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Milo awoke that morning, stretched and yawned, and was surprised to see no tree through his window.
“Am I dreaming?” Milo pinched himself, but there was still no tree. “Huh. That’s peculiar.” Milo climbed out of bed and made it to the floor without a single step breaking. He had to pause at that. “Okay, that’s really weird.” Milo put a hand to his forehead. He didn’t feel warm. He didn’t feel sick. Maybe his dad was sick. He ran down the hallway to his parents’ room, skidding to a halt and spinning around again. Not a single thing had fallen over. Milo started to panic a little and started banging on the door. “Mom! Dad! Something really weird is happening!”
Martin opened the door. “You experiencing an absence of Murphy’s Law, too?”
“Yeah! What’s going on?” Milo asked.
Martin grinned, showing Milo a wall calendar and pointed to the day that was today.
Milo gasped. “It’s Friday the 13th!”
“Friday the 13th!” Martin cheered with his son.
In the bathroom, Bridgette glared in the mirror at the comb tangled in her hair. “Ugh. Friday the 13th.”
All things considered, the morning was much quieter compared to normal mornings at the Murphy house. Of course, all the mayhem was targeted to the females of the house instead of the males. Martin was able to make a pot of coffee without the coffeepot breaking, and he made lunches for everyone. Milo found his homework still intact, and none of his clothes got messy during breakfast so he didn’t have to change. Sara, on the other hand, found a random stain on her previously clean Time Ape shirt, and then her capris ripped while she was pulling them out of her dresser. She ended up throwing on a pair of jeans and (because all her shirts were somehow dirty) the ugliest blouse she had in her closet. Bridgette managed to get the comb out of her hair, but struggled to detangle her hair overall (which didn’t make sense seeing how she always kept her hair cut short); and when she got her cup of coffee from Martin, the handle of the mug broke and spilled coffee all over her. Even poor Diogee wasn’t spared as the pantry door accidentally shut on his tail.
Milo was out the door in no time, wishing his family a good day (especially his sister and mother). He leisurely made his way to the bus stop. When he arrived, the other kids at the stop instinctively stepped away from him. Zack showed up just as the bus pulled up. His hair was a mess and he had jelly on his shirt.
“I just had one of the worst mornings of my entire life!” Zack complained. “I’m used to only making it onto the bus half the time because of Murphy’s Law, but you weren’t anywhere near my house this morning!”
“Nope! But do you know what today is?” Milo asked.
“Happy Friday the 13th!” Melissa greeted cheerily. She wore a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt instead of her usual outfit.
“Clothes are all inexplicably dirty?” Milo guessed, which Melissa confirmed.
“Wait, did you say Friday the 13th? Also, why is nothing happening around Milo?” Zack asked as the bus pulled up.
“Friday the 13th is the one day of the year where Murphy’s Law takes a break from targeting Milo and instead targets everyone else,” Melissa explained. “For the whole day, we’re the unlucky ones while Milo and his dad get all the luck.”
“One year, Friday the 13th came three times! It was the best year ever!” Milo said.
“You’re not serious,” Zack said.
At that moment, Bradley’s shoelaces came untied and he tripped on them, causing him to fall and land on his backpack. “Aw man! I think my lunch just got flattened!”
“This is going to be a long day,” Zack groaned.
The bus made it to school without any flat tires or broken windshields. Milo got off the bus without getting caught in the doors, got what he needed out of his locker without the door falling off, and made it to class without slipping on random wet floors or causing the fire sprinklers to go off. His friends and classmates weren’t so lucky. Zack couldn’t get his locker open no matter how many times he turned the lock. Melissa had her homework, but somehow her water bottle upended in her bag and soaked all her papers and books. Amanda’s backpack ripped, spilling its contents all over the floor and destroying her pristine organization system. Mort realized he took the wrong backpack when he left the house, so he had his sibling’s homework instead of his own. Even the teachers struggled, especially Mr. Drako when he disappeared into a closet for a midday nap and found himself locked in.
The school day dragged on, with more and more things going wrong for everyone except Milo. Of course, ever prepared for Murphy’s Law, Milo tried to help his teachers and classmates when they had strokes of bad luck. Everyone was relieved for the final bell to ring so they could go home and wait out the unlucky day.
