The Inevitable Appointment

For a contest of the same name.

Another Monday shone brightly through my windshield as I drove to work. Smugly reveling in the fact that the weekend was officially over.  I arrive at work, pour some coffee, turn on the computer and flip my Week-at-a-Glance calendar to the current week.

 
Sipping my coffee as I wait for the system to boot up, I go over my scheduled appointments for the week:  Meetings, meetings, deadlines, meetings, lunch meeting, more deadlines... wait.  What the hell is that?

 
Friday - 3:37 p.m. Die in car crash.

 
Oh well, there goes quitting smoking.  May as well give up the guitar while I'm at it, too.  Drag. I was really getting into it. Oh well, I have a dozen things I want to do before I go, so I better get cracking!

 
"Hey Jeff, are you ready for this meeting?"

 
"No. I quit."

 
I go home. Tell my wife I love her and hug my son. "I've got things to do!"

 
Swam with the sharks at the aquarium, went to a local range and finally fired a real gun, got a tattoo, got up in front of a crowded karaoke bar and sang like no one was listening, entered an amateur boxing competition and got knocked out in the third, jumped out of a plane, tried out for the local semi-pro football team, and smiled like I meant it.

 
Friday - 3:35 p.m.

 
*RING*

"Hello?"

"Hey Beautiful, it's me."

"Hey..."

"Listen, I love you very much.  Make sure our son knows that I love him to."

"But..."

"Goodbye, my love."

"Wait!"

*click*

 
..."This just in. A local man died tragically at 3:37 this afternoon on Interstate 95. Let's go live to our correspondent on the scene, Tell us what happened."

 
"Thanks. A single mother of three was getting her children into the car to go to her mother's house for the holidays when this man attempted to carjack her."

 
"I was buckling my littlest into her car seat when he comes running up, pointing a gun at my face and yelling!"

 
"It was at that point, a good samaritan saw what was happening and came to help."

 
"Out of nowhere, this guy comes flying over the car and tackles the guy with the gun to the ground! They wrestle for a bit and then fall over the rail onto the highway."

 
"The two men landed on the pavement, 25 feet below, mere seconds before being struck by a freight truck at 70 miles per hour..."

Reviews

[Sara Muschweck]

Oh, what a question this raises, if you knew the exact time you were going to die, what would you do with that day? Instead of hiding and trying to avoid the death, this character took his time to experience new things, let the people in his life know how much he loved them, and in the end save someone elses life in a situation that could have left three children without their mother. Wonderful write.

[Nicole (Carpe Diem)]

wow that sucks (the death thing)... trying to do a good deed and ending up dead for it... great story... i enjoyed reading it... liked the twist when reading the week at a glance... death is something that isnt written on many planners...
great write!

[.]

Umm, WOH!? That was really sudden and scary. Damn Jeff, it was really good, yet pretty disturbing lol. But what the character did was absolutely phenomenal, bold, dangerous, and courageous. I believe thru the supernatural, something told him it was his time, i believe. Weird hehe. Yet, he saved 4 lives in the process that day. I salute him :)

Mikey