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Friday the 13th. I stare at the calendar in front of me as I gnaw on my thumbs fingernail, elbow rested on-top of my other arm circling my waist. I knew I was silly to worry about superstitions especially enough to let me actually consider staying inside until tomorrow but I had to get my cut healed by Julieta before it gets infected. Reaching down I make sure I have my trusty little salt pouch looped onto my waist band. Ok I will go out and keep safe, what’s the worst that can happen?
The second the thought passes my mind I hurriedly knock the wood of my painted doorframe, muttering out little knocks as I go. Ok deep breath, just make it to her stand and then I can come right back home. Deep breath in, deep breath out, knock on the door, pinch of salt thrown over left shoulder with my right hand.
Quickly marching out of my house I start off towards the colorful town square where Julieta usually had a stand with her arepas. I waved over at my neighbors out and about for the day getting bright smiles in return.
“Y/N pretty nice day for Friday the 13th eh?” One neighbor shouted across the street with a chuckle along with his friends standing next to him setting up some games. Practically the whole town knew of your superstitious ways, some liked to joke about but never with any malice behind it, just a quirk they loved to acknowledge.
“Haha yea no incidents so far!” You quickly crossed your fingers holding them up before twirling to the door frame behind you to knock on the wood.
Before you knew it, mid twirl, someone else was passing by that sent you falling off into a different direction. You tried steadying yourself, finding yourself stumbling back under a ladder perched up to a roof. The man you tripped on, tripped himself into two men carrying a mirror, causing it to shatter on the ground. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse you look down to where your foot landed, just on-top of a crack in the stone work. Looking back up in the direction of the men you all watched with shock as a black cat made its way through the intersection and sat in the middle of the chaos looking at you with a tilt of its head.
You’re frozen to your spot, as are the men all taking in what just happened in mere seconds, their slacked jaws open comically wide. The entire street frozen as we all tried processing the statistically improbable event that had occurred. Before they even fully recovered from what they just witnessed you ran off with a loud yelp.
Get to Julieta, get to Julieta, get to Julieta. You screamed out in your mind while racing through the crowd, jumping at anything unexpected. Once you made it to the back of her line you couldn’t stop the shaking fidgeting you were doing to keep calm. With every person that left the line your impatience grew more and more and you started raking your hands through your hair leaving it a wild mess.
“Ay Agustin, I am going to just keep you in my house. This is an accident every day this week!” You overheard Julieta scold the bright red inflated man in front of you, watching as the red deepens with her words.
You zone out of their conversation in favor of chewing on your nails again, staring widely around you to make sure nothing bad happens.
“Y/N!” You jump in shock and stare back at Julieta who is staring at you with concern. “Ay ay you don’t look too well amiga, what happened?” She sighs fluffing down pieces of your hair to tame the mess before removing your nails from your mouth before popping an arepa in its place, chewing it quickly before muttering out.
“Its Friday the 13th, and I tripped under a ladder, and stepped on a crack, and caused a mirror to shatter, and crossed a black cats path. That’s got to be like 90 years of bad luck right? Or did I miscalculate or.” You are cut off again by another aerpa and a small smile from Julieta.
“I understand, my brother is the same way, if you are so worried about bad luck what’s the hurt in getting a prophecy from him to make sure you will be alright? Better to know about it than wait for something bad that may or may not happen, right?”
“M’guess that’s true” I mumbled out through chews.
After thanking Julieta I made my way up to the famous casita on top the hill looking over the town. She said her brother was like me, I have met almost all the Madrigals at least once but him. Hopefully he won’t look at me like I am crazy once I tell him what happened, then again if he is like me hopefully he won’t sending me home scared my bad karma will rub off onto him.
Lost in my thoughts I don’t notice I have been standing in front of casita for a few minutes. The bright building must have gotten frustrated watching me hesitate so it knocked me out of my thoughts by rolling the tiles, pushing my frame inside the door. The floors didn’t stop as it kept propelling me up the stairs until finally at the top it stopped abruptly, sending my body forward into the door. Quickly I step back and brush off my skirt as the door is ripped open.
“Listen I am sorry about your goldfish but its not my fa-“ I couldn’t help but giggle as the gangly man stopped mid sentence and was staring widely at me. “Oh, hi, can I help you?”
Ok deep breath, try not to sound crazy.
“ It’s Friday the 13th and I tripped under a ladder, broke a mirror, crossed a black cat, stepped on a crack, and I need to know my future to see what bad luck I am going to get!” The words tumbled out of my mouth at an impressive rate.
I was expecting him to give me the awkward look everyone else gives me when I explain my superstitions and fears but he didn’t. He awkwardly smiled through my rant but quickly shifted to shock before he knocked all over his frame once on his head and one little knock on my noggin.
“Ok yea this is important we need to go get you that prophecy now.” His hand latched onto mine before yanking me in his door and shutting it loudly, the pound echoing off the stones in this massive room.
