Just My Luck Read online

  Mama Lupita started wrapping Janie’s crystal ball. Finally, our shopping was done, but the sports drink pushed on my bladder like a water balloon about to burst.

  “Janie, where’s the restroom?”

  “Ask her.” Janie pointed to Mama Lupita, who still glared at me.

  “I don’t want to, Janie.” I shook my head.

  “Why?”

  “I just don’t.” I looked to Marquis for help.

  Silent, he shook his head no.

  Janie looked at Marquis, then at me, and shook her head in a different way. Disappointed in what I guessed was our lack of adventurousness, she sighed. “I get it. I have to do everything.” Then she threw her head back and laughed. “I kind of like it.”

  Marquis and I watched Super Janie go to work.

  First she cleared her throat. Nice touch, but I hoped she’d hurry it along. Time was running out. “Excuse me, ma’am. Would it be a problem for my friend here to use your restroom?” She even batted her eyelashes. You have to give it to Janie. The way she said it was sweeter than the iced tea at Bill Miller’s Bar-B-Que.

  I stood there, doing the pee dance, moving my legs, trying somehow to hold the sports drink in for just a bit longer.

  Mama Lupita stared at me, said something in Spanish, and pointed to the sign: “No Restroom.”

  Gulp. When you’re Hispanic and live in San Antonio, people expect you to know Spanish, but I don’t really—just a few words here and there.

  Janie interpreted, “She says there’s a gas station a few blocks down that has a restroom.”

  Thing was, there was no chance I could hold it that long.

  I sat my cologne, candle, and water on the glass case by the cash register and handed my money to Janie.

  “Take my money, Janie. You pay for me.” I made a beeline toward the door, calling back, “I gotta go!” I shoved open the door to the street, causing all the hanging bells to jingle and tinkle.

  That tinkling sound was not what I needed.

  CHAPTER 14

  RUN!

  “What’s the matter?” Marquis asked, following me out the door. “There was definitely something weird about that place. Do you think that lady put a curse on us?”

  “No,” I jumped up and down on the sidewalk. “I just have to capital P, and I can’t hold it.”

  “Well,” Marquis offered, “that could be a curse.”

  The bells on the door clanged as Janie came out.

  “Y’all turn around,” I ordered, running toward the tall wooden fence at the back of the parking lot. The sports drink was in charge now, and it wanted out of me more than I wanted out of that store. How can a place have no restroom? My thoughts spun as I sprinted across the empty parking lot. I couldn’t hold it for a second longer.

  “Stay turned around!” I had to go so badly that my pee made a loud thumping sound as it hit the wooden fence. I knew I shouldn’t have done the capital P outside, but the sports drink wasn’t asking, it was telling. Just another bad-luck disaster. I should’ve probably gulped down the whole bottle of Rapido Luck. But then I would have had to pee even more.

  “I guess you did have to go,” Marquis taunted from the other side of the parking lot.

  “Shut up!” I yelled.

  “Shuts don’t go up. Prices do.” Janie chanted from behind. “So take my advice and shut up too.”

  Janie and Marquis laughed, but I couldn’t turn to yell at them because the stream wasn’t ready to stop.

  Behind me, the backdoor of Mama Lupita’s flung open. The sound startled me. Without thinking, I turned to the side just as gust of wind kicked up and blew back a fine mist of the golden spray all over my khakis.

  Mama Lupita shrieked something in Spanish.

  I zipped up my pants and ran, trying to wipe them dry. I just wanted to get away from my bad luck, Mama Lupita, and the whole embarrassing situation.

  “She’s putting a curse on you, Zack!” Marquis screeched.

  All I heard was baño, malo—or was it mal ojo?—and other howls that faded as we escaped. Those were three of the forty Spanish words I knew: bathroom, bad, and eyes. I heard those for sure. I think.

  Together, we fled the scene of the stream.

  “Let’s get out of here before it’s too late!” Marquis sprinted toward the bus stop across the street.

  “But the bus isn’t here yet!” I shouted. The wind picked up and blew leaves around the street. I hoped it was also drying my pants. Janie and Marquis hadn’t noticed the small damp spot yet, and it was becoming less noticeable by the second.

