Something In The Stars

Have you ever noticed how there are times in life when a cluster of strange coincidences occur? I am presently in such a phase. In the last weeks, a series of incidents have occurred and they really spook me.

Incident #1

I was trying to find the telephone number of a car rental we’ve used before from amongst the thousand bits of paper stuck to our pin board. I couldn’t, who could, find the number because of the chaos. My friend’s, R.’s, number falls down and as I pin it back to the board, I guiltily remember that I’d promised to call her months ago. R. and I do not talk to each other very often, once every one or two years, because she possesses a predilection to disappear, moving to another country, without sending a forwarding-address. Yet, we have, in some odd way, continued to follow the developments in our lives over the decades. Five minutes after I pin R.’s number back on the pin board, she calls me from southern Germany.

Incident #2

I am calling my friend, S., while gazing out of our living room apartment window. As the phone is ringing in S.’s house, she cycles by, looks up at our window, and gives a wave.

Incident #3

My husband and I are talking about a fellow, Mr. P., who used to work at a music store we went to often in town. This store closed down a year ago. We were wondering what he was doing since the store closed because he was one of those true and knowledgeable music enthusiasts, who served customers for over twenty years with grace and patience. Two minutes later just as we had continued onto some other topic of conversation, Mr. P. crosses the street in front of our apartment.

Incident #4

I was riding my bicycle through a suburb on my way to work (I ride from the city centre out to the city periphery every day). I saw two school boys, on their way to school meanly run away from a girl who wanted to walk with them. The incident made me think about how mean children can be in general. Then I thought about one of my ex-bosses, who I knew lived somewhere in that suburb, and who had a mean streak even as an adult. Then I started remembering some of the awful things he did and said when I worked for him (granted not a good thing to think about on a sunny summer morning). Two streets down, I passed his wife standing on the corner talking to two other women. They were the only people to be seen far and wide.

Incident #5

I finally got around to sorting through and throwing out the pile of Christmas cards last week (yes, I know, end of May...). I kept three of the cards because I wanted to write the senders soon. That evening one of the friends, whose card I’d saved, called to say she was coming up north for the weekend.

Giuseppe doesn’t like it when I go all esoteric on him. He keeps on saying the New Age is Old Hat, which probably is true. Yet, I catch myself trying to make sense of all these trivial, though poignant, coincidences. Should I go out and buy a lottery ticket? Is something big looming on the horizon?