It started with an umbrella...

Kelly sat on the bench trying to catch her breath. Her chest heaving and sweat pouring down the back of her second nicest shirt. As she stared down the road at the taillights of the bus with frustrated gray eyes. She had missed the bus by only a few feet because she was running late and it seemed the world was out to get her. She pushed her dark hair, the color of a raven’s wing out of her eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to calm herself. The problems had started about a week ago when she had been given an umbrella as a gift. She was grateful for the gift as her last one had gotten bent out of shape months ago. She opened it to see what the design was and found a cute picture of a cat on the inside when open, which made her smile. Her brother who had been the one to give her the gift had teased her that she would have bad luck for opening the umbrella indoors. She had laughed him off at the time, but now she questioned herself. It seemed like small things at first. Not being able to find things, tripping on her own two feet, getting to a restaurant and what she ordered had just run out. Stores being closed for emergencies when she needed to return something. 

 The last few days had been horrible though. First, she lost her job, then her boyfriend of three years left her for another woman. Her best shoes had been broken at the heel. None of the places she applied were looking for people right now. Kelly thought her luck was turning around when she had called the most recent company and they not only told her to get her application in but they had scheduled an interview with her as well. 

The morning of the interview seemed to start off good. However when she took her shower she found that she was out of shampoo. Then she realized she forgot to put a towel out and had to go find one dripping wet. When she failed to find a full size clean towel, she did the best she could with a hand towel and had to put her clothing on while still wet. Her pantyhose got a run in them as she was pulling them up her legs and she had to wear her pretty but horribly uncomfortable flats. Once she was dressed she went to her garage to get in her car but when she went around to the drivers side she found that both tires on that side were flat and she only had one spare. She screamed in frustration then checked her bike only to find that it had two flat tires as well. There was no other choice but to take the bus. 

After finding her wallet and keys which was a trial in and of itself she left the house, taking off at full speed only to trip over a dog laying on the sidewalk three steps outside her door and into a mud puddle. She had looked at herself as she pulled herself up and went back inside to change clothes. She was forced to wear a barely serviceable outfit consisting of a shirt-jacket combo that was one piece, which she really hated since there were times she liked to take her jacket or sweater off, and a pair of old and faded but usable dress pants. 

At this point she would have still made it on time, when she left the house the second time she walked fast but carefully, picking up speed as she went. She wished that her car did not have two flat tires. She wished her bike was usable. She wished that she had not had problems finding her wallet and keys. This consisted of searching through her junk drawer, her jackets and finally finding her wallet deep under the cushions in her couch and her keys behind her makeup bag in her bathroom. 

On her run to the bus stop she had been stopped at three stop lights with busy traffic and no chance to jay walk and get across faster. When the bus stop was finally in view, sitting in front of it was the bus she needed to take. She sprinted her hardest, trying to make it to the stop in time hoping against hope that the driver would see her desperately trying to make it to the stop, but alas when she was nearly there, a stray cat had run in front of her and caused her to fall, again. Her knees and wrists hurt but she still pushed herself up only to see the bus pull away from the bus stop. 

She sat there mulling over her bad luck. She would not have had to do any of this if she had not lost her job. Her company was downsizing and she was simply the last one in. This meant she had the least seniority. Her only bit of hope had been the job interview she was rushing to. However, since she lost her job, her last check had not come in yet and they said it still could be two days to two weeks till it came in. She looked down at her knees, her pants torn and her knees bloody. She looked at her hands. Her wrists were scraped and starting to bruise already. Kelly bit her lip and tried to hold in the tears. She would not give in, she would fight to do what she needed to survive. Kelly sighed, right now though, she could do nothing but wait for the next bus so she put her head in her hands and stared at the ground. There she saw something shiny half-under her foot. She leaned over, moving her foot out of the way and picked up a brand new penny which had been sitting heads up under her foot. She laughed as she rubbed the shiny face of it, hoping that if the umbrella had caused her bad luck this would counter it as picking up a penny from the ground facing up was supposed to be good luck. 

She was still laughing when a nice truck pulled up to the bus stop and the window rolled down, the friendly face of her best friend popped out the window, “Girly, what happened that you are sitting there like a homeless bum?” Kelly laughed again, and pushed her brown hair out of her face, “trying to get to an interview and it seems the universe is laughing at me, I thought I would laugh back.” Her friend smiled and motioned for her to get in the passenger side of the truck, “Let me give you a hand, let's get you cleaned up and I’ll make sure you get to your interview. Then you can show the universe what a survivor you are.” Kelly laughed as she pulled herself up into her friend’s truck feeling as if her luck had finally started to turn around.