Friday the 13th

Bob jerked awake but restrained his desire to leap out of bed on this very dangerous day. It was Friday the 13th so he carefully placed his right foot on the floor, waited a moment, and then deliberately set the left one down. There was no possibility of starting out on the wrong foot today. He got dressed with unusual care, checking to see that nothing was on inside out or backwards and that he had no loose buttons that might suddenly separate themselves from the garment to which they had been attached. He would have liked to stay home all day but he had an important physics test that he couldn’t miss. Finally, he put on his lucky socks, which were argyle, and his good sneakers after checking to make sure he had a penny in the right one.

In the kitchen, his sister, Karen, was eating breakfast, which consisted mostly of jam and a small amount of toast to hold it up.

“Hi,” Bob said. “You want some bread with that jelly?”

“Hi,” Karen replied, ignoring Bob’s comment. She looked up.

“It’s Friday the 13th!” they cried at the same time.

“Jinx!” Another simultaneous exclamation.

Bob stuck out his pinky to meet Karen’s. They linked fingers and then pulled them apart to vanquish the bad luck that could so easily follow.

“You want some breakfast?” Karen crammed half a slice of bread into her mouth and began to clean up.

“I’ll get something on the way to class,” Bob replied.

“Mom said be careful,” Karen called as her brother walked out the door.

“I always am,” Bob called back.

The university was located at the top of a huge hill where it could look down over the town and bathe the inhabitants in its glorious light of wisdom and learning. At least, that was what Bob had been told since he was in elementary school. For this reason, he had been happy and excited when he was accepted to enter those hallowed halls of learning, but now he thought mostly about the long trudge uphill, carrying books and a laptop, and the steep skid back down at the end of the day. The ancient and very beautiful trees that lined the streets had long ago lifted the concrete sidewalks, adding a pattern of cracks to the inevitable lines between sections. This created a special problem for Bob as he tiptoed and hopped over the worst parts. He was not about to accidentally step on either a line or crack, even if it wouldn’t literally break his mother’s back or his father’s spine. He certainly couldn’t risk it today of all days.

Bob’s knees were aching from the long climb. Upon reflection, he realized that he probably should have eaten at home, so he turned at the first cross street that would lead to the campus and where there were some stores and restaurants. Very close to the corner, Bob saw a new place that he had never noticed before or that, in fact, had not been there in the past. Even if he had not been starving by this time, the large coffee shop called The Four Leaf Clover would have attracted him. Today it was inevitable that he would stop there. It looked like the kind of place where you could get a doughnut or a piece of cake, despite the somewhat affected proclamation under the name that said the place was a ‘Tea Shoppe.’

Opening the door and stepping inside, Bob saw that the restaurant was large and bright. A number of people were eating, and things were busy. Bob also realized it was one of those feline cafes where patrons could sit and commune with a variety of cats while eating. He stood rooted to the ground in horror as a large, black specimen walked toward him on an intersecting path. The cat regarded him impassively with round yellow eyes.

Without thinking, Bob leapt back and to the side so that he and the cat would not cross paths. This propelled him into a waitress carrying a tray of salt and pepper shakers. She saw Bob and lurched out of his way, dropping her tray and watching helplessly as the contents rolled onto the floor creating a mess of enormous proportions. Several diners leapt up to try to help or get out of the way. The cats scattered to the farthest corners of the room. Bob was overcome by embarrassment and ran out of the restaurant as fast as he could, stopping just long enough to grab a pinch of spilled salt which he quickly threw over his left shoulder.

The rest of the walk to the Physics Building was harrowing. It had begun to rain slightly. A man in the foyer of a dentist’s office open his umbrella inside the doorway before stepping out onto the street just as Bob walked by. Without conscious awareness of what he was doing, Bob broke into a run to distance himself from this blatant disregard for luck. The need to avoid cracks in the sidewalk while doing so exhausted him, and he was breathless and panting when he arrived at his destination.

Bob was always cautious so he looked up at the building before joining the stream of students moving slowly through the main doors. They were doing some kind of renovation work, and the front of the building was obscured by a network of scaffolds and platforms. A particularly long ladder leaned against the building at a precarious angle that meant the shortest way in required that a person walk under it. Bob was certainly not going to risk that and jogged around to the back of the building where there was another door and no construction going on.

It was an old university, and the Physics Building was one of the oldest on campus. As he toiled up the four flights of stairs to his class along with dozens of other students, it occurred to Bob that this was just the sort of place where Isaac Newton could have dropped apples over the bannister to see how high they bounced. Bob’s command of physics was tenuous; he was only taking the class to fulfil a distribution requirement, which was why he was unusually worried about today’s test. He was hoping to major in psychology which did interest him, especially the uncertainty hypothesis they had been discussing in a recent class that suggested to him it was possible to maintain a balance of the controllable and uncontrollable forces that shaped reality.

Bob finally reached the fourth floor and stopped to rest for a moment at the top of the stairs. The building was furnished much like an old fashioned hotel. The rows of desks in the classrooms were ancient and heavily inscribed with formulas and graffiti left there by past generations of students, contrasting with the supermodern computer and projection equipment that had been installed in every room. Bob took a step towards his class, which was at the end of the hall and, looking down, saw a safety pin lying on the floor. See a pin, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck, he recited to himself stooping to reach this prize and put it in his pocket. The unexpected movement startled two girls who had been walking close behind him. They stopped short, which started a chain reaction of stumbling accompanied by a series of thuds as students here and there dropped books and backpacks.

From the far end of the hall near the stairs, Bob heard a sickening crash that he knew must have been the large mirror hanging on the landing falling to the floor. Someone must have bumped into it, knocking it from the wall. At that moment, the crush of students propelled Bob up to the door of his classroom where he just had time to read a notice that had been stuck there with tape. It said: ‘Friday, April 13, test postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.’ What other kind were there? Bob wondered as he abruptly turned and joined the column of students moving towards the stairs.

Avoiding the broken glass on the stairs and the throng of confused students wondering what to do and who would clean up the mess, Bob made his way to the ground floor and headed toward the back door by which he had entered the building. Retracing his steps, he found himself on the street. It was raining harder now, and a large clap of thunder right overhead startled him. For once, Bob was glad he had left his Walkman at home that morning. He also recalled that thunder on Friday means a storm by Monday, so he hurried home, carefully navigating the lines and cracks and taking care not to pass the unfortunate Four Leaf Clover or the nearby dentist’s office on the way.

Not far from his house, a billboard with white lettering on a black background caught Bob’s eye. ‘What do you believe?’ it asked rhetorically. Bob already knew that and practically skipped the rest of the way home.