Melissa and Zack, however, dared themselves to join Milo in running a few errands on the way home.
“Since Dad and I don’t have Murphy’s Law today, we like to do things we can’t normally do without an incident,” Milo said. “Plus, Mom texted me and asked if I could grab some pizza for dinner.”
“We can lend a hand!” Melissa offered.
“Yeah, totally. It’ll give us a chance to walk a mile in your shoes,” Zack agreed.
Milo was enthusiastic to share this Friday the 13th rituals with his friends. They expected something big like going to Lard World. They were surprised to see Milo’s first stop was to an ice cream shop. He got himself a large ice cream, his friends each got one of their own, and the three of them sat outside at a small table. For once, Milo didn’t have to worry about anything messing up his food. On the other hand, the bottom of Zack’s cone broke off and dripped ice cream into his lap. Melissa managed to finish her cup of ice cream without incident but tripped over her chair while throwing away her garbage. Then they were off again, waving to Mr. Murphy sitting outside a coffee shop next door and sipping a latte without a care in the world.
Next stop was the zoo, where Melissa and Zack followed Milo around and watched in amusement as he leisurely made his way to each exhibit. For once, he didn’t have to worry about cages randomly springing open or animals stealing his food or backpack. Milo was especially eager to watch the beluga and dolphin show. Melissa and Zack opted to skip that one. After losing their snacks to a gorilla, getting pecked by a rather cantankerous peacock, and getting splashed by some cheeky penguins, there was no guarantee that Melissa or Zack would come out of the show dry.
“Those were kind of mundane things, don’t you think?” Zack asked as they stopped at Ye Olde Pizza.
“Maybe, but they’re never mundane for me on a normal day,” Milo explained. “For once, I didn’t have to think about what could go wrong. I can get ice cream and look at animals and not have to be on alert. It’s kind of a nice break. A little boring, though.”
Melissa laughed, plucking a feather from her hair. “It would be boring for you, Milo.”
Since Milo was the only one without bad luck, he got to carry the stack of pizzas out of the restaurant and to the car when Martin picked them up. He even invited Melissa and Zack to dinner, where they could share their story and hear about all the bad luck Sara and Bridgette went through that day.
“You guys got off easy,” Sara said. “The hem of my jeans got caught on a loose screw in my desk. They didn’t rip, but I was stuck to my desk for twenty minutes before someone could free me. Then they ran out of pizza at the cafeteria and I had to get the burrito. It was still frozen in the middle!”
“You think that’s bad? I forgot my lunch, so I went out to Slushy Dawg, but the card machine wasn’t working, and I barely had enough cash for my food. Then I spilled my drink all over myself!” Bridgette complained. “I can’t wait for tomorrow when things go back to normal.”
“Really? Melissa asked, surprised.
“Sure. Murphy’s Law is easy to deal with,” Sara said. “Straight-up bad luck is the worst.”
“As nice as the break is, I’m ready to get back to normal,” Martin said. “I didn’t even go to work today. My boss agreed that, without Murphy’s Law, it’s harder for me to do my job and really test the safety systems in places.”
“What about you, Milo?” Zack asked. “Still think today was boring without Murphy’s Law?”
“Oh, yeah. But, you know, I wasn’t totally immune to the bad luck,” Milo said. “While we were at the zoo, my three-strip chicken and fries meal only had two chicken strips in it!”
His friends and family burst into laughter. “That hardly qualifies as a scandal, little brother,” Sara said.
They spent the rest of dinner talking and laughing about their day. Melissa and Zack were each picked up by their respective fathers. Sara tried to take a shower before bed, but the water was cold. Bridgette dropped a slice of pizza while putting away the leftovers, and Diogee almost snapped it right up until he smelled the pineapple on it. Martin helped his wife so they could get to bed sooner. Milo finished up a few tasks in his bedroom to make sure everything was ready for normal Murphy’s Law tomorrow. Then, he settled into his elevated bed and sighed contently. It was a good day. Peaceful, albeit dull, but a good day nonetheless.
In the morning, Milo woke up and saw a tree through his window once again.
“Ah, that’s better,” Milo said with a grin.