Lucky Friday the 13th

Word count: 779

In the words of Clint Eastwood, "Do you feel lucky? Do ya?" The answer for me is a screaming, "No!"

If there is a cloud in the sky, it will blow over me and rain on my head. If there is a mosquito within one hundred miles of me, it will hone in on me, invite its family, and have a feast. So no, good things don't usually happen to me.

I woke up this morning to the news on my alarm clock.

"Happy Friday the 13th! This is Mike..."

I didn't hear the rest of the sentence because I put my pillow over my head. I'm thinking to myself, "Thanks a lot, Mike whoever you are. Can we make this day any worse?" My boss was breathing down my neck yesterday because I hadn't finished everything on "his" list of things that "I" needed to do (heaven forbid that I have my OWN list!). So I was already dreading dealing with him.

So I dragged myself out of bed and into the kitchen.

"At least my coffee's ready. Those programmable coffeemakers were an ingenious idea (I should have thought of that)." I grumbled as I opened the refrigerator door. Just to find that I was out of coffee creamer.

"It figures." I really have to stop talking to myself!

So I muddled through using milk and a ton of sugar. Popped some bread in the toaster, and nothing happened.

I must’ve forgotten to plug it in, I thought as I looked at the outlet. Nope, it was plugged in. I figured I'd grab something out of the vending machine later.

My tires weren't flat when I left the house about an hour later. Score one for me, I reflected as I pulled out of the driveway, wondering if I was going to analyze everything like this the whole day.

I ducked into work and headed for my cubicle quickly. Maybe Mr. Hadley wouldn't realize that I'm half an hour later if he didn't see me walk in, was running through my mind when Lisa came over. She was all smiles.

"What's going on?" My curiosity was piqued. She had to be one of the quietest, calmest people that I work with.

"You haven't heard yet, have you?" She practically gushed at me. After shaking my head, she continued.

"Guess who got fired this morning?"

Could it be true, my mind raced.

"I couldn't be Hadley, could it?"

"You guessed it! The old coot got caught stealing supplies. I can't believe he through ten years away over some inkjet cartridges and some copier toner."

We both chuckled. As Lisa strolled back over to her desk, I asked,

"So who's taking over?"

"That's the secret of the day. No one's told us anything."

So, I decided to work on some of the things I'd been thinking about doing, making the most of this alone time. About an hour later, my phone rang.

"Casey, can you come to Mrs. Cooley's office? She has an important issue she'd like to discuss with you."

I had never been called up there in the eight years that I had worked for them. Maybe they have noticed my being late, I thought as I pressed "18" button on the elevator.

Hesitantly, I entered the receptionist area.

"She's taking a call, but she'll be right with you." Mrs. Cooley's assistant smiled and offered me a seat by the door.

That five minutes felt like a lifetime. I'm thinking, "There's a pink slip on the other side of that door with my name on it!"

Mrs. Cooley's assistant led me into her office. It had a big mahoghany desk, with plush chairs for her clients. The view of downtown outside of her window just blew me away.

"Casey, have a seat." Her voice brought me back to reality and my trepidation over my impending unemployment resumed.

"We've been reviewing your file. It seems like you bumped heads with Mr. Hadley quite often. He documented some of the conversations here and I have to admit, I'm surprised."

Here it comes, I thought, as Mrs. Cooley reviewed my file.

"Some of the ideas that you discussed with Mr. Hadley are..."

Gulp, here comes the ax.

"...refreshing. The board of directors would like for me to formally offer you the job. We need some new blood on this project and we'd like to have a briefing tomorrow on your plans if you accept our deal."

Dumbfounded, I stood to shake her hand.

"It sounds great. I'll get started on my presentation as we speak."

What was today's date again? Oh, Friday the 13th. The luckiest day in my life!!