Let me read it to you!
Written for Sunday Scribblings
Lucy never had much luck, and during the last two years it
had gone from bad to worse. It was just before she was due to start university that
she claimed it. She was walking along the street when an old lady a few
steps in front of her dropped something. Lucy bent down to pick it up with the
intention of running after the lady and handing it back. It was a silver
necklace from which hung a talisman. As she looked at it, shining in the palm
of her hand, something naughty inside her told her that she should keep it for herself. And
so she did. From that day forth, whenever she felt she needed a bit of luck she
gripped it between her fingers for a second or two convinced that it would help.
However nothing ever went her way, in fact during her two years at uni, and despite the talisman her luck seemed to go from bad to worse. Yet somehow Lucy managed to finished her course.
It was a Tuesday morning. Nothing ever went well for Lucy on
Tuesdays, so when an envelope containing her final exam results dropped onto
the mat, she naturally expected the worst. Four weeks earlier when sitting the exam,
the questions on the sheet might just as well have been written in a
foreign language. She had taken educated guesses in the hope that one or two
of her answers might just be right. On that day she was not wearing the talisman around her neck; she'd decided to get rid of it before sitting the exam. After all, it seemed
to be bringing her bad luck rather than good and she needed all the luck she could get right then. So you can imagine her delight and surprise that Tuesday morning, when the
piece of paper inside the envelope told her that she had passed her finals with flying
colours.
Lucy had in fact disposed of the talisman whilst walking to the campus on the morning of her final
exam. She really wished she could have got the talisman back to the old lady, but that would have been impossible. So she
had simply dropped it in the grass verge. What ensued was almost like history repeating
itself. A fellow student, Stacy, was walking a few paces behind Lucy and saw it
fall to the ground. She of course had no idea that Lucy had intentionally dropped
it, but just like Lucy she had decided to keep it for herself rather than hand
it back. The difference was, Stacy did not need any more luck. Everything
always went Stacy’s way and often well beyond. Everything Stacy touched turned
to gold (except the talisman which is silver and remains that way to this day). It was
therefore a bit of unusually bad luck that occurred a second or two after popping the talisman into her bag, because when she stepped from the pavement to cross
the road, she got knocked down by a car and landed up in hospital. Whilst lying in
her bed she had insisted on holding the talisman in the hope that it would
speed her recovery. Sadly for her it did not and Stacy went rapidly downhill, departing this mortal coil some
twelve hours later.
When her relatives came to collect her things, none of them recognised the necklace so they gave it to one of the nurses, Natasha.
When her relatives came to collect her things, none of them recognised the necklace so they gave it to one of the nurses, Natasha.
A few days ago Natasha went to visit her Granny in a nursing
home. Granny had gone from being a lively bubbly old person two years before,
to a bit of a vegetable. No one knew why. But on this particular day, her eyes lit up as
she saw her long lost talisman dangling from her granddaughter’s neck. She put out a wobbly
hand to touch it, and it was as if she’d swallowed a magic potion! Her cheeks filled
with colour and she smiled a great big gummy smile. ‘My luck has returned’ she
said as Natasha fastened the necklace around the elderly lady’s neck.
So there we have it! Lucy
got a little bit of luck, Stacy got what she deserved, Natasha is a favourite
granddaughter and Granny is ballroom dancing again. I like a happy ending!
I had no idea where this one was going and loved the convoluted path that we were taken on. Lucy was lucky indeed having been giving a chance to receive good luck straight away by returning the talisman to the old lady at the start. The pleasure on the old lady's face would have been reward enough. Great story.
ReplyDeleteI liked this story, although I wasn't sure where it was going until the end.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased that everything worked out well for everyone and Granny finally got her talisman back though.
Loved every moment of this labyrinth. Grandma ballroom dancing at the end was delicious. And you know, karma is indeed a bitch sometimes! Wonderful write, perfect for Scribs. Peace, Amy
ReplyDeletehttp://sharplittlepencil.com/2012/08/13/broken-angel-sun-scribs-dverse-first-half-for-bloomings/
I was taken in by your story from the start. You could easily have written a book and I would still be happily engrossed in the spirit of the talisman.
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