  “The bus is the only way I know how to get us back to your apartment.” Janie waved the directions in her hand.

  “We have to get out of here before she casts another voodoo curse on us!” Marquis panted.

  I wondered if Mama Lupita had cursed me. She couldn’t, could she? Leaves swirled around my feet like the wind cursed us too.

  I sped up.

  “There’s a church,” Marquis yelled “We’ll be safe in there.”

  But Janie passed the church, wheezing, the shopping bags clanking together. I had never seen Janie run in seven years of school. I didn’t think I could panic any more, but if Janie was afraid enough to run, then I was terrified. “Ruuuuun!” I screamed to Marquis.

  Marquis sped past me like a demon. You’d never know he’d gotten the bandage off his sprained ankle the day before.

  After a block or so, Marquis bent over, panting. Janie and I stopped too. We stood in front of a yellow house surrounded by a white iron fence. The burglar bars on the windows matched. The breeze cooled the beads of sweat on my forehead.

  I grabbed the top of one of the fence posts, catching my breath. “Hey,” I gasped. “If we ever get home,” I swallowed, “we should definitely try out for track.”

  Coughing, Janie sat on the curb.

  “But what about the bus stop?” Marquis straightened.

  Janie pulled out the directions. She carefully unfolded the sheet of paper. Just then, a gust of wind whipped up and ripped it from her hands. She reached for it, but the wind had whisked the paper straight up. I lunged off the curb, just missing it. Marquis hopped off the curb, waving his arms, but the directions somersaulted, higher and higher, higher than any of us could reach.

  Tires screeched around the corner. We jumped back up on the curb in front of the yellow house and watched helplessly as the white paper with our directions floated above the street. As a red truck began to pass us, the air shifted. Then the paper suddenly dropped and landed in the bed of the truck.

  “That’s not even possible!” I yelled.

  “It’s the curse!” Marquis squealed.

  “Hey, wait up, mister!” I yelled at the bad-luck truck. We raced into the street. Janie even did her two-fingered coach whistle. But the truck didn’t stop.

  “Zack, you need to get that Rapido Luck cologne out of your bag.” Marquis shook his head, watching the truck and our directions disappear down the street.

  “Oh, so now you believe.” Janie placed her hand on her hip.

  “I just believe we’ve got to get out of here. I believe none of us have a phone. I believe we’re lost.” Marquis pointed at me. “Zack’s got a real curse on him, and it’s spreading to all of us like a yellow fever!”

  “Hey,” I argued, “we don’t even know for sure it was a curse.” That’s what I was trying to believe.

  “Did you see what happened to our directions, Zack?” Marquis widened his eyes and threw his hands up.

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “I was there.”

  “How do you explain that then?” Marquis demanded. “How?”

  I couldn’t really. The truth of the bad-luck curse weighed on me.

  Janie offered us each a piece of bubble gum, and the three of us shuffled down the street, directionless.

  “What are we going to do?” Marquis asked, popping in a piece of gum.

  “Give me a minute.” Janie held up her hand, chewing her bubble gum slowly.
“I’m thinking.”

  “Well,” I said, “At least you got to test out your ankle, Marquis.”

  Marquis was not amused.

  “We can be explorers like Lewis and Clark.” I tried again.

  “More like Dumb and Dumber,” Marquis snapped.

  Janie popped her gum. “If you say I’m Sacagawea, you’re on your own, Clark.”

  A thunderous bark interrupted, making the three of us cringe. I almost choked on my gum.

  CHAPTER 15

  PIT BULL RUN

  We spun around. In an unfenced yard across the street, a white pit bull covered in black spots barked like we were on its dinner menu. Chained to a green, metal lawn chair, the pit bull raised its enormous head, barking and lunging toward us. He yanked at the chair, tipping it over on the ground. The pit bull charged, dragging the chair through the dry leaves behind it.

  “Run!” I screeched. Marquis and I fled.

  “No!’ Janie shouted.

