Sequel to Lucky Break
Sometimes, bad luck can’t be thwarted, Renny’s mother once said. You give it what it wants, and then pick up the pieces. Two broken mirrors. A fourteen-year curse. After a series of unfortunate events, Renny gave it what it wanted. He and Waz took a break, though they never stopped loving one another.
When those fourteen years are finally over, what happens next? In Renny’s superstitious world, he needs a sign from fate before moving forward. Renny’s sister recalls a scavenger hunt their mother sent her seven years after she broke a mirror. Seven good luck charms had to be found and collected before the bad luck would officially end. Since Renny and Waz’s hex was doubled, Renny feels they must find fourteen.
Will they succeed even if they slightly bend the rules? Is their love strong enough to fight bad fortune this time? Will Renny get his sign?
Amber was barely recognizable. Twenty years would do that to a person. Despite over a decade between us, I was surprised to see she’d gone gray. Cyan was even older, but his hair was still mostly black. Amber was quite thin, too. Cy looked more like Mom every day. Amber, not so much anymore.
“How are you?” I could only imagine what I looked like to her, considering the last time she’d seen me I’d barely started puberty.
“Your concert was good.”
“Thanks.” I was hoping for more than that.
“Sterling’s driving down tomorrow.”
“Cool.”
I’d never met either one of my nephews. Not Gray, now in his twenties, not Sterling, somewhere in his teens.
“So, what’s new?” Amber asked.
After two decades, so much was new, I didn’t know where to start. So, I started with Waz, which meant mentioning the broken mirrors and fourteen years of bad luck.
“I broke one of Mom’s compacts when I was six.” Amber’s smile was brief. “Seven years to the day, she made me do this thing where I had to find seven good luck charms before the whole thing would be over.”
“Really?” Mine hurt my cheeks.
“I don’t remember any bad luck. I don’t honestly even remember breaking the mirror, but I took her word I had and did what she wanted because I was thirteen.”
“What kind of things did you have to find?”
“The usual stuff. I remember a penny.”
“Check.” I told Amber and Cy about the two from earlier.
“I searched the yard forever for a four-leaf clover.”
“Did you ever find one?”
“No. I made one out of paper. Maybe that’s why my life still sucks.”
Before I could respond to that, Amber went on.
“I think I used a rabbit’s foot and an elephant.”
“Rabbits’ feet give me the creeps,” Cy said.
I had to agree.
“I’m pretty sure I just had to spot a wild rabbit in the yard.”
“And a wild elephant in the yard?”
“I found the Dumbo DVD while dusting,” Amber told me. “Mom counted that. I guess you’d have to find fourteen things.”
“I’m not sure I even know fourteen good luck charms.”
“Well, I gave you four everyone knows. Mom repeated some odd ones, like, There’s luck in the sweat of a handsome singer, or Fortune will come in the candle off a stranger’s birthday cake.”
“Isn’t there something about a petite man with different color eyes?”
“Just a minute, Goldie.” Amber was distracted by her youngest.
“Does Waz have different color eyes?” So, Cyan turned to me.
“Different from mine?”
“From each other, numb nuts.”
“Oh. No. They’re both the same.”
“Ladybugs!” Cy and Amber said at the same time.
“Getting soiled by a bird.”
“Someone sneezing three times in a row.”
Then they went back and forth.
“What are we up to?” she asked.
“Wearing your clothes inside out is supposed to bring luck, but that’s an on purpose thing, not, like fate or a sign.”
“I’ll do it anyway.” I checked my phone. “Acorns.” Google added to the list. “A rainbow, dice, finding a marble or a button.”
“That’s gotta be more than fourteen.”
Adding in my head, it was, but I didn’t want the family reunion to end.
“I should go.” Unfortunately, my sister didn’t feel the same. “Goldie has to be at soccer practice at five in the morning.”
I’d never met my niece either.
“Yikes. I’ll just be falling asleep.”
“Glamorous life. I have two jobs, housework, and a lot of driving to do all by myself now.”
“Gray doesn’t help?” Cyan asked.
“Gray doesn’t come around much.”
It saddened me to see that legacy continuing.
“I hope Sterling will like the show.”
A text arrived
Waz: You naked and wet yet? I am? Wanna see?
I did want. “You talk to Dad?” I had to ask Amber that first.
“Not a word,” she said.
“Oh. Well, thanks for chatting with us.”
“I figured I should warn you about Sterling.”
“Oh.” The smile so easy a few seconds earlier was harder now to maintain. “Warn me? I think it’s nice he’s coming.”
“Remember that feeling. Bye, guys.”
“Don’t wait so long to get in touch a --”
Amber was gone.
“That was abrupt.”
“Kinda weird, too. You better get to the tub. Waz is waiting.”
The photo had arrived, Waz standing up in a tub full of bubbles. His body wet, suds clinging to where he was hairiest, he’d obviously been in at one point but stood to take the picture to show himself off. Looking over my shoulder, my brother had seen it all first.
