THE HAPPY PIE
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Carlo Guevarra was not having a good day. In fact, it started out to be one of the worst. He was already late for work and here he was, walking as fast as his thin legs could carry him. He cursed with every maddening step. He checked his watch if there was some cosmic significance to this day. His digital time teller suggested otherwise. It was only the 12th of December, 2008. There was no such thing as Friday the 12th nor Saturday the 13th. However, everything seems to be out of place. He is not a superstitious guy, but all the bad luck seems to be converging upon him today. He is now beginning to wonder if it was because of an incident this morning.

Carlo knew he woke up on the wrong side of the bed the moment his cell phone buzzed from his bedside table. It was barely 6 am and he was receiving a long distance call from Hong-Kong.

It was his ex-girlfriend Christine Tan. Operational word: Ex-girlfriend.

“Honey, will you ever forgive me? I take everything back! I admit...I overreacted. Sorry, I was just so emotional...” she said in a raspy voice, like she did a ton of crying.

“Who’s this? Is this Christine?” Carlo confirmed.

“What?! Were you expecting somebody else?! We just broke up last Friday, now you were expecting a call from somebody else?” Christine berated on the phone. He almost had to take his phone away from his ear.

“Honey, It’s six a.m.! I was out of sorts!” Carlo thought for a second...Why did he still call her honey? They were on a break.

“It’s already six a.m., you have a class at eight! What were you doing last night? Did you stay up late again?!! Who were you with last night?! Which tramp did you take out last night, who?!!!”

Phone line was cut off.

Carlo shook his head. He wasn’t even able to tell her that today was Friday, and on Fridays, he had no class but he had work to go to. He hastily stood up and went to the washroom to clean up. There’s no better alarm clock in the world than a nagging ex-girlfriend with post traumatic stress disorder.

They say disasters come in threes, now that was the first strike.

Several minutes later, Carlo was eating his breakfast with his sister, Lilly. Out of nowhere, a lonely fly landed on his glass. He tried to shoo it away but it kept coming back. Being the germ freak that he was, Carlo tried to chase the dirty fly out of the house. As he was about to swat it with his hand, he knocked over a glass on the table, sending broken shards all over the floor.

His younger sister looked at him in shock, as if he was doomed for life --- or something like that.

“Oh my God, Kuya! You must not leave the house, you are the bringer of bad luck to people today!” Lilly exclaimed, her eyes filled with every bit of horror her 9-year-old mind could conjure.

“Really now! To other people, not me? Then it’s okay, it’s not my problem then...” Carlo said, shrugging his shoulders. “Lilly, you’re nine already. You shouldn’t believe in stuff like that, those only happen in horror movies...ouch!!!”

Carlo stepped on a broken glass. He felt it crunch beneath his thin-soled canvas shoe. Strike two.

“See! Bad luck befalls your way...” said Lilly trying to make her voice deep and scary.

“Cut it out!” said Carlo, feeling dumb that he forgot there were glass pieces on the floor. “That was just a coincidence...or in this case, stupidity!”

“Kuya, basta, don’t ever say I did not warn you...”Lilly said, her arms folded across her chest. She began humming the Twilight Zone theme with full of overly masticated scrambled eggs, much to Carlo’s dismay.

An hour or so later, on his way to his best-friend Gerald’s pastry shop and restaurant, Carlo started to think that there might be some credence to what Lilly said. He found himself stuck in a huge traffic jam in Roxas Boulevard. He had no choice but to go down of the FX that he was riding and just walk the rest of the way. He had about ten more blocks to go.

Cursing the rest of the way, Carlo was already thinking of an excuse in mind. Though Gerald was his best friend, he was still his boss. Having known him from way back, Carlo knew that tardiness was his number one pet peeve. He walked even faster. Beads of perspiration started to form.

Carlo spends most of his weekends serving tables at the famous Vanilla Bean Cafe, a small patisserie right by the scenic Manila Bay. The small restaurant opened two years ago and they are slowly becoming known in town for their serving mouth-watering desserts and coffee --- and by God, their coffee were the greatest in the whole of Manila.

Carlo never drank any coffee after that, other than from the restaurant. They had this bulky espresso machine by the bar area, which became his own sanctuary of strength and sanity.

Carlo had his excuse made up on his mind when all of a sudden a black cat crossed his way. He immediately thought of the significance of a black cat crossing your path...then of accidentally breaking a piece of glass...it was like bad luck multiplied by the power of two.

What happened next, gave Carlo the chills. He finally reached the street where he would turn towards the restaurant. A white taxi was idly waiting for the traffic sign to change to green, when suddenly it was hit from behind by a black sedan, hurling it into the oncoming traffic. A big burly cement truck avoided the taxi but it also went out of control, spilling its contents onto the street. A ten-wheeler rushing next to it made contact with the hapless taxi cab. The sound of crashing metal filled the air.

Carlo made the sign of the cross as he opened his eyes. People of all ages were screaming. It was complete pandemonium. Several men rushed to get the victims out of the white cab. Carlo stood there for the next 15 minutes, stunned. He remembered his sister from this morning...maybe she was right. Maybe he was bringing bad luck with him today. He was Bad Luck Carlo as opposed to Good Luck Chuck. This was his third strike for the day.
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(Easy guys, this is just a prologue...it will usher in the story for Kim and Gerald. They are still the major characaters. I just used this to establish some connections in the characters from this series to the others.)
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SPOILER:
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TO those who may have missed it... Carlo Guevarra's ex-girlfriend Christine was actually Kim Tan's sister in CHEMISTRY. I think I mentioned of Carlo's name in Chemistry...and the accident Carlo saw, was the one Gerald from EYES got involved in. More secrets and connections will be unveiled soon....next time I won't mention it, it will be all yours to discover. He he he. - R -
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