A few years ago I went thru a phase for about a month where a lot of strange things happened to me or in my vicinity. After the first few incidents I started to keep a list so I would be able to confirm in a scientific way that I really was experiencing a weird streak. I can’t pinpoint the exact day when the streak began but it was around the time when I split up with my boyfriend Bo and he took Ossie our pet ocelot with him. He did that just to hurt me, or else to make sure I would have to go look for him. I was always the one who cared for Ossie. I have the scratches to prove it. The next day I called in sick for work because I couldn’t face having to explain anything to anyone. Then next day I did go to work but I arrived late. I got my bag caught in the turnstile when I was rushing out of St Andrew station. I tugged on it and broke the strap.
At that time I had a job where I had to be a different thing every day. I could be an investor relations rep one day, a product demonstrator the next, a customer assistance person the next. The essence was to keep smiling. On that particular day I was assigned to a nuclear waste disposal exhibit. I was supposed to direct people into a side area where they could watch a video about burying nuclear waste. Mostly they were business people but on that day there were some radicals who wanted to pick an argument and then one of them asked me for a date which was a bit much considering I was already getting a headache from him so I said it was against the rules.
I was already looking for another job. I wanted something steadier and where I wouldn’t have to stand and smile.
I kept the apartment, which was on the ground floor of a house with a back yard near Christie Station. I talked the landlord Mr. Trumbles into reducing the rent on account of Bo moving out. So that was a positive step. Then the Gustav Klimt print fell off the wall. It was The Kiss.
I texted Bo:
i need 2C Ossie
He texted back about an hour later:
u can keep klimt pic
That was when I started keeping my record of all the events that were happening in my life:
Late for work again. Train was delayed due to some mysterious security incident. Then I guess the incident evaporated because the train started again. But it didn’t look good me being late again. Val my BGF called to tell me Bo is living in the back of the laptop shop. I asked her to find out if he is looking after Ossie. She has to have mice. I mean Ossie, not Val. Bo is such an idiot. He might release her into the wild like he talked about one time. He’s a freedom fanatic.