“What time is it?”I muttered out loud whilst reaching out for my alarm clock.
“3.15!, no way is that right.
Shaking the clock, I realised it wasn't ticking.
“Bloody things stopped!” I mutter, leaping out of bed and looking round for something that had the right time.
“Where's the nearest clock?.... The kitchen.” I dash off wondering where my fellow students were, seeing the clock saying 9.45am, I knew where they were, in lectures, and I'd better put my skates on or I'd be late, and this is one lecture I didn't want to be late for, I'd never hear the last of it if I was.
I got there, totally out of breath, but just in time to join the last person filing into the lecture room, the lecturer was nowhere to be seen.
Looks like the ever punctual Mr. Brown is late, I smiled to myself.
Quarter past ten arrived and someone knocked tentatively on the door, and then opened it.
“Mr Brown's not coming in this morning.” said one of the ladies from reception.
“Nothing trivial I hope” came a voice from the back of the room.
“He's been in a car crash.” she replied
“Is he OK?.” I asked, I'd hate to think he'd been hurt, well, not seriously at any rate.
“Oh, he's fine, but most of the cars round his aren't and its going to take ages to get them all towed away, and till that happens he's stuck in the middle of a large car crash.”
“Do you mean they managed not to hit his car?” I asked.
“Not as far as he could tell, though there are a lot of dents in it, a few new ones might not be noticed.”
“Shame, he could have got all the dents done on the insurance.”
“That wouldn’t be very honest would it.” said the receptionist.
“So the lecture's cancelled is it.” came another voice.
“More postponed, rescheduled rather than cancelled, he tell you when it will be later, but I can't see it happening today.” said the receptionist before disappearing off back to where she came from.
“No point hanging about here then.” said my friend Julie.
“I think I'll get a coffee” I said heading off in the direction of the common room.
“Sounds like a plan.” she said following me through the door just in time to hear a loud bang and see the smoke and flames emitting from the coffee machine.
“Well, that's blown that idea.” I muttered to myself as the fire alarm went off and we all traipsed out to the car park so they could count us all and hopefully work out if there was anyone left in the building. Half an hour later we were told that the building would be closed for the rest of the day and that our lectures would be rescheduled for a later date.
“That's great.” said Julie, “I can go back to bed. What are you going to do?”
“I was going home for the weekend, may as well head off now and get more time there.” Reduce the risk of Friday 13th jokes, I think everyone at home knows how I feel about them.
“Half an hour to the next train, that should be enough time to grab my bag and get to the station.”
“Have a good time then and I'll see you when you get back.” she shouted as I headed off down the road.
The train was waiting in the station, I dashed along the platform and climbed quickly into the first door I came to, expecting it to start moving at any second. I then went wandering through the carriages looking for a vacant seat, any vacant seat. Ten minutes later, I'd walked the length of the train twice, there were no seats available, and we where still in the station. So I decided to sit on my bag, by one of the doors and wait for something to happen.
“That looks like a good idea.” said what looked like another student, sitting down on the other side of the corridor.
“I couldn't see any empty seats.” I said “And the journey's not that long.”
“The air-conditioning has broken down, so things could get a bit uncomfortable in the carriages.” he said.
There was a jolt, and we started moving.
“No explanation?. It would be nice to have an explanation.” I said to no-one in particular.
“They don't do explanations” he said, “Someone might hold them responsible or something if they gave explanations.”
“Great, he's one of those.” I thought “Something to say on everything.”
Half an hour later we stopped, I looked round for a platform, a sign, or something to tell me where we were, but there was nothing.
“It doesn't usually stop here.” he said
“Maybe he'll tell us why we've stopped.” I said pointing to the guard coming down the aisle.
“There has been an unforeseen delay, kindly remain in your carriages and the journey will continue as soon as possible. We will do our best to keep you updated on the ongoing situation.” he announced to the carriage then headed off to the next.
“Typical. Friday 13th!” said the student, as if that explained everything.
“What's the date got to do with anything.”
“It's Friday 13th!”
“So.”
“If anything can go wrong it will go wrong on Friday 13th.”
“There is no statistical evidence to say that.” I snapped.
“Really, are you absolutely certain of that?”
“Absolutely.”
“So how come there are more accidents on that day than any other?”
“There aren't I, its just people notice the accidents more on Friday 13th. If something happens on another day, they forget about the date.” I said, mentally crossing my fingers because I didn't have any statistics to back up what I had just said, it was just flannel, and thinking that the only reason I didn't hit him with my bag was, one that I was sitting on it, two I didn't know how long we were going to be waiting there and three, there wasn't anything hard in my bag. Three reasons. I decided to ignore him and work on my essay about “The Tempest”. He fished a copy of “Great Expectations” from his pocket and started reading it. We sat, in silence, and waited for further information, or for the train to move. None was forthcoming, but three hours latter the train started moving. Half an hour later the train pulled into the station.
“Thank God.” I muttered.
“I don't think God has anything to do with the trains.” he said.
“Probably not, but its probably easier to talk to him than whoever is in charge of the trains, that is if anyone will admit that its them.”
“True.” he said.
He agrees with me on something I thought and I headed off for the exit. As I walked out of the station I saw the train, the one I would have caught moving out of the station, it must have leapfrogged our train, I also saw the bus I would have caught home trundling off down the road.
“Great.” I said watching it splashing through the puddles, the next one would be in an hour, by which time I'll have walked home.
“Friday 13th “ said a voice behind me which I chose to ignore. I hoisted my bag onto my shoulder and headed off down the hill. It started to rain, heavily, very heavily.
“These things just happen, it is nothing to do with it being Friday 13th, or my birthday. “
Half an hour later, I arrived home, cold and wet. All I wanted was a hot bath, something to eat and to go to bed and sleep the rest of the day away before anything else happened, but as I turned to face the house I could see there wasn't a single light on.
“It's gone 7pm!” I said into the darkness, they should all have been home eating tea, or by this time, clearing up afterwards. The house shouldn't be in darkness, something was wrong.
Cautiously, I opened the back door and made my way through to the living room, there was a strange unnerving silence about the house, as if it was holding its breath.
I opened the living room door and turned on the light.
“Happy Birthday!”
There they all were, my family, my friends, Alison, my best friend from secondary school and the student from the train.
“And whose he?” I asked Alison, as soon as I could get her to myself for a minute. “The fella with the beard?”
“Don't your remember my brother Stephen? When I told him about your party he came home specially for it.”
“He was on the train and I didn't recognise him. I had such a crush on him. Then again, he didn't have a beard last time I saw him, come to think of it, I don't think he was even shaving last time I saw him. It's been a long time. Too long.”
“You had a crush on my elder brother!”
“Really?” said a voice from behind me
“Yes, and if I remember rightly your birthday is the 1st April, so, we'll make a pact, you stop making fun of Friday 13th and I wont make fun of your birthday when it comes.”
“Is that a promise.”
“Most definitely”
“Then I'll have to make sure you keep it.” he smiled.
by J.M.Nye
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