Some days it feels like the world is conspiring against you. Nothing ever goes the way you want it to and that day has to be the one when you are trying your best to make a good impression. Or your dog decides that it is a fine day to die. Of course, the driver of the car speeds away.
Thankfully the dog scenario has not happened to me because I don’t have a dog. It’s good really, because if I had one, with my luck, that would be its fate. Sometimes, I think that if it weren’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all. Many of us have had such days and unfortunately they seem to be becoming a little more common. Blame it on the pressures of the times we are living in. Certain days somehow take on a life of their own and turn into little horror stories with, guess who, as the star.
A desire, long suppressed and banished to the back of the mind, of becoming a star has been granted by fate and on a stage, watched by neighbours, friends, colleagues and strangers in the street, our little story plays out. Only we wish it was more like a DVD than a stage. Another little problem too; its reality and we can’t push the fast forward button.
Act one, scene one: You are trying to get to work early and although it’s raining, you’re prepared and confident that we will make it on time. Then a vehicle speeds by and suddenly water that two seconds ago was lying still on a sunken part of the road finds a new resting place all over you. Is it acceptable to swear at people who find humour in your plight?
So you’ve returned home to change and although you’re now very late, you are grateful that you’ve used up your share of bad karma. Think again. The movie has just begun and it’s a long one. So after catching the slowest bus in the universe, the conductor decides that it’s okay to have breakfast while supposedly trying to get your change. Then at the office, the person you’ve been trying to get hold of for weeks, feels a little guilty and returns your call. Only, you’re not there and when you call again, the person has gone out of town; his/her return date unknown. Fifteen other little things happen; your favourite shirt gets stained; your phone blanks out; your computer crashes and you were warned not to save important items on the desktop. Your little movie has the makings of a blockbuster.
If you’re lucky, there’s someone who tells you that the stain looks like a little bunny trying to eat a starfish. Ridiculous but you laugh. Or a friend tells you that the phone was a cheap one anyway and you can now get the one you’ve always wanted. Or you are lucky that it was the computer and not you who got the virus. And you were lucky that you missed the meeting.
After passing through the wringer, feeling like a veteran of your own little war, at the end of the day you return to your sanctuary to discover that the postman was there with the only thing he brings: bills. The monster! After looking at them, to stave off a little stroke you decide to make dinner only to find, oh Joy, the gas has run out. Oh to be a kangaroo with nothing to do but bounce all day. Yes, we know that we’re lucky to be alive, have enough to eat, have a job and a place to sleep but oh fate what have we done? (thescene@stabroeknews.com)
