Calculations
It was one of those days; everything that could go wrong went wrong. She was supposed to have an ordinary day: get up, shower, dress, go to work, meet a new bloke she met on Tinder after work, then go to bed and read before falling asleep. None of it went like that. There was no hot running water. A pipe had burst. Then the clothes she had planned to wear to work, which could be altered easily into a date outfit, had holes in them. Holes that had appeared overnight. The bus she used every day was a no-show. The display just said delayed on every bus that was supposed to run from her home to work. So she had to hail a taxi.
It was as if the cosmos was telling her that she should cancel the day. She waited for her office to be on fire by the time she arrived at work, but no, it wasn’t. She actually had to go in and analyze marketing data for a client she hated and detested. So there was that, getting her the usual shitty treatment from the universe. It almost lulled her into a false sense of security that the rest of the day’s plans would go okay.
She arrived after work at a pub she had chosen. It was one of those places with lots of people, decent food, and drinks that weren’t too expensive. She would rather go for a walk than to a pub, but finding a space to walk in the city was getting harder every year. More and more parks were knocked down for buildings, or they were made private. And she liked the woods more. But she never had time to visit them. Not with her work schedule.
She took a booth by the window, watching the city grow darker with every passing minute. The late autumn air painted the street wet, making the newly lit lights sparkle, turning the city almost magical.
She sighed and wished that she had more moments like this in her life. That there was no need to hurry to finish a task. That she could watch the world turn from one state to another and linger in those moments of transition. Yet, even now, she couldn’t. She glanced at the door every time it opened, expecting her date to step in. She wished she had run late at work and been the one to arrive later, but that didn’t happen. Now, she had to be the one who looked eager.
Then it became painfully clear that she didn’t need to worry about any of that. The date was a no-show. She sighed and hated every fiber of her being, reciting a litany in her head about why it wasn’t so, and cursing herself for letting her mind jump straight to bad thoughts.
She got up, leaving a half-finished pint she had ordered while waiting, ravenous from not getting to eat. She didn’t feel like eating alone. It was bad enough that people were eyeing her and the booth all the time, thinking she was wasting a good space alone and knowing that she had been stood up.
The outside air hit her hard. The thick drizzle soaked her face and hair the moment she stepped out. The light jacket she wore was no help against the wet blanket hitting her. At least nothing could ruin her plans to read in bed. She would order takeout and be done with the day. And if the hot water was running again, she would take that long shower she had planned this morning.
The bus was running again, and she got home okay. The building lights were out, though, and she had to use her phone to navigate the stairs up to the fifth floor. She wondered whether the power outage would affect the water. It shouldn’t, but with the luck she was having today, it probably would.
It didn’t. To her amazement, she got to have a hot shower and rinse off the day she had. Though the universe didn’t seem to work properly today, at the end of the shower, someone banged urgently on her door. She tied the towel around her and wished she had time to dress, but the sound at the door was too persistent for her to take time to get dressed.
With water still dripping off her hair, she carefully opened the door, pulling it slightly ajar. Her date stood there, looking as if something had run over him. His eyes darted around the darkened corridor, wild, as if he were being chased by hell to come.
“Good,” he gushed, and pushed past her inside her apartment. An address he shouldn’t know.
“They found out that I found you, and they are messing with reality. You need to get dressed, and we need to leave, or the entire universe will fall to pieces if they get to you before the bad luck runs out. They tried to stop me from getting to you, but I could hack Tinder in time.” He sighed, finally landing his darting eyes on her and really looking at her. His eyes seemed to spell that she wasn’t exactly what he had pictured, but she would have to do.
—
I went rogue today. Instead of using a random number generator for the story, I had the idea beforehand as I made my breakfast, and I ran with it. I went to see what I would get today, and I ended up with an experimental rebirth thriller in the second person. As you can see, I didn’t follow any of that. I struggled a little with the ending, not knowing what was going on when I wrote it. I’m still not sure who they are, but I know he is traveling through dimensions to get to her, and the fate of the universe is at stake. I also know she would travel through strange dimensions to find out why, on Earth, she is so pivotal to the cosmos functioning. I think it is because she is painfully normal, and her existence stabilizes the background calculations that keep everything balanced and functional.
Thank you for reading! Have an exciting day, and see you tomorrow ❤
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