I couldn’t help the slight tightening in my gut as I realized his hand was still laced in mine, taking in his grip and the warmth that spread just from this small action. His eyes were darting around the room a bit while leading me over to the beginning of the staircase but eventually noticed our hands still interlocked. His body quickly jumped awkwardly fumbling around in the sand before scratching the back of his head and laughing softly.
“Uh sorry bout the stairs, and the sand, there’s a lot.” He mumbled out trying to push past the awkwardness.
“That’s alright, lets chat to pass the time?” I spoke with a soft smile, watching this odd man.
“I’m Bruno.” He started off.
“I’m Y/N.” Smiling at him, catching a glimpse of him repeating it back softly to himself.
With a smile he motioned up with his hand for me to go first. We spent the first few flights in awkward silence trying to come up with something to say.
“So”
“So-“
We both blurted out at the same time and laughed, glancing over at one another before pulling our heads quickly back center or down at the ground.
“You go first.” He said softly gesturing with a shrug of his shoulder towards my own.
“So a goldfish huh?” A soft laugh escaped me which he returned.
“Yea it uh, it happens a lot more than you would think.” His smile was so sweet and tender, a bit shy but radiated all the same.
I let his infection smile fill me with warmth letting my mind wander as it focuses to hard on his shoulder so close but just hovering near the point of touching. Lost in that thought I don’t realize my feet started wandering off into different directions leading me dangerously close to the faulty edge. One wrong step on a piece of sandstone that started cracking under foot. This was it, you thought my bad karma is taking me down. Before my body fully began a decent, a steady arm circled around my waist pulling me up into his space.
With small huffs leaving my mouth as I catch my breath, I look up at my savior staring back down at me with concern.
“Thank you.” I pant out, eyes locked on his.
“No problem.” His voice wavers with leftover adrenaline spilling out. “Gotta stay vigilant on Friday the 13th, right?” He stutters ending with a small smile. I chuckle out with him, enjoying this moment we are frozen in but all too soon our brains cleared of the adrenaline fog and we jumped back slightly from the closeness we briefly shared.
“Um, yea, its not too far, just a little bit more.” He mumbled out, closing in on himself once more.
We traveled the rest of the way in relative silence, not uncomfortable but just steady silence. When crossing the flimsy looking rope bridge I mentally screamed out as his hand cradle the small of my back to keep me steady. Once across his hand hesitated to leave, still anchoring my walking closer to the round door, eventually parting once he had to pull the large stone open. He gestures of to a space in the circle of sand to sit before taking his seat across from me.
“You ready?” He gives me a reassuring smile as he watched my deep breaths trying to shake out nerves. He follows my lead taking a big deep breath, both of us reaching for our own source of salt before throwing it over our shoulders. Once again we are trapped in each other’s eyeline laughing at the coincidence and similarities.
“Ready.” Finally speaking with the first bit of confidence I have summoned all day.
He nods before taking another breath with his eyes closed, reaching out his hands to grab onto mine. Once they opened up they shined a radiant shade of green that glowed along with speckles of sand that started swirling and rising from the ground, forming a large bubble. I watched in stunned silence, watching parts of my day unfold before my eyes, then all at once the visions started changing to new accidents that would happen. Only this time every accident and incident the sand projected also showed another figure there catching and protecting me from harm. In the sand I could see the briefest outline of the other person standing side by side with me, both of us knocking on wood together before bending over and laughing.
“Can you see who the other person?” I slightly shouted over the sound of the howling wind as it twirled.
“I don’t know but I’ll try!” He shouted in return.
His eyes moved over focusing in on the blurry vision, as he pulled in I could see more clearly that the other figure by my side was Bruno himself. Once his face came into view, Bruno’s own gasp shaking the sand bubble slightly while tightening his grip on my hand, the bubble on the verge of collapsing as he lost concentration. He pulled focus back in and we watched together in stunned silence as our figures threw salt over our shoulders at the same time before leaning in for a kiss.
The image pulled back slightly showing the scene of a wedding surrounded by many in the town, our figures pulling away with blissful smiles. Stepping down from the wedding stage our figures took deep breaths, crossing our fingers latching our pinkies together in between us, and walking down the aisle with puffed up cheeks that couldn’t hide the bright smiles stretching our lips.
The sand started collapsing back down to the ring, Bruno’s hand slipping slowly from my own as he grasped on to the glass plate that floated down into his hand. I think I could feel a tear drip down my own cheek as I tried processing everything we had seen together. I couldn’t help the shaky breath that broke from my lips as I watched his form shake over the tablet, knuckles turning white with the grip he was holding it.
“Bruno?” I called out softly for him while reaching a hand to touch his shoulder, jumping slightly at his own jerked reaction. “Are you alright?”
A broken laugh shook off his form as he looked up with bright shining eyes glinting with tears. I closed in quickly into his space to wipe away the tears forming, questioning again with my eyes. His breathed shared heavily as he captured my hand, bringing it down to his lips as he kissed the flesh, and looked back at me.
“I never thought a miracle could ever happen on a day as unlucky as this.” Mixture of happy sobs and laughs left him mixing with my own that tumbled from me, letting go all tension left in my body.