My phone shook me from my sleep as my alarm’s chimes pierced the quiet of the morning. I blindly reached over to fumble with the screen and shut off the racket. As I squint in reaction to the bright lights of the screen, I see that I have a new notification.

It’s my daily horoscope.

“Cancer: Today you will meet a stranger who will impact your life forever.”

My horoscope was always a fun way for me to set my day. In a way I knew it was hokey and likely written by a computer program or some amateur wanna-be writer. But it was always had an innocent tone.

This was so ambiguous. What kind of impact could it be? A good one, like someone with a giant novelty check for a ten million dollars will show up at my door? Or maybe this was a bad omen, like today I am going to lose a toe in a boating accident? Maybe some random guy is going to trap me in his basement and force me to watch every single horrible spinoff film in the “American Pie” movie series? That would be a fate worse than death.

I laid in bed, contemplating exactly what those words could be. My mind flip-flopped between the best and worse case scenarios. Hope would turn into panic and then back into hope, only to return to panic.

So I decided to not leave my bedroom today. Best to play it safe.