  Whatever Janie said next, I didn’t hear. I was already booking it as fast as I could. The scraping sound of the dog dragging the lawn chair mixed with my heart thudding, drowning out all other sounds. I looked back to see the pit bull run right past Janie, standing there with her arms folded.

  “It’s the curse!” Marquis shrieked. “It’s possessed!”

  “We can’t stop!” I panted. Close behind, the enormous dog was gaining on us.

  The pit bull closed in. But the chair snagged on a bush, slowing it down.

  “This is our chance!” I said. We sprinted down the street. But soon the dog was right behind us again—along with the chair and a good chunk of the bush.

  “I can’t … run … anymore,” Marquis sputtered.

  I spotted an old black Camaro parked on the side of the street. “Marquis! Jump!” Both of us scurried over the hood and windshield like squirrels climbing up a tree.

  The pit bull leapt at us. The dog’s mouth was huge! It circled the car, bouncing around.

  “It’s getting ready for the kill, Zack.” Marquis squeezed his eyes shut, folding himself up into a ball. I knew he was right. I’d seen predators circle their prey on the Discovery Channel. This wasn’t how I thought I’d die.

  “Pinky!” A lady’s voice called from down the street. “Get over here, Shug. NOW!”

  A lady with long red hair and freckles walked up. The dog, the chain, the chair, and the bush bounced and scraped over to the redheaded lady. She kneeled and Pinky practically licked the freckles off her face. She hugged the dog, then stood up and walked toward the Camaro, scowling: “What did you do to excite my dog so much? If you’re going to play with her, play with her. Don’t tease her.”

  Janie came up behind the lady. “We weren’t teasing her, ma’am. My friends were scared, so they ran.” There Janie was again. She could talk to anyone.

  “But you never run from a dog. My Pinky is the sweetest, most friendly girl in the world!” The freckled, redheaded lady bent down and kissed Pinky on the mouth. Yuck.

  Janie shook her head. “These boys don’t know how to listen.” Pinky trotted over to Janie, wagging her giant tail, the metal chair scraping in rhythm. As Janie bent down to pet Pinky, the dog immediately rolled over on her back for a belly rub.

  I slid off the car. “Sorry, ma’am, I didn’t know your dog was so friendly.” I still wasn’t sure, so I kept my distance. “Guys, we should go. It’s starting to get late.” I knew we had to get out of there before the owner of the car came out and skinned us alive for jumping all over his ride.

  “Well, go on then,” the redheaded lady said. “I hope you learned a lesson: If you run around in front of a dog, it thinks that you’re playing.” Pinky howled in agreement.

  “Bye, Pinky.” Janie scratched her ears. “Don’t you want to pet her?” Janie asked.

  “I’m good,” I said, rocking my head from side to side. “We’d better go.”

  Marquis stood behind me. “Yeah, Zack’s right, we need to go.”

  “Follow me,” Janie said and off she went.

  Marquis began walking ahead with his chest up, leaning back like his legs were pulling him forward, strutting like Raymond Montellongo and his eighth-grade friends.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I’m casually strolling like nothing is wrong.” He turned his head side to side. “I’m blending in. How do you do?” He turned his head the other way. “How do you do?” All the while strutting.

  “Oh,” I leaned my head back like Marquis, pushed my shoulders back, and strolled too.

  “How do you do?” Marquis said and turned.

  “Who are you talking to?” I asked.

  “You just keep strolling like you own the street,” Marquis said.

  Janie turned back and shook her head.

  “This is a good way to go.” Janie looked around, her hand shading her eyes. The sun sets in the west.” She would have made a good Sacagawea. “We’re moving west, toward the setting sun,” Janie said.

  We looked up, shrugged, and followed.

  Walking toward the sun seemed like a good idea at the time. That’s the thing with the word seem. It’s like we’ll see. You know how when you ask if you can go to the mall to get a video game, and your mom says, “We’ll see.” Well, seem is kind of like that. It doesn’t happen. Each block we walked, more things were in the yards: cars parked on the lawn, washing machines on the front porch, fast-food wrappers, cans, and toys everywhere. Things were all out of place—kind of like Marquis, Janie, and me

  After a while, we walked in the same rhythm. Three of us in a row, trying to hold in the panic. Marquis had been quiet for the last ten blocks. Yes, I counted. He hadn’t uttered a word. That’s zero words per block. Great. Now not only was I lost; I was applying math to my real life again. So depressing.

