Bay 12 Games Forum

My day began like most days, with the soft sound as my alarm clock radio stirred to life, then rose in volume. The song today was one I hadn’t heard before, but I liked it. It throbbed with energy and power, and brought me straight up to instant wakefulness. I sat up, feeling like today was going to be the best day of my life.

Then my alarm clock let out a warbling screech and died  with a puff of blue smoke.

I jumped out of bed with a barrage of cursing and unplugged the thing, but it was too late for that. The smoke drifted lazily around the room, until I pulled open a window and waved it out. I sighed in relief - it’d be really embarrassing to have the fire alarms go off. Once I was finished fanning the smoke out of my room, I sighed and went to go get myself some breakfast.

Breakfast was going to be warmed up leftovers, but my microwave died in the same fashion as the alarm clock, so I made do with a bowl of cereal. I sighed to myself over my food - It was looking like I’d have to talk to my landlord about the wiring. I went ahead and unplugged my computer and everything else electronic beside my fridge, just to be on the safe side, and hurried off to work.

The ride to work was interesting - the subway stalled out on me no less than three times. When I finally got off and tried to call my boss to tell her I’d be late, my cell failed to get reception for the entire walk, and then died on me. I sighed to myself and started jogging. If I was fast enough, I could probably get there only a few minutes late.

I wasn’t fast enough. I got to work to find my boss Clara, a solid old woman, glaring at me over her glasses.

“And where have you been?” She growled at me. “I expected you here twenty minutes ago!”

“My apologies,” I gasped, leaning over with my hands on my knees. “The subway stalled out on me three times. I ran as fast as I could.”

She raised an eyebrow and looked me over. “Three times? That’s awfully bad luck.”

“Tell me about it,” I replied. “I also had my alarm clock and my microwave die on me.”

She raised the other eyebrow. “Why didn’t you call me and tell me you’d be late?”

I cringed a little. “My phone also died.”

She snorted. “And you expect me to believe this?”

“Well… It’s true,” I replied. “I can show you my phone if you want.”

“Just go man the register,” She said with a huff. “We don’t have all day.”

“Yes’m,” I replied, and marched off.

But of course, you can probably guess what happened next - Within twenty minutes, the register had itself given up the ghost with a puff of blue smoke. I looked up at Clara’s angry eyes and put my hands up placatingly.

“I didn’t do anything! I swear!”

She shook her head. “I believe you, too - but the pattern here is clear. Why don’t you cache in some of your sick time, take the rest of the day off. See if you can figure this out. Call me tomorrow or something if you figure it out, okay?”

I hung my head. “Yes ma’am.”