Chapter 2

The next morning, Tom stretched his arms in his bed, feeling the warmth of the sun on his face. Wait, the sun? Tom lunged for his cell phone on the nightstand beside the bed. He took a glance and sprung out of bed. He was going to be late for his first lecture!

Tom frantically grabbed some clothes from the closet and ran into the toilet. He looked at the mirror, and pulled on it to reveal a small shelf hidden behind it. He quickly applied some shaving foam with one hand and he washed his shaver with the other. Pulling the shaver across his chin as quickly as he could, Tom went a little too fast and a little too hard. He winced as a small red dot appeared on his chin. Tom slowed down a little and finished shaving without further incidents.

The rest of his morning rituals was a blur as Tom scrambled around his apartment, skipping some steps to save some time, but making mistakes and taking longer instead. Finally, he was in his car and ready to go.

Tom turned his key, and the engine gave a little whine, but did not turn over. Tom tried again, and the engine whined a little harder, but still failed. Tom sighed. Did he forget to switch off his headlights last night? Figuring that there was no way he could make it to class in time, he took out his cell phone from his pocket to send an email to his students.

There was a notification on his phone about new emails. Tom ignored it for now, and drafted the email to his students informing them that he had car troubles and would not make it for class today. After sending the email, Tom opened his inbox.

Selina had sent an email to Tom late last night, titled “Tomorrow”. Tom opened the email, which said: “Tomorrow will be an unlucky day for you since I put a spell on you. Hope you’ll believe in magic now! Cheers, Selina.”

Tom thought for a second: Could it be? Nah, it was just coincidence. Ding! His phone informed him of a new email. It was from Selina. Tom opened it and it said, “See? I told you!” Tom considered replying to the email, but decided it was better not to stoke the fire. He put the phone back in his pocket, and headed out of his car. If the car didn’t work, then he would have to take the bus today.

Sitting in the bus, Tom checked his emails. Based on the titles of the emails, there was the usual slew of emails he got every day, and he had a few emails from students in his class wishing him well about his car. Tom put the phone away and glanced out the window. The sky looked dark. Tom crossed his fingers and hoped he would get to the university before the rain started. His umbrella was inside his car. Tom was going to blame it on bad luck, and thought about Selina’s email. No, it wasn’t bad luck, it was just that he almost never took the bus, so why would he have had his umbrella with him?

Tom ran his fingers through his hair as he entered his office. It had only started to drizzle when he alighted the bus, so he had only gotten slightly damp as he jogged to the building. Tom turned on his laptop, and started checking for information about his car insurance, to figure out if they would help him get his car started again. He logged into the insurance website, and was dismayed to find out that he was past due on his insurance payments. He switched over to his email inbox, which was filled with thousands of unopened emails as always. He searched and found a few emails from his insurance provider buried in his inbox, reminding him about his then-almost-due payment. Tom sighed. He had meant to set up auto pay for his car insurance, but it had slipped his mind. Better late than never, he supposed, as he set the payment up on the website.