As Luck Would Have It

19) Luck and Opportunity

           

Peter woke to the sun gleaming through the grey overcast that covered most of the borough. It looked like a rain shower would come down at any moment, but the streams of sunlight would make any optimists say otherwise. Peter rolled over in his bed to where he was lying face down and hanging his body over the side of the bed. In his drowsiness, he saw a blurred image of an open book on the floor and immediately remembered the words he had read the previous night.

We could get to know each other, Michelle's voice echoed in his head. It was a surreal idea that she was open to letting him be part of her life in some capacity. He continued to stare at the blurry image as his vision sharpened enough to read the writing from where he was. "But I could use a friend too," he read to himself. He then eyed his phone on his desktop, contemplating whether he should give her a call.

"Eh, she may be busy. I don't want to disturb her" he said as he rose from his bed and slipped on a shirt.

The pain in his ribs was completely gone and Peter decided to undo all the wrapping before he let his shirt fall down his torso. The indent marks of the gauze wrapping made his sides look like they had wrinkled and the ice pack against his ribs had turned warm and squishy.

He made his way to the kitchen to grab a Pop-Tart and a piece of bacon before heading out for the day. May was already there, taking her last sips of coffee before leaving for work. Peter approached her from behind and gave her a gentle rub on the shoulder to say, 'good morning.'

"Hey hun, whatcha doing up so early" she asked.

Peter's plan for the day was to go out take some pictures for Robbie and the Bugle. He had forgotten to tell May about it and was now able to finally tell her.

"Oh my God, Peter that's amazing," she said excitedly, pulling him into a half hug, "I'm so proud of you."

"I hoped you would be" was his reply, a bright smile plastered across his face.

"Well, I gotta go," she explained, "I'm already a little late for a publishing meeting. Work hard today."

"I will, love you May"

"Love you too, sweetheart" were her last words as the door clicked behind him.

Peter continued to munch down on his semi-breakfast food and retreated to his room to suit up. As he did, he thought about what he would photograph. He never had the greatest eye in terms of what looked good. He was more of a 'snap or roll and hope to get something awesome in the end' type of photographer. Where's a good place for pictures, he thought, maybe on the riverfront. And with that thought, he leapt out of his window and swung his way to the riverfront. 

Once at the riverfront, Peter took photos of anything he thought were worth capturing. He saw a group of runners jogging along the pathway that followed the river's edge, and woman selling a bag of bird seed to children among a flock of pigeons. Peter was near the Queensboro Bridge and it was the time of day where there was enough light to let its colors contrast with the Manhattan skyline. He took so many pictures of the bridge that he thought that there wouldn't be enough space on his phone. Out of all the sights he saw at the river, there was one sight that Peter knew he had to capture. An elderly couple was snuggled together on a bench taking in the view of Midtown. It was just so heart-warming that he couldn't resist capturing the moment.

After about an hour and a half of picture taking, his phone was starting to go dead, so he decided to head back home to charge it up. As he swung through the air, he felt that he was back to his usual self. His rib cage didn't sting, nor did it ache any further. He was able to twist and turn his body in any fashion to swing fluidly.