TITLE: FIRE DOWN THE CHIMNEY
Fisch drank from the bottle of beer he was holding, staring at the array of bottles behind the barman who was preparing a cocktail with so much "drama".
Fisch was completely lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the barman calling him. "Excuse me sir..." the barman said tapping his hands on the table in front of fisch, "... should I bring you another bottle?".
"Uh?" Fisch replied looking dazed. "Should I bring you another bottle" the barman repeated for the fourth time now.
"Oh, no" Fisch replied looking at the bottle in his hands, realizing for the first time that the bottle was now empty.
Fisch flung his jacket to the far right of the chair close to him, he then fell into the chair sinking into it. After a while, he gave a heavy sigh and stretched for the TV remote. When he couldn't get it, he got up and stretched again and took the remote in his hands this time.
He turned on the TV and when it came on there was a documentary on elderly people showing on the channel. At first he was uninterested and made to change the channel but suddenly his otherwise dull eyes became brightened as though he had received some kind of divine revelation.
He quickly picked up his cellphone and tried to put it on but it was dead. "Aaggh!!!" He shouted in frustration. He opened up his bag that he had been carrying all day, and brought his charger plugged it to a wall socket and plugged in his phone. Sat back into the chiai and waited for it to charge.
Fisch woke up frantically and looked at his wrist watch. "11pm??? Damnit!" He exclaimed. "I'll have to make the call tomorrow morning then, they'll be asleep by now" he said to himself and gave up a heavy sigh.
The next day, Fisch woke up with a terrible headache. All through the night he had been thinking about what he was about doing. He wondered if he had actually lost his mind, he couldn't believe that he was starting to give in to the superstitious nonsense his grandparents had told him about on new years day.
Fisch had not seen his grandparents for quite a while. He was 17years when he moved away from Germany to America. The company his father picked up an appointment with made him manager of their branch in the US and so they had to relocate. They had visited his grandparents twice since then but not once since he became independent. And so decided to spend last year's Christmas with his grandparents.
He planned to leave on new year's eve but his flight was cancelled and had to be rescheduled. So it was during the extended stay to new year's eve that the Chimney sweep came to clean up the chimney.
Fisch couldn't believe chimney sweep's were still functional, he used to see them alot when he was a child but couldn't believe they were still in operation. And in his amazement he went to ask his grandparents about it.
It turned out that Fisch's grandparents were twice as excited as Fisch was. His grandparents told him about a popular German superstition about Chimney sweep's. Apparently, chimney sweep's were thought of to bring good fortune for the whole new year especially if you walk up to one and shake his hands.
The superstition wasn't new to Fisch, he had heard about it while he was a child and though in childish ignorance, he had believed it , he surely knew better now or so he thought.
So when his grandparents asked him to go shake the “Schornsteinfeger” Fisch just wouldn't do it. Instead he gave a light laugh and told his grandparents he wasn't a child anymore.
His grandparents explained to him that it was bad luck to see one and not shake him but Fisch only laughed even more.
Now 3months into the new year and Fisch had encounter multiple occasions of bad luck especially at work. And the recent episode almost cost him his Job.
Fisch the previous night after seeing the documentary on elderly people, suddenly remembered what his grandparents had said but could this be true or mere coincidence?