I sat on a park bench to meditate for a second after leaving the old neighborhood coffee shop.

I went to a session with the coffee fortune teller, as they called the woman who could see at the bottom of your coffee cup the future.

I don't believe in these things, but my friends recommended me to visit the old babalao to get rid of the bad luck that lately rules my days.

I entered the place that was all deteriorated by time. This had been a very popular coffee shop when it opened. After the fortune teller's husband passed away everything went to ruin but she kept opening the business so as not to give up. Now the main source of income was her fortune-telling sessions. How could I not trust a woman who was practically born in a coffee plantation?

I was ushered to the end of the hallway where I passed through one of those beaded curtains. At a table with some bones and snails in her hands, the old woman received me.

She offered me a cup which she filled with espresso and asked me to drink it in the normal way. I must confess that the coffee was delicious. When I finished the old woman came over and took my hands.

The woman smelled of tobacco, rum and coffee. We both looked at the cup wrapped by our hands and she said that I should take care of myself, for destiny had a bad trick in store for me and that in order not to fall into disgrace I should do the opposite of what I would normally do.

It got me thinking. Normally I would have continued home as if nothing had happened, but the woman had a tone of mystery in her voice so instead of continuing I sat in the park thinking that I would be better off for changing destiny.

At that moment a car passed by at full speed and splashed me with dirty water from a puddle in the middle of the street.

Soaked, I went home to change. I got to the building and before I got on the elevator I realized that's what I would normally do, so I got out and went up the stairs. I hadn't finished getting to the second floor when the dog of the lady in apartment B3 ran away and ran downstairs. The animal was huge and when it passed she pushed me and we rolled down 15 steps.

Dirty and sore I ended up getting home. I went into the bathroom and when I went to turn on the shower faucet, I like to take a cold water bath, to do the opposite I turned on the hot water. It was relaxing, I liked it very much. When I had already shampooed something happened and the water got boiling. It burned my back and I came out of the bath screaming.

I felt frustrated but I left all that behind. I went into the kitchen to make coffee. Turns out the stock can of coffee was empty.

I went to the store to buy that brand of coffee that makes me rave for its delicate flavor and aroma. I wanted to go on my motorcycle but that's what I would normally do so I walked and as I turned the corner I almost got hit by a bus.

Instead of going to the store as I had planned, I turned around and stormed off to the coffee shop of that old hustler.

I arrived very upset and yelled at her that I didn't believe her warnings and scam from the bottom of the coffee cup.

The old lady came out of her shop very stunned and told me that thanks to that warning I was still alive, she shouted at me that bad luck was following me no matter which way I went.

Annoyed I went to cross the street but as I had that confusion of doing what I thought or the opposite, I did what I had never done before. I crossed the avenue in the middle without waiting for a traffic light or road markings.

Almost reaching the other end of the avenue, I was happy with a smile because I had beaten bad luck. I looked at the sky and shouted "thank you". As I fell through a hole in a manhole that I didn't see that it had a cover.

At the bottom of the drain I told myself that I would never trust coffee funds, fortune tellers or bad luck again. What has to happen happens in any circumstance.