Freaky Good Luck Can Happen

Except for what didn’t happen that I was expecting to happen

I’m a New Yorker. I’m a writer. I’ve written a book about the War on Drugs, I’ve posted more than a few essays here at Medium, and I also have an unsold screenplay that I wrote with my friend, Linda. It’s a comedy that received some good notes from a Hollywood reader associated with a ScreenCraft contest.

When I walk around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park I usually do a full loop. On rare occasions I’ll sometimes veer off to the wider pathway. I did so on September 14, 2024, and little did I know that that decision would irrevocably alter my life. Or at least I thought it would.

I found an iPhone. The phone had already timed out and was in a locked mode, and so without the passcode, all I could do was wait for someone to call. I stood there for a while, believing that the person who lost their phone would retrace their steps and find me. Nope. So after about ten minutes I took the phone back with me to my apartment.

Minutes after I got home, the mysterious person’s iPhone rang.

“Hello.”

“Who is this?” asked the man who was no doubt a bit unnerved by a man whose voice he didn’t recognize.