexplainable. I was about to flip to the page I left off when I felt a sharp sting on my left index finger. My book had given me a papercut.