Story Part Two

            Jennifer hated her life.  Her life was a CD player, destined to repeat one track for all eternity.  Every day looked exactly the same.  The drive to work, and then her job itself.  At work she counted down the hours until she could be home, and once she was home, she counted down the hours until she could fall asleep. 

            The two mile drive to work was fairly nice, because the trip down her mile long driveway had beautiful scenery the entire way.  Jennifer lived on top of a huge hill in the middle of a forest.  The narrow winding road was made of dirt and occasionally gravel, so the trip down the driveway took nearly an hour. 

            Jennifer worked for one of the most successful lawyers in the Seattle area, Joe Blimp.  She loved her job.  Ever since she had been little, Jennifer had dreamt of being a lawyer, defending those poor kids who were abused by their parents, or working for the freedom of wives from abusive husbands. 

            In Jennifer’s senior year of high school, her sky-high dreams came crashing earthward.  Her best friend had convinced her to date the guy Jennifer had had a crush on for more than a year.  Jennifer had not gotten pregnant, although she was surprised she’d been so lucky.  Her now ex-boyfriend had turned out to be a psychopath, and had stolen all her money, leaving her penniless. 

            Now broke, and having missed all scholarship deadlines, Jennifer accepted her fate.  It brought her great sorrow to think that there were kids and wives out in the world whose lives could be better off, had she been better off. 

            The only escape from her abysmal reality Jennifer found was books on tape.  Jennifer opened her glove compartment and pulled out the tape of the Harry Potter she was on, and inserted it into her tape player.  Jennifer loved the story of Harry Potter, and the great thing about listening to it on tape, was getting to hear it read in a British Accent. 

            When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

            At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

            It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar—a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen—then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.

            Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive—no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind.

            Jennifer was so absorbed in the story, she didn’t notice the car behind her, which happened to be driving nearly seventy miles an hour, until it crashed into the back of her own car.  Jennifer opened her door, and stepped into the stormy weather outside.  Thankfully she wasn’t hurt.  The driver of the other car didn’t seem to be doing as well.  He had blood splattered down the front of his shirt, but he sure was hot. 

            She walked over to him.  Normally, she would have driven off to work in disgust, mad at the guy who made the mistake.  This guy was different however.  The rain had let up a little, leaving just a light mist.  The man’s face was covered in sweat, possibly from the adrenaline of the crash, or maybe it was the mist.  It didn’t matter to Jennifer.  The guy looked so handsome, as he boldly walked toward her, apology on his lips. 

            “You all right there ma’am?” 

            “Oh, I’m fine,” she replied, doing a poor job hiding how attractive she thought he was.  The gentleman didn’t seem to notice though.  He was probably rushing off to work just like her.  “You don’t look to good yourself though.  Would you like some help cleaning up the blood?  I have a first aid kit in my car.”

            The man agreed.  Jennifer’s thoughts returned to the Harry Potter book she had been listening to, not five minutes ago.  The Dursley’s had lived perfectly ordinary, boring lives, and just when they thought it would never change, Mr. Dursley found a cat reading a map.  Jennifer recalled how the story continued, mysterious and extraordinary things happening right and left in the Dursley’s boring lives.  Their lives had been changed forever when a baby appeared on their doorstep just the that night.  And this had all sprung forth from a normal day. 

            It seemed to Jennifer the same thing had happened to her.  Someone must have fixed her once broken CD player of a life, and allowed it to get off the same old boring track.  In the same way that Harry Potter was delivered to the Dursleys, this good-looking man had been delivered to Jennifer.  It was pretty clear that Jennifer had found her soul mate.  She couldn’t tell what it was about this man she loved, but she supposed that was how it was supposed to be. 

            “Looks like you’re all set,” said Jennifer after she’d finished cleaning the man up.  “What’s your name again?”

            “Geo.”

            “Could I get your number?”

            “Uh, sure,” said Geo puzzled. 

            She found an old grocery receipt.  She tore it, and gave Geo half, so he could write his number.  “Your car doesn’t look so good, and if you need to borrow mine, just give me a call,” suggested Jennifer, handing him her number. 

            “Ah, I think I’ll be fine with my car, but thanks for the offer.”

            Back in the car, five minutes from work, Jennifer only now realized that getting into another affair was a bad idea.  Her husband was the source of her boredom, so it was his fault she’d began an affair with the lawyer, Joe Blimp.  It wasn’t her fault he was boring.  Could she really handle another affair?  Ending things with Joe would mean ending her pseudo-lawyer days. When Jennifer had met Joe, her dreams of being a lawyer had in a way come true, and she would miss it.  But it was most certainly worth it.  Geo was much hotter than Joe. 

            After parking, Jennifer decided to head straight to Joe’s office to break the news.  Tonight would be spent with her new delivery, Geo.  “Thank you God for fixing my CD player!” Jennifer yelled to the sky.  Two blue jays in a nearby tree squawked and flew away.