Step On A Crack

Chapter VII

"Georgie? Is that you?"

"Yes, mother. It's me."

A kindly woman in her mid 60's stepped from the kitchen brushing flour from her hands onto a blue floral print apron. "I see you made it home, o...oh my! George, what on Earth has happened to you, son!?!!" the woman exclaimed, witnessing the man's horrible appearance.

"Bad Luck, momma. I've been attacked by Bad Luck and it wants to kill me!" George exclaimed. He limped over to a large, plush recliner, eased himself down into it, and then shuddered. The man broke down placing his face in his two hands, one of them bandaged and bleeding. "It's all my fault. All mine!"

"There, there Georgie. It will all be over soon."

George looked up, tears streaking down his face. "What do you mean, mother? How could you know that?"

The woman smiled and turned to stroll back into the kitchen. "Would you like some tea sweetie?"

"Yes, please. Thank you," George replied with a sniff.

"Well, I do believe that is the first time I have ever heard you thank me for anything in your entire life, George," the woman said in realization. "That's so sad, really."

"What's sad?"

The woman returned with a porcelain cup and saucer in her wrinkled hands. Steam rose from the top of it and trailed behind her as she walked. "Here you are," the woman said, cheerfully presenting the drink to George. She patted the man on the head, and humming an old song, began to walk back to the kitchen.

"Hang on. Seriously, what do you mean, what's sad, mother?"

"Drink your tea," she said and disappeared once more into the kitchen.

"Fine." George shrugged his shoulders and lifted the cup to his lips. As he blew on the steaming liquid he glanced up and noticed something...something familiar sitting on a shelf. He sat the cup and saucer down on a nearby coffee table and stood. George walked over and leaned in to verify his mother was still in the kitchen, then tip-toed over to the bookcase.

"Son of a bitch!" he muttered under his breath, lifting the heavy book with the library sticker affixed to its binder.

"I see you found it."

George flinched. He slowly turned to find his mother standing in the kitchen doorway holding a knife.

"I really liked the first chapter, by the way. How many times did you try it before you gave up, honey?" the woman asked, waving the knife around as she spoke. Her face was now stony and cold.

"How!?!! How did you..."

"Know? Silly boy, you talk in your sleep. You've been doing it since you were a child. It's the only way I have been able to stay out in front of your ridiculousness. You and your relentless tirades about your own power and importance to the world, the universe even," the woman snickered. "You are such an arrogant little fucker. Always have been."

"I know, I'm sorry, mother."

"I suppose it's mostly my fault. I probably should have tanned your hide like my mother suggested. I had always dismissed her Romani ways as old fashioned gypsy nonsense."

"What did you say?"

"About what, dear?"

"Romani? Did you just say Romani? I thought grandma was Italian."

George's mother waved the knife dismissively, finally pointing it in the direction of the book George held in his hands. "Roman...Romani, Italian, why would you care? Anyways, that Del Toro fellow, now that man knows his business and I can tell he does," the woman said, and using the point of the knife to indicate she was talking about George's physical state. "I am actually surprised you even walked through the door."

"How did you survive? I tried for a year."

"I know. You really have some determination and a lot of hate, you lazy shit."

George grimaced. "I'm sorry mother. I really am. I still don't get it though, why didn't it work?"

The old woman laughed aloud. "Oh, my miserable, dolt of a son! My mother told me long ago that to break Bad Luck's spell all one had to do was turn seven times in a clockwise circle. I made sure I was up before you every morning and that's what I would do. You were never going to kill me, son, not with that book or anything else," she said. "Sadly for you though, that evil thing is going to be your end."

"Ha, you can't mother, not now! Watch!" George threw the book down and then limped around seven times in a clockwise circle, eventually plopping down in his chair out of breath. "There, done!"

The woman laughed. "Silly boy, I have no more need of that book. You did all of Bad Luck's work for it. By the way, Georgie, you really should have drank that tea."

George sat upright. "What do you mean?"

The front door burst open, wood splintering from the door frame. The sudden action startled George as two large burly men with angry features stormed in and snatched the man from the recliner. He struggled as the pair of thugs drug him toward the open doorway.

"Wait a moment boys!" George's mother said, watching the men turn around with George gripped in their large hands, his face a mask of fear. "Georgie, you should have drank the tea, it would have helped with the pain and trust me, you are going to experience a lot of it. I've seen what happens in those movies on TV."

The two men laughed.

"Why mother? Why!?!!"

The woman rolled her eyes. "You really have to ask me that, you little bastard? After 40 years of your evil bullshit? Honestly, when I heard from Nancy, who was told by Frances, you know the lovely woman who lives three houses down, the one with the little Chinese dog? Well, anyways, when she said there was word on the street about a reward of $250,000 paid to anyone who could provide the identity of the bread-carrying asshole who cursed and killed Giancarlo di Leon's mother with an umbrella...well?" She shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "Some people love their mothers and are willing to go to great lengths to show that affection. Then there are ones like you." The woman sighed. "Gentlemen, tell Giancarlo I will send him a postcard from Florida."

"Yes ma'am," the men said as they dragged George screaming from his home, past the potted plants, and through the squeaky chain-link gate toward a shiny black limo parked out in front of the small house.

"Mother!!!"