Omen of Misfortune

To improve my English and overall writing skills I wrote this narrative.

I would like to thank my friends Robert Cable, John (Boomer20031) and

a person hidden under the nickname 'sueca99' for their priceless help.

Omen of Misfortune

Loading was finished. All the pallets with the boxes were fastened in the huge trailer truck and the forklift driver named Tom shouted to the man in the cabin of the truck, “Andy, that’s all. Push off!”

Andy was a 39-year-old man. Standing at 1.75 meters and weighing 110 kilograms, his huge belly made it difficult for him to get in and out of the big vehicle.

 “Wait a moment!” Andy yelled trying to make himself heard over the sound of working engine, “Let me finish combing my hair.”

“Ha ha!   Do you still think Anna will take a look at you?   Ha ha!”

“Piss off! Today is my day. Everything tells that. My right eyebrow has been itching since the morning. You know this is for a date, don’t you?” Andy asked. “You see!  Again!” And he strongly scratched his face.  

In spite of his age, Andy had never been married. He had considered himself a loser his whole life. He was unlucky with women, with jobs and with friends. His life had been shitty and his life was still shitty, but he was sure everything would be changed soon.

“Well, Andy, you look perfectly lousy. Cut it out! I need to continue”, the forklift driver shouted, looking up.

“Oh, shit! I’ve dropped my brush because of you. Can you pick it up and give me?” Andy said.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Please, Tom. I am serious. It is very bad luck to drop a hair brush, don't you know? And it’s not allowed to pick it up by myself. ”

“I’ve just about had enough of you, moron. OK  take your shit and get out!” Tom opened the  truck door, picked the brush from the floor and gave it to Andy. The truck slowly moved away.

“Everything will be changed soon,” Andy smiled and whispered to himself as his truck passed a gate and a pretty woman smiled back at him.

A few months ago, Andy had just lost another job, because of that idiot who had not properly fixed that damn consignment. The day he was fired Andy was sitting in his dirty rented flat in front of his TV and pressed the ‘next channel’ button. A lot of people watch TV this way. Suddenly his finger hovered above the button for a second. He heard the words “…stop bad luck.”

This is what he had needed his whole life: just to stop his bad luck. He continued to watch this TV show till the end. The show was about omens and recommended people to "look for omens, follow the omens.”

Although TV studios produced numerous shows like this each season and you could see this crap on any channel, Andy became interested. It’s hard to describe, but something clicked somewhere deep in Andy’s head. The next day he got up with his right leg. Since that time, when his right palm itched he bought a lottery ticket. What was it if an omen of fortune? Once he purchased the lottery ticket for $6 and won $30. He tried to look for omens everywhere and followed them. He stopped returning when he had forgotten something at home. He started hitting himself in his forehead when salt had been spilled. It couldn’t be said that his life had changed for the better, but in some sense he had changed. Two weeks later he found a new job. He got an almost-new truck. He had already spent a few evenings with Tom and two of his co-workers in the bar. They turned out to be nice guys. And he met a woman. Perhaps something would happen between them. Those were his thoughts when his truck passed Ann.

His route was through the central part of the town. He had learned those 14.5 kilometers by heart. He had to drive 6 km to the north, then turn 90 degrees to the left and drive the rest of the way. He could do it with his hands tied behind his back. There was only the corner with the traffic lights where he had to turn. There was also a bus stop and a small grocery shop. He passed that intersection twice a day, five days a week. He could almost drive that route with his eyes closed. Andy was slowly approaching the intersection. There were not any cars ahead of his vehicle. The traffic lights were red. When it was about 20 meters till the turn, the traffic lights changed to yellow and then green. He accelerated his truck and begun turning. When his truck was already in the intersection, Andy suddenly saw a cat. The black cat crossed the road, just before Andy’s vehicle. When Andy recognized the full significance of that situation, the cat was right in his way. You could understand what it meant for Andy. It could be a catastrophe. He had to act very quickly. Turning the steering wheel more abruptly to the left he tried to outrun the cat. The cat, seeing a huge something on his left, stopped for a second and then it also accelerated. Andy, in his turn, pressed the gas pedal and turned the wheel even more. At this moment the truck flipped over on its right side. It took mere seconds.

A woman was screaming at the bus stop. The truck hit 6 people waiting for a bus. All of them were lying beneath the trailer All they were dead. Andy was lying across the seat in the cab of the truck. While falling, he seriously injured his head and perhaps broke his leg. His temple was bleeding. Andy didn’t care about all those issues. He was lying on his back but smiling. 
The black cat turned around and ran away, not having crossed the road in front of the truck. “I said it would be a good day. Everything told me that. None of the mirrors have even been broken,” Andy whispered, and closed his eyes.

2013, August