2006 (APPROXIMATE)

This story is about a character who’s name I won’t use, because speaking his name or typing it usually causes him to pop up and try to contact me in some way. It has happened, almost without fail, for all the time I’ve known him. I’ll tell a story about him, or mention his name, and suddenly I will receive a text message or phone call from him. It’s not that I never want to see him again, but rather that he’s the type of chaotic crazy that belongs in a long-closed chapter of my life. For my purposes here, I’ll simply call him the Captain.

The Captain moved into a third floor apartment in the East Chandler St area of Worcester, and with this apartment came a safe. The safe became a subject of much conversation and speculation – it was assumed that moving a safe from a third floor apartment had simply been too much of a hassle, and hence it was abandoned. But there was also speculation that the prior tenant was a drug dealer, and may have stashed money or drugs in the safe. Perhaps he had been killed or arrested, leaving it there forgotten.

So intriguing was the mystery of the abandoned safe that before long two of the Captain’s friends endeavored to crack it open. Not being experienced safe crackers, they broke several tools and hurt themselves trying to loose the door of the stubborn safe. The Captain was unscathed – after all, the safe was in his apartment. They would split whatever was inside three ways! His two pals didn’t feel that way in their frustration, saying that if they got it open they would give the Captain nothing. It was then, he told me, that he “hexed” them. Their plan was to drop the safe from the third floor window in the hopes that it would crack when it hit the ground. One of them said that he wished for thousands of dollars in cash. In what became a heated argument, Captain laid the hex on him – “I hope you get exactly what you wished for!”

Whenever the Captain said something like this it was a bit eerie. He was known to say crazy things, but how could getting thousands of dollars in cash be a hex?

When the two former friends checked out the broken safe to see what was inside, there was indeed thousands of dollars in cash. Or at least the remains of it – termites had gotten inside the safe, and eaten all the cash. Some corners of the bills were left showing how much had likely been in there. And so, the two were hexed to get exactly what they wanted – but they should have wished more carefully. Or perhaps they should have guaranteed the Captain his cut…

Submitted by A.P. Strange, Liminal Ambassador