Friday
The heavy, fast moving footfalls that definitely weren’t coming from a man is what first distracted Judy from her project. She looked up to see Karen enter their cubicle, throw her purse into her drawer and slam it shut.
“Hi,” Karen mouthed.
“Karen! Is everything okay? Do you have... laryngitis?”
Karen wordlessly slapped her hand down on Judy’s desk, then pulled it back, leaving behind a small slip of paper. Judy quickly snatched up the fortune and read it out loud.
“Don't ask, don't say. Everything lies in silence.” An appreciative laugh burst free from Judy. “Seriously? You can’t talk at all?”
Karen smiled faintly, finally able to see the absurdity of the situation just a little bit after hearing Judy’s laugh. She grabbed a pad of post-it notes and scribbled Since I opened my fortune cookie last night, I can’t talk.
“So, does that mean you won’t be going out for Chinese tonight, then?”
Karen pulled off the used post-it note and wrote a new message. No, it means that when Peter takes me out tonight, we’ll be going to the Lucky Dragon. I could be sitting on a gold mine! I just need to go to a place that has a better chance of giving me a good fortune.
During their dinner, Peter talked and talked about his day and his plans to play basketball with friends Saturday afternoon. Karen nodded and gestured, but mostly just listened. She felt a pang of guilt when she realized that he was relishing the opportunity to dominate their conversation for probably the first time ever. She had finished her Chicken Lo Mein and had pushed it off to the side when her waiter returned. He placed the bill and two fortune cookies on the table, then started putting the leftovers into boxes. Karen grabbed one of the fortune cookies and ripped off the plastic wrapper.
“I hope it’s something good!” she gushed. “Oh, hey! I got my voice back!”
She cracked open the cookie, pulled out the fortune, and silently read it. “Is this some kind of sick joke?” She yelled as she waved the fortune in the direction of the waiter.
“Why? What does it say?” Peter was alarmed at the tone of Karen’s voice.
“It says, When you leave, you’ll slip on a noodle and break your ankle. What kind of crappy fortunes are you giving out here? This is the LUCKY Dragon!”
The waiter, taken aback, apologetically explained. “The fortunes are supposed to be ironic. It is funny to get a misfortune at a place with ‘Lucky’ in the name.” After seeing the fiery look Karen was giving him, the waiter tried to back up what he said with a lamely delivered, “His has a misfortune, too.”
Peter opened his cookie and read the fortune out loud, “You will have stomach ache from eating too much Chinese food.”
Karen folded her arms, sitting back in her chair, seething while the waiter finished up.
“Hey, lets just trade fortunes,” Peter offered. “A stomach ache from over-eating is much better than breaking your ankle.” He switched the slips of paper, then added, “And just to be on the safe side, I won’t let you fall when we leave.”
She gave him a small smile. When they left the restaurant, he held on to her so tightly, she knew nothing bad would happen. A week ago, Peter holding her like that would have bothered her, but she was starting to not mind it so much. A part of her actually enjoyed it.
When they got back to her apartment, he suggested that they watch a movie together so that he could be there “if she needed anything for her impending stomach ache.” It was a weak excuse for him to stay, especially since her stomach felt just fine, but she found herself wanting him to stay for a little longer. She took her leftovers into the kitchen, not noticing when a noodle fell out of her box. She placed hers and Peter’s boxes into the fridge, then shut the door. As she turned to walk back into the living room, she slipped on the fallen noodle.
Peter heard the thud, then the scream. He jumped up and ran into the kitchen, falling to his knees as he reached Karen. “What happened? Where are you hurt?”
“My ankle. I think I broke my ankle.”
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