The Curse of Friday the 13th, Day 3, Part 5

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Length (rounded up): 1750 words, 7 min.
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The Curse of Friday the 13th, Day 3, Part 5
Friday the 13th, 2:15 p.m.

After suffering through several strokes of unfortunate setbacks on Fridays the 13th, Julie had become a skilled cast-wearer. So, sadly, by the afternoon of the third Friday the 13th, she knew more about casting than any surgeon ever did.

She became an expert in the application of casts, and was proficient enough to decipher the three, four or even five-letter abbreviations such as DLLWC (dual long leg walking cast), because she had already worn every medically possible cast in existence, ranging from the just mildly annoying SAC (short arm cast) to the highly restrictive FBC (full body cast).

Her knowledge of this field of health science allowed her to discern nuances between any shells. For example, all long-arm casts may appear the same at a first, superficial glance, but they were actually custom-made products, each variation was slightly different, with subtle features that almost no outsider could notice. However, as a full-time, professional patient, Julie knew that qualities such as size, material, thickness, pose or angle, were crucial factors in determining how well-made and comfortable a cast could be.

Of course, there were characteristics that all medical casts had in common. First and foremost, casts, whether made of plaster or fibreglass, were damn confining. (In fact, they were deliberately made to be so.)

At that point, Julie stopped pondering general, imaginary casts. She opened her eyes, and paid particular attention to the actual inflexible casings, which firmly secured her body parts. After the most recent mishap, she had surrendered to the Curse.

But, securely bundled in a package of solid bandages, she was unable to bow her head, and she couldn’t get down to her knees anymore. Instead of carrying a white flag, she used another symbol to honour the triumph of a force that was stronger than her. She wore white plaster casts, which spread out to encase most of her body.

Trying to find some cosiness within her uncomfortable plaster suit, she felt the soft cast linings tenderly embracing her badly broken bones. Julie slowly lifted her only limb, which remained mobile enough to discover the newest sheathing she had been embedded in.

Her left hand, which was merely swaddled in a short arm cast, approached her neck. When touching it, she found nothing else but a raspy surface made of unyielding bandages impregnated with plaster of Paris. The plaster neckpiece was merely a part of the largest shell, which was a brand-new Minerva cast.

Frozen in a fully integrated shoulder spica cast, her right arm was held far away from her body, making it difficult for her left arm to reach. The new rind, which was only two hours old, replaced the previous one, which had been totally destroyed in the balcony accident.

On the right-hand side of her field of vision, the massive white block of the shoulder spica cast enveloped her entire arm, flowing down solidly to cover every knuckle, swathing her broken fingers, and engulfing her thumb. The additional layers of plaster gave the end of the cast a rough appearance, similar to a poorly carved kitchen glove. Held by a long and unsightly bar, her right arm was stiffened into an L-shaped posture.

Eventually, her left arm, which was still somewhat functional, probed the upper rims of the newest pieces of her cast collection. Since both of her legs had been broken in the fall, she had been given two identical long leg casts. Wrapping her wounded lower limbs in full length, the leg casts, stretching from the uppermost parts down to her feet, incapacitated not only her knees but also firmly fettered her ankles, making Julie bedridden. The plastered legs hang in well-padded slings just above the bed, kept in the air with ropes, counterbalanced by massive lead weights.

Clutched in the rigid bindings, she was reminded of the gruesome pattern of the Day of the Curse.
Step 1: suffering an accident
Step 2: taken to hospital to receive cast(s)
Step 3: go back to Step 1

What a simple set of rules! There were neither clever loopholes, nor emergency exits. Everything seemed to be conspiring against Julie, pushing her towards her third full body cast.

Was it painful? Or terrifying? Or just boring? It was all just a matter of perspective – she concluded.

Even though there was no mirror near her bed, she sensed as the white helmet-like cast narrowly framed her face. Her head was deeply embedded in the Minerva cast, limiting her view to only the lowest part of her body cast.

The recent torso cast appeared to have the same shape and dimensions as the old one, but Julie noticed some differences. The medical shell surrounding her body had not only been restored, but it had also become visibly thicker. Perhaps, the careful surgeons had added extra layers to provide her with more protection. Unsurprisingly, the torso cast, which mantled her body, was rigid, depriving her of the ability to change her posture.

