Story a day: day thirty

Okay, we have reached day thirty of the story a day challenge for May. The prompt today was:

The Prompt

Write a story using the rule of three

Now, the first thing that sprung to mind when I read this prompt was the series Charmed and the power of three. Mind you, I don’t think I want to write a piece of fan fiction based on that!

So I am going to write a fresh piece for you today.

Enjoy!

Everything comes in threes

I remember being told this superstition when I was a child but I never really believed it until now. It was just a usual morning and we were all going out to work or school when it all started to happen. Apparently, the world seemed to decide that we were not going to go about our daily business that day.

“Ashley, have you got your schoolwork in that bag?”

“Yes. Do you need me to show you?”

“Don’t be sarcastic, honey. Come on now, in the car so that we can head off. I don’t want to be late today, my bosses looking for people to promote so want everything to be completely perfect.”

My husband tooted his horn as he backed out of the driveway. When I turned around he gave me a wave and a thumbs up sign. I smiled and waved back.

“Everybody knows that you are good at your job, mum, so I don’t see that you have a problem if you are a couple of minutes late.”

“That might be true, but I am not going to risk it. Go on, get in the car!”

Once we were inside the car I clicked my seatbelt into place and adjusted all the mirrors. It was a habit of buying every time I got into a car to readjust absolutely everything. It drove my husband wild, which is why we had separate cars! I started backing out of the driveway and turned into traffic so that we could begin our journey.

It began pretty much the same as any other journey heading towards the school. We had the radio on and I and Ashley were singing along to the tunes that were playing. Then there was a bang and I nearly lost control of the vehicle. Fortunately, I managed to pull over enough so that people could get past this and stopped. I put my hazards on and looked out the window. My worst fears were confirmed when I noticed that we had a blowout on one of our tyres.

“Dammit!” I glanced at the dashboard clock. “I don’t have time for this!”

“It will hardly take us any time at all to sort this one out.” Ashley was already getting out of the car. “The spare in the boot?”

“I am not sure I know how to do this.”

Ashley looked at me like I had gone out. “You are kidding me, right?” She shook her hand. “Never mind, as long as you have all the stuff in the boot that I need I am quite capable of changing a tyre.”

I popped the boot and slid out of the car to go and have a look. I looked at what was left of the tyre and was mortified when I realised that it could quite easily have killed us. I handed Ashley all of the things that she asked for and stood there watching all she did all of the work. I must say that I felt guilty for doing nothing but at the same time I was actually proud that she was independent.

As I was putting everything into the car a looked again at my watch and realised that I might just make it in time. As I was going round to get into the car a lorry rushed past and managed to cover me in dirty water. I looked down at my pristine outfit and could have cried at the mass it was now in. There was no way that I would have time to go home and change. So much for looking professional.

“It doesn’t look that bad. Just get in the car and concentrate on driving into work. It doesn’t matter if I am late so I will walk to the school once we have got you inside. I will even help you clean up if you like.”

It was with real gratitude that I flashed my daughter a smile. “Thank you.” I was amazed at how quickly we actually managed to arrive at my office from where we were. I didn’t even have to speed! Things were finally back to being perfect.

Or so I thought.

But, no, the world had not finished playing with me just yet. I had just made it through the office door when my foot managed to twist onto the side as the heel of my shoe gave way under my weight. I staggered sideways and managed to collide with my boss as he was arriving. He looked down on me and surprise and I did not even want to think about what I might have looked like.

“Sorry.”

“Samantha, will you go home and sort yourself out.”

“I am just…”

“That is not request. Come back when you look a bit more like a chief executive should.”

I stood very still. “You mean I have the promotion?”

“Yes, now get out of here before I change my mind.”

There was no way that I need to telling twice. I hobbled away with my daughter at my arm. “It seems like your run of bad luck has come to an end!” Ashley was right and I did not stop grinning for a very long time.