The Dark Spider

Three

Three - Luck

10 years ago

"-morrow I will fly!" A woman said in a deep voice. On her face she wore a loving smile and eyes full of happiness. Her hands were in front of her, mimicking an elephant. Her brown hair swished over her shoulder as she turned to the little boy beside her and said, "It's your turn now."

The little boy slid the book out of the woman's hands and on to his own lap. Like the woman, he had brown hair and a joyful spark in his eyes. He turned his eyes to the book and said in a squeaky voice of what he thought the pig would sound like, "Good l-" His eyebrows scrunched up as he tried to figure out the remaining part of the word.

The woman looked over to the word the boy's eyes were staring at. Smiling, she reminded the boy, "Remember to sound out the word. What's the next letter and what sound does it make?"

"It's 'U' and it makes the 'uuuuh' sound!" The boy beamed proudly. Then, he looked over at the rest of the word. "I know what 'c' and 'k' sound like, so the word is..." He paused, staring intensely at the last two letters before he finally announced, "Luck! Mom! I did it! I read all of the Piggie parts in the book!"

His mother smiled, her eyes crinkling up at the ends and something warm found a place in her eyes. After putting the book in the little shelf by the door, she pulled the blanket over the boy and kissed him on the forehead. Just as she was about to say good night and turn off the lights, the boy spoke up.

"Mommy, what is luck?" He snuggled into his superhero themed blankets and turned to face his mother.

She walked back to the bed and sat next to the boy, who had his blankets bunched around him. "Luck is good and bad things people think happen by chance," she explained. "People think things like four leaf clovers are lucky."

The boy tilted his head, processing the information that was just given to him. Then, after thinking for a couple seconds, another question formed into his brain. Sitting up, he asked, "Are we lucky?"

For a second, something sad and hurting flickered behind the mother's eyes, but it disappeared too quickly to be questioned by the five year old. Then, the mother said truthfully, "Yes. We are very lucky to have you, Peter."

(They're reading an elephant and piggy book by Mo Williams.)