All the new fractures were a bad result of an unfortunate visit. In an attempt to break the Curse, Julie and Mike had met a magician. But she hadn't found any relief there, only ended up with several new casts after the balcony had collapsed under her feet.

‘Do you think it was a trap? His trap?’ Mike asked, when he noticed that Julie’s mind becoming clearer.

She heaved; however, her chest was restrained in a narrowly built plaster jacket. ‘Does it matter? Mr Nilrem gave us merely the street name and house number, didn’t he? He didn’t say anything about that Mr Hawk lives in District 13.’

‘Anyway, I’d like to wring his neck.’ His hand clenched into a fist.

‘On the previous Friday the 13th when we met, Mr Nilrem said that he was a bit afraid of Detective White’s investigation. I'm just wondering if his visit today can be another piece of evidence to prove the connection between us?’

‘No, he won't have to worry about an investigation for the time being. While you were in the Cast Room, I was told that a rather mysterious and unexplainable accident had happened to Detective White this morning.’

Julie gestured resignedly with her moveable arm to acknowledge the news of the loss of their secret supporter.

‘Another day, another accident, another cast,’ she said. ‘This seems to be the rule of the game. Do you know what the worst part is? I’m not an active player in this game, but a dumb doll being played with.’

Immediately after the brief philosophical reflection, a broad smile appeared on her face.

Looking at her, Mike supposed that her contentment was a side effect of the medication she was administered to numb the pain of her old and new injuries. Perhaps, it was her last smile before spending several solitary weeks in the third full body cast, completely cut off from the outside world.

Even though her recent Minerva cast, shoulder spica cast, dual long leg cast, and short arm cast appeared to be enormous, they could pale in comparison to the full body cast, which awaited Julie at the end of the day. Mike shuddered as he recalled the unearthly sight of her previous mummy-casing.

Once wholly wrapped, she’ll be trapped in wall-thick plaster, and she’ll stay in darkness, because even her eyes will be blinded by the overly extended cast-mask. With plaster-plugged ears, she will hear only a few muffled sounds, which can barely filter through the thick layers. She’ll have to be alone, in complete sensory deprivation, immobilised for months, like a...

Apparently, he wasn’t able to help her, because the Curse was always one step ahead of them. Mike had failed when he had taken her to the shelter, and he had failed again when they had gone to the wizard. With no further ideas, he didn’t know what to say.

‘Would you like to know what I’m thinking about?’ she asked with frightening cheerfulness.

Mike nodded blankly.

‘I've been working hard for hours to make sense of what Mr Nilrem told us. He said that I could do anything today. I can’t die, and I can’t be paralysed. My destiny is something else,’ she said solemnly.

‘Mr Nilrem may be wrong, honey. You had better stop thinki...‘

‘My dear Michael, I have already survived more than two and a half Fridays the 13th. And I am still alive, and I haven’t become crippled, no matter what serious accidents have happened to me.’

He got worried. ‘I don’t understand what you are getting at, honey.’

‘I’m immortal... I can do anything today.’

She spoke as if she had experienced a divine revelation. In her rapture, she struggled to turn her body to the left, since she was safely locked in the head-neck-torso cast prison. Yet, Mike figured out what she was interested in. The windows.

‘Hey, can you help me? Please move this damn bed a bit aside. I’d like to see the sky.’

Surprised by the sudden topic-hopping that he couldn’t follow, Mike was afraid that she went crazy.

Even Julie spotted the question marks in his eyes. ‘Hey, I’m still Julia Warden, your ever-loving wife.’

‘You’d better get some rest, sweetheart.’ His hand came up to her cheek, stroking the unbandaged patch, which was constricted within the unceasingly increasing casts. ‘You’ve been through so much today.’

‘I know exactly what I want to do. But it's so hard to express it.’ She was as obsessed as an exalted composer with an inspiring dream of the world's most beautiful melody, but she didn’t know how to put this ethereal piece of music on a mundane sheet of paper. ‘I’m going to be full-body-casted by midnight, no matter what we do, right?’

‘Most likely,’ he said with resignation.

‘I've decided not to wait for the next accident any longer. I’d like to choose the way how I’m going to get my full body cast. I don’t want to feel that all my suffering is for nothing. Instead, I'm committed to giving a sense of purpose to this damn day. I'll no longer run away from the Curse, but I dare to challenge it.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Please pick up your phone, and call the airport and the nearest office of the Guinness World Records.’

to be continued

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