Colleen was in a hurry, which made her driving even more careless than usual. Her boyfriend Simon had already criticized her many times for failing to stop completely at stop signs. That’s what they call a “California, or rolling, stop,” he told her.

“If the cops catch you sliding through a stop sign like that,” he said, wagging a finger at her, “they’ll give you a ticket for running a stop sign. That’s a moving violation. That means at least a $100 ticket, plus eight hours of driving school for another $30.”

“I know, I know,” she replied. “But I never do it when they’re around, so how can they catch me?” Simon was about to tell her that cops have a habit of suddenly appearing out of nowhere, but Colleen told him to stop thinking so negatively. “You are bad luck,” she said. “When you talk like that, you make bad things happen.” He told her that life doesn’t work that way.

Colleen was in a hurry because she needed to drop off a package at the post office. It had to get to New York by Wednesday. She exited the freeway and pulled up at the stop sign. One car was in front of her. Colleen looked to the right and to the left. No cars were coming. It was safe to pull out. She hit the gas pedal. Bang! The car in front of her was still sitting there. The driver was a young woman, who got out of her car, walked back to look at the damage to her new car, and started yelling at Colleen.