Forgetting Friday the 13th

I totally forgot the dreaded day – Friday the 13th.

I should have remembered it when I drove past another major car crash as I took the kids to school.  It had just happened, the emergency crew were busy treating the injured. I glimpsed someone covered in blood in one of the wrecked vehicles, a bakkie (pickup truck) – luckily the kids didn't notice. Another police car came around to close off the road to traffic as soon as we'd passed the scene.

The thick fog could have made it more difficult for the drivers to see what lay ahead, perhaps they were going too fast (not unlikely) on that stretch.

After dropping off the kids I went to the post office, thinking maybe something was waiting in the mailbox. And surprise of all surprises, there was a small, very beaten up parcel with official Post Office packaging tape that said it had been resealed because the parcel was found open.  Maybe someone thought there was something to nick – a sample perfume or sachet of moisturize?  Luckily, the parcel only had books.

My books!  Yehey! Posted on the 11th of April, they finally, finally, finally arrived! My publisher could only send just a copy each of Alien to Any Skin and Baha-bahagdang Karupukan because of the prohibitive cost of air mail from Manila to Cape Town.

My newborn paper children

So this past Friday the 13th was not unlucky at all – at least for me.

Filed under: Africa, Asia, Creatures, Life in a different world, Literary News & Articles, Mga Tula / Poetry, poetry, Silly Babble Tagged: Alien to Any Skin, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan, Jim Pascual Agustin, Philippines, poetry, South Africa, UST Publishing House