  Since Marquis wasn’t talking, the sounds in the neighborhood talked to me. Somebody blasted a stereo, the bass thumping like our steps on the pavement. Dogs barked. Block after block we got more lost, but none of us said a word.

  “We are cursed for sure.” Marquis spoke for the first time in almost eleven blocks. He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Just keep moving forward,” Janie motioned us to follow. “We’ll come to something soon. You have to believe.” She walked toward the sun.

  I started thinking we’d never get home alive.

  All those stranger-danger warnings, all those Amber Alerts, and every movie villain I’d ever seen swirled through my brain, faster and faster. That’s what I was starting to believe.

  The three of us suddenly stopped walking all at once—we all saw the same thing.

  CHAPTER 16

  BUS TED OR CURSED?

  “That’s a bus stop!” Janie pointed half a block away, still leading the way.

  That was the best-looking piece of metal I’d ever seen.

  “But how do we know if it’s the right bus?” Marquis asked.

  “We’ll ask the bus driver,” Janie said. “I’ll take care of it. The driver will know.”

  The sweet sounds of a bus grinding its gears caused us to yell in unison: “VIA!” Janie reached her arms forward as she ran. Now we were acting more like we felt inside: panicked. Once we climbed on the bus and found a seat near the front, we all sighed.

  As the bus took off, we sat quietly for a minute.

  I’d never been so glad to get on a bus as that one.

  “Hey, sir,” Janie said. “My friends and I are a little lost.”

  “My name’s Ted, but my friends call me Bus Ted.” He grinned in the rearview mirror, looking back at us, revealing his bucked teeth.

  It was hard to hear him sometimes because he had to face forward to keep his eyes on the road, but at stops he’d turn around and tell us exactly what we needed to do to get back to the Villa De La Fountaine. Turns out Ted’s ex-sister in law’s cousin lived there. He gave us a shortcut to take home. Cursed people don’t find helpful people like Bus Ted, do they?

  B
y the time we made sure Janie got home, it was a few minutes after six o’clock. We were late, but we’d finally arrived at the Villa De La Fountaine.

  “Marquis Monroe Malone, where have you been?” Ma, Marquis’s grandma, yelled from the Lincoln’s window. She cranked the ignition, and a puff of black smoke popped out, making Marquis jump. Without a word we waved good-bye, and I went inside the apartment as he climbed into Ma’s Lincoln.

  Because of Bus Ted’s shortcut, we weren’t late enough to cause suspicion. As I walked up the steps to 229, I decided the curse might not be real after all. How else would you explain us making it home? There couldn’t be a curse. First, I bought everything from the botanica that Janie’s Aunt Monica said I needed: the attraction water, the Rapido Luck cologne, and the Double-Acting Reversing candle. If I were cursed, I wouldn’t have made it home with all of it. Right?

  And after all the trouble we went through to get this magical stuff, I decided then and there that it had to work. I believed. Abhi would definitely talk to me now. My luck was going to change.

  I opened the door to Dad’s apartment and smelled grease and salt.

  “I picked up some fried chicken.”

  “I’ll be right there, Dad,” I said. “I have to put my stuff down and go to the bathroom.”

  I didn’t mention anything about Mama Lupita’s to Dad—not the candle, the cologne, or the water. I worried he wouldn’t understand. To tell you the truth, I didn’t understand. But I had the magical water and candles. That’s all I had to hold on to, so I had to believe it might work. Janie had said you have to believe. So I believed—or at least I tried to.

  But I did ask Dad one question while we unpacked dinner.

  “Dad, do you believe in curses?”

  He pulled two paper plates from the dispenser under the cabinet. “Curses?”

  “Yeah, you know.” I popped the lid off the mashed potatoes. “Where somebody puts a curse on you.”

  “Like what?” Dad divided the bucket of chicken between our plates, dividing the drumsticks first.