Episode 2: The Perfection of Five
My older sister once told me that numerology governs our lives in ways we often can’t understand. I’ve always been interested in these sort of things, astrology, the different Zodiacs, and so on. So it made sense to me. I was born on the 5th of May, at five past five in 1995. Five, five, five, and five. And it made sense, all the good things happened to me somehow involved the number five. After five months at my job, I got a promotion. When I was in fifth grade, I won a school wide award. Five was my number and I swore by it.
My sister tells me a lot of things. It’s a sister-sister thing. When we were small she’d build a pillow fort and whisper to me to enter her world. In it she would craft worlds, create scenarios and build me dreams. I held on to her every word, not caring about the five years between us. We were the best of the friends.
When I was 25, the number five began to line up for me in mysterious ways. Even though I set my alarm for six, I was always awake at 5.55 am and would reach my office at five past seven. As soon as the clock struck five, I was out the door but I figured that was fatigue, nothing supernatural.
As much as I was enjoying the divine intervention, I somehow found myself driving a couple of miles away from my usual route to a near abandoned park. I never knew why I was drawn to it, but I would sit there for some time, just taking in the atmosphere. I spoke to my sister about and she laughed.
“You should tap into the supernatural power,” she laughed. I kept feeling like there was something I was missing, so I glanced at the clock. It was a mundane 12 past 8. No hidden meaning there.
“Maybe there’s something, I’m meant to discover, Ariel,” I suggested, hoping she’d help me navigate this confusion. “I mean, five is my angel number. And it’s been like five months that something good happened to me.”
“Didn’t you win a stake on a football bet last month?” my sister chipped in, sounding amused.
“Well, that’s not major,” I huffed looking at the clock again. It was not 16 past, and nothing of significance had happened.
“Look. Don’t read too much into these angel numbers. I just used to tell you that stuff to entertain you.” Ariel said laughing gently at me.
“It still doesn’t make sense though, sis. Everything good has been happening to me in batches of five!” I said, feeling like I was clutching at straws.
“Good things happen to you because you work hard, that’s it. And you always ignore the stuff that doesn’t happen in line with five,” Ariel replied languidly, “which park is it anyway?”
“It’s the one on central street, Jesmondine,” I said wearily. The clock had now struck half past. Wasn’t it weird that time was flying by?
“Whoa…” Ariel breathed out shakily. “I don’t want you to keep going there. Bad things always happen there.”
I laughed at my older sister, what could possibly go wrong? We exchanged a few more remarks and said goodnight to each other. I pondered over everything she had said, could I really be over thinking every stroke of luck I’ve had in this life. I laughed it off, the idea was as ludicrous as the idea that the perfection of five kept me going. I settled into bed, too tired to read. As my eyes began to shut, heavy with sleep, the LED display on my bedside clock was bright: 05:00.
I woke up disoriented and very late the next day; it was 7.30 and I needed to rush to work. I found myself crying in the car, as I asked my angels why this was happening. Was it because of my doubt the previous night? I slid into my usual parking spot at a very convenient 8.05. I breathed a sigh of relief, and thanked my lucky stars or whoever, was watching for their favour.
The rest of the day rushed by in a blur, all I could think of was the park and as soon as the clock struck five, I was out of the office like a bat out of hell.
I sat in my car, for what seemed like forever, waiting for the big thing to happen. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for, but I knew it was coming. After what seemed like ten eternities, an old and stooped women hobbled into the park. The dress she wore hang about her body, like rags that had been stripped off a scare crow. I was afraid, she looked too frail to walk around the park like this, especially not in the weather that was increasingly getting colder. I rushed outside, and helped her to settle onto a park bench.
“Ma, are you lost?” I asked her politely, after she had caught her breath. She had sharp beady eyes, and long claw like fingers. She drew her shawls around her, and looked piercingly into my eyes.
“Do you believe in the perfection of five?’ she asked me. Her voice cut into the already chilly wind and sent a shiver down my spine.
“Yes, I do!” I gushed enthusiastically, “I believe that it is my angel number…” I prattled off, not noticing the way her cold eyes regarded me. I excitedly looked at my watch, 5:25 pm. Balance was being restored to my world. A short laugh cut my rant off.
“Do you know who I am?” she asked, the ice in her voice thickening.
“I am a djinn, and I grant wishes. There is a deep seated desire inside of you, and I will answer it,” she continued, without waiting for my answer. I began to speak, but she held up a wizened hand to stop me.
“Answer me truthfully, how many days have you been coming to this park?” she peered at me through her beady eyes.
“Five,’ I said without thinking, and immediately regretted it. The truth was that I had only been at the park for three days. Something took hold of my tongue and blurted out a lie. I clasped my mouth in horror and the old lady laughed gleefully. Right before my eyes, her face seemed to contort, into that of a beautiful woman, the loveliest I had ever seen. I blinked and there was the same shrivelled old lady, grasping her shawl, peering at me with bird like eyes.
“Go home,” she waved me away. “And come back tomorrow, at the hour.” She shooed me off, and confused, I walked to my car. I glanced back, and she was still rocking herself back and forth on the park bench. I began to drive off, but as I pulled into the main road, I saw her hand gesture strangely at me.
The next day was an abundance of fives. My heart sang, as I sailed through the day with ease, rising to the occasion. My angel number popped up for me in abundance, and as five pm approached, I was excited.
But then things went wrong.
Suddenly, work began to pile up on my desk, and I could barely pull myself away. I tried to leave work early to meet my djinn, but it felt like something dark was holding me back. When I finally managed to break away, I tore down the highway to the lonely little park on Central Street. She was sitting there, wrapping her shawl around her, her face as cold as the bitter wind. I ran to her, sobbing, begging for her forgiveness and she laughed cruelly in my face.
“Didn’t they ever warn you not to take up a djinn’s offer?” she cackled and grew taller, her shrivelled fingers grew longer, her claw like nails sharper. “Your deepest desire is to know the full extent of so called angel numbers, now you shall now what happens when they go wrong!” like a crack of a whip, the djinn had disappeared. I fell back, confused, wondering if I was living a sick nightmare. I glanced at my watch; 5;35. I shrugged and walked back to my car, feeling deflated. A sudden and huge fatigue swept over me, and I could barely keep my eyes open. I blinked back the sleep, trying to remove the number five from my mind. Ariel was probably right, it was just mere superstition.
That’s probably why I didn’t realise that five minutes had passed before I jerked awake, my car running off my lane and head on into a ten wheeler truck. It felt like forever, when we made impact and all I could hear was the djinn’s voice, “didn’t they ever warn you not to take up a djinn’s offer?”
The Loving Kind 