The archives

Lisa Sherwood: Stroke of Luck

"Don't play with powers you don't understand!" Lisa's grandmother scolds her for scratching a symbol into her textbook for good luck. Lisa apologises for snooping through her things. She just wanted to know more about the old village-town and the stories of witches and cannibals that were burned alive or chased out. She heard her mother say her grandmother had come across several books written in an unknown language with strange symbols.

Her grandmother warns her to stay away from her books. "You can attract great misfortune to yourself and others!" Lisa wants to laugh but doesn't. She was just messing around and doesn't really believe in all this superstitious nonsense. "No such thing as witches and cannibals, Gran. I was just hoping for a little luck on my algebra test. No harm, no foul." Her grandmother tells her the symbol she sketched was the very one she had used long ago to turn a cannibal into a gnarled, twisted, swamp tree covered in putrid, black ooze. It's so ridiculous Lisa wants to burst out laughing, but she contains herself as she listens to her tale of cannibals and missing children. When her grandmother finishes her story, Lisa hugs her and kisses her soft, wrinkled forehead. "Don't worry, Gran... I'm not going to turn into a swamp-tree or be kidnapped by a bunch of cannibals."

Lisa doesn't know if it's the symbols on her book or some kind of placebo effect... but her maths scores are improving. Not as much as they should be, but still... she's passing, and passing is an improvement. Her friend Pam says it's all malarkey. There's no such thing as lucky symbols that can raise your grade. It's all smoke and mirrors. Unfounded, ancient superstition. Jokingly Pam says she wants better marks, too. She grabs Lisa's textbook and copies the symbol in her school agenda several times. Lisa feels a tug in her gut, and she stares at the symbols with concern. "You really shouldn't do that!" She yanks her textbook back from Pam. "You shouldn't mess with powers you don't understand!" Pam laughs. "What's the problem, Lisa? If these things can help you pass maths, they can help me pass English, too. No big deal!"

Pam begs for another symbol or charm to help her on a test she isn't ready for with a teacher she despises. A teacher she ridicules for being an overweight, pill-popping bore. Lisa refuses to entertain the idea and tells her she's not allowed to look at her grandmother's secret book, let alone share its contents with strangers. Pam shrugs and proceeds to scratch a symbol on her arm with a toothpick. She asks if Lisa heard what happened to the woman near the school. Lisa shakes her head. Pam laughs as she draws blood with the toothpick. "Dumb ass walked into the street while reading and splat! Crushed by a truck! Come!" She flicks the toothpick to the ground, grabs Lisa's wrist and leads her to a road a few blocks from the school. Lisa covers her nose and can smell the fermenting human fluids in the cracks of the pavement. Pam points out blood stains and clumps of hair in the road and makes jokes at the dead girl's expense. Lisa grabs her wrist angrily. "You mustn't laugh at the dead!" Pam yanks her wrist away. "Stop being creepy, Lisa. It's not like she's still around to get offended... besides... your symbols got me covered with all kinds of luck!"

Lisa stares at Pam's arm with concern and hopes the dead girl's spirit didn't take offence. Her grandmother says sometimes spirits linger, especially when they don't want to be dead. Last thing she needs is some dark force following her for the rest of her life.

Pam's English teacher died of unknown causes and Pam's dancing with joy, relieved she doesn't have to do his stupid test on some irrelevant dead author. "I don't care what English teachers say, James is unreadable and confusing - a pseudo-intellectual who kept everything vague because he didn't actually know what the hell he was talking about!" Lisa shrugs, disagrees, but doesn't want to get into it with her friend - her annoying friend. She likes his books, the way his style allows her to live in his character's head for a little while. She finds his novel about an artist to be a fun, formless, dream-like stew with plenty of style and substance. But what does she know, she's only sixteen, and her English marks are below average. Pam hoots and hollers, and with a mischievous smile, she reveals a hand covered with ink-smudged, symbols. "Best luck in the world! No test! No lard ass! No dead authors for the rest of the year! Thanks, Lisa!" Lisa stares at the symbols on her hand and wants to yell at her for being so careless with things they both don't fully understand. She closes her eyes and hopes her English teacher wants to be dead and that he isn't lurking about.

The class is at the funeral out of respect for their beloved English teacher. The pallbearers struggle and strain under the weight of the coffin. Pam leans toward Lisa and whispers how lucky she is and how unlucky the poor pallbearers are to have to lift such a heavy coffin. "Imagine having to carry that lard-ass to his grave!" Lisa nudges Pam and tells her to quit it. As the pallbearers approach them she feels a sudden tug in her gut. An instinct tells her to take some distance from her friend. An image of lightning striking Pam flashes through her mind. She wonders if an angry spirit could make that happen. Every muscle, organ, vessel, fried in an instant for her hubris. Pam snaps Lisa out of her thoughts with another tactless comment. Lisa hears her grandmother's voice in her head, telling her that her friend has tempted fate by laughing at someone else's misfortune. For having laughed at the dead. She doesn't really believe in all her grandmother's superstitions... and yet... she inches away from her friend, staring at the darkening clouds, waiting for lightning to strike Pam down.