Rick didn’t have an answer. Not one he could put into words. He knew the logic, and the numbers. Perhaps if she hadn’t said car crash she’d have had him. He didn’t have an answer, but he had a baby’s laughter ringing in his ears, and the frightened eyes of a mother as she carried her tiny son from her car.
Mary took a step toward him.
Rick took a step back.
In the summer of ’13, the summer that wouldn’t quit, Rick took a step back.
“I’m sorry,” Rick said.
“Sorry?”
“I know you’re what it’s your nature to be, Mary.”
“I don’t understand.” And she didn’t. It was an odd feeling. Pestilence hadn’t felt that way since the Earth was cooling its way toward oceans and an atmosphere.
“We’ve shaped you as much as you’ve shaped us. I know that.”
“What’re you saying?” And just like that she didn’t want to know. “Give me the box, Babe. Give me the box and we can just go home.”
“The thing is,” Rick said. “The thing is that in the end, I always shake it off.”
“Give me the box.” A soft pleading.
“You got under my skin, Mary. I had you bad. Like a fever.”
“Baby…”
“I loved you.”
“You still do…”
“I was lovesick.”
“Rick…”
“But I shook it off.”
Rick turned his back on her. To his left, Enza faded away, her smile lingering like Carroll’s cat’s. The box in his hands became light, empty.
He walked slowly to his car. Opposites attract. Positive and negative, yin and yang, Charles and Diana, if you like. Sickness and Health.
Rick walked away. The people of Holden would still die. The reaper’s scythe would still fall, one way or another, but not this way, not today. Today they got lucky.
Mark Lawrence
Mark Lawrence is married with four children, one of whom is severely disabled. His day job is as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments. At one point he was qualified to say ‘this isn’t rocket science…oh wait, it actually is.’
Copyright Notices:
“Introduction”
Copyright © 2013 N.E. White.
“Lucky Bill”
Copyright © 2013 Nils Durban.
“Thirteen Bullets”
Copyright © 2013 Andrew Leon Hudson.
“Military Magic”
Copyright © 2013 Michael Aaron.
“13 Days”
Copyright © 2013 Tristis Ward.
“Fold”
Copyright © 2013 Charlotte Ashley.
“The Devil’s Knocking”
Copyright © 2013 A. Lynn.
“Runner”
Copyright © 2013 J.R. Murdock.
“The Emperor’s 13th Choice”
Copyright © 2013 N.E. White.
“Getty Lucky”
Copyright © 2013 J.M. Odell.
“Double Negative”
Copyright © 2013 Eric Best.
“The 13th Spell”
Copyright © 2013 Michell Plested.
“Sundered”
Copyright © 2013 Wilson Geiger.
“Married to the Apocalypse”
Copyright © 2013 Mark Lawrence.
“Born Under a Bad Sign” lyrics, Copyright © William Bell, quoted by permission of the author.
If you liked Lucky or Unlucky: 13 Stories of Fate, please check out The End—Visions of Apocalypse available through Amazon.com.
Lucky or Unlucky? 13 Stories of Fate Page 28