The Good Luck Charm
by Alice Baburek
The young girl looked about the drab kitchen. Warm air stifled the room. The stained, dingy tiled floor no longer shined. It could always be worse. She did her best to keep things clean.
“Emma!” called a timid voice. The frail woman slouched in the wheelchair. Inch-by-inch she carefully rolled into the kitchen. Emma forced a sad smile. She loved her mother more than anything else in the world.
“Emma, darling, the clothes need to be folded and put away in their proper place.” Her thin neck collapsed, causing her head to fall to one side.
“Mother, are you all right?” Emma rushed to the wheelchair. A trickle of spittle leaked from her mother’s mouth. For a brief moment she remained silent. Emma’s heart skipped a beat.
“Don’t you fret, my dear, I still have some spunk left in me.” Emma removed a small piece of cloth from her pocket, then lightly dabbed at the sick woman’s face. Emma’s eyes swelled with tears.
“Let me push you to the bay window, Mother. You can watch the surf wash over the rocks.” Her weak mother nodded. Emma took hold of the cracked handles and eased the chair across the room. Within seconds, her mother was fast asleep. Emma sighed. The sickness was getting worse. What would happen if her mother suddenly…? No! She could not think of such a horrible thing. She truly believed her mother would get better. She would fight the illness that ravaged her defenseless body. With positive thoughts in mind, Emma left the room to finish her daily chores.
As Emma pulled a pair of pants from the laundry pile, something fell from the pocket onto the floor. The odd stone glowed. In disbelief, Emma rubbed her tired, burning eyes. Hesitantly, she picked up the strange object. Immediately, it turned from green to blue, blue to yellow, then yellow to orange.
“How can this be?” she murmured. Emma rolled the colorful rock back-and-forth in the palm of her hand. In an instant, a tingling sensation spread up her arm and found its way throughout her entire body. She did not resist its peacefulness. Waves of serenity graced her inner being. Emma felt rejuvenated, full of energy. Full of life.
“Emma! Emma!” cried a distant voice. Emma tried desperately to focus on the plea for help. Swirling images of her dying mother flashed across her mind. Dropping the stone, Emma raced to her ailing mother.
“Hold on…” Emma’s voice trailed away. The ill-fated woman gasped for air. Panic soared through Emma’s veins. Suddenly, she thought of the stone. Could the stone possibly...? Her mother wailed in agony. With nowhere else to turn, Emma dashed back to the other room and grabbed it from the floor. She hesitated a brief moment then rushed back to her dying mother. Once inside her mother’s shriveled hand, the stone began to radiate one color to the next.
“What is this?” her mother whispered.
“A good luck charm, Mother. You must keep hold of it…don’t let go.” Emma curled her mother’s shaky fingers around the mysterious rock. Suddenly, her mother’s eyelids fluttered, then closed; her thin frame listless.
“It’s got to work…the good luck charm…Please, don’t give up, Mother!” sobbed the wailing girl. Nausea clenched her stomach. Emma clung to the hopeless notion that maybe some kind of healing powers emanated from the radiating stone. She closed her moist eyes and prayed. But after several minutes without any sign of movement from her mother, Emma’s world began to crumble.
“It can’t be…it can’t be!” she shouted with venom. And then, something miraculous happened. A low moaning noise pursed through her mother’s thin lips. Slowly, but surely, the ill-fated woman began to stir.
“Mother!” cried Emma. Her mother’s awareness intensified with each passing second until she was completely coherent.
“Emma? Why are you crying, my dear?” Emma kissed her mother’s warm cheek.
“I thought…I thought you were gone,” she murmured. A tiny smile crawled across her mother’s lively face.
“Nonsense…I feel much better today. Maybe the new medication is finally helping me.” Emma glanced down at her mother’s hand. It was still curled in a tight fist.
“You’re probably right, Mother; maybe it is the medication.” Emma’s mother chuckled.
“What else could it possibly be?” Emma shrugged her shoulders. “How about making a cup of tea for me?” Her mother’s once—pale, sunken face was now pleasantly flushed. Life beamed from her vibrant eyes.
“Tea it is then,” replied Emma. She wiped her tear stained cheeks. As Emma eagerly guided the wheelchair into the kitchen, she couldn’t help but wonder about the mysterious stone. Where did it come from? Did it really have miraculous powers? How was this possible? Her mother began to hum a familiar tune. She glanced up at her quiet daughter.
“Emma, what are you thinking about?”
“Oh, nothing, Mother.” At this point in time, it didn’t matter about the origin of the heavenly stone. Her mother was getting better and stronger, and that was certain all because she believed in the good luck charm.
Alice: "I am an avid animal lover. Publishing credits include: The Pirate's Eye, Forgiven and Forgotten, The House of Many Tails, Bakersfield, and The Garden. Books publised: When Lightning Strikes Back, Corridors in Time, Echo of Lies, Timeless Barriers. Visit my website for more detailed information:" http://hstrial-ababurek.homestead.com
