GM! ☕ 😎

Joseph Perkins, a material handler, stopped his Wartburg car with license plate CO 75-14 at the corner newsstand.

- I’d like a Budapest News.

- Sorry, we’re out.

- Then yesterday’s edition will do.

- That’s gone too. But by luck, we have a copy of tomorrow’s paper.

- Does it have the cinema listings?

- They’re in there every day.

- Then I’ll take tomorrow’s - said the material handler.

He got back into his car. He flipped open the cinema listings. After a little searching, he found a Czechoslovak film — A Blonde’s Loves — that he had heard praised. It was showing at the Blue Cave Cinema on Station Street, starting at 5:30.

Perfect timing. He still had a few minutes. He turned the pages of the next day’s paper. His eyes landed on a news item about none other than Joseph Perkins, material handler, who driving his Wartburg with license plate CO 75-14, had been speeding on Station Street and, not far from the Blue Cave Cinema, had collided head-on with a truck. The careless material handler had died.

- Unbelievable! - Perkins muttered to himself.

He checked his watch. Almost 5:30. He slipped the paper into his pocket, set off, and speeding, crashed into a truck on Station Street, not far from the Blue Cave Cinema.

He died, with tomorrow’s paper still in his pocket.

Örkény