Lucky Me by Cindy Callaghan Page A

psychic? Can you put me in touch with my dead granny?”
    Maybe Anna had gotten knocked in the head and had a concussion.
    â€œI’m not a psychic,” I explained. “I came to talk to you about the letter.”
    â€œRight. You know I got good luck from it. That’s when I decided to ask if I could be on the team, and they said yes.” She smiled, and I noticed that she was missing a front tooth.
    â€œWell, I haven’t been so lucky. In fact, I’ve kinda sorta been, like . . .” How should I say this? . . . “Cursed. I’m cursed.”
    â€œOh, no. That’s terrible.” She stepped back, shoved the rest of the soft pretzel into her mouth, and used her free hands to pull a ladybug figurine out of her sock. She rubbed it all over herself.
    â€œWhat are you doing?”
    â€œWarding off bad luck. Why would you bring it here to me? Why? Do you hate me? You don’t even know me. I don’t want bad luck.”
    This girl was a wee bit o’ the Irish—what’s the word?—kooky.
    I shook my head. “It’s not like it’s contagious. I made the mistake of not following the rules of the letter. Plus, I actually kind of do know you, and you kind of know me.”
    â€œI think I would know if I knew you. You know what I mean?” Anna rubbed the ladybug on her ears and belly. “People are always trying to unload their bad luck on someoneelse. Well, not today. I’m on a roll—just played a great game, so you and your curse better back off.”
    I stepped back a bit. “Ladybugs, huh?”
    â€œYes. Ladybugs,” she snapped. “Now would you mind stepping downwind? I don’t want any of your bad luck blowing this way. If I get it on me, I don’t know what I’ll do.” She paused in her ladybug cleansing. “Why didn’t you just send the letters like you were supposed to? Maybe you deserve the bad luck if you didn’t follow the instructions.”
    I explained the situation about the election, the rush I was in. She listened to every word at a safe distance from me. “So, I have to find the links of the chain letter. I found my cousin Clare.”
    â€œI told you we call her CiCi, and she’s my cousin, not yours.”
    â€œThat’s the big surprise in all this. She’s my cousin too. Which means we’re cousins.”
    â€œ Cousin? Oh, that’s just great. The last thing I want is another cousin.”
    Ironic that I was dying for another cousin and she didn’t want one. “Anyway, I need to double hand-shake with you and then find the person who sent the letter to you.”
    â€œI don’t want to touch you.” She extended her handslike she was shaking the air. “There’s your handshake. Now you need to go away and take your bad luck with you. My cousin Quilly sent me the letter. He doesn’t need any more bad luck either. Trust me.”
    â€œQuilly? Is Quilly his first name?” At this point she was weirding me out, and I kinda wanted to get away from her too.
    â€œEveryone just calls him Quilly.” She poked a teammate. “Hey, what’s Quilly’s full name?”
    She doesn’t know her own cousin’s real name? I guess being part of a bigger family meant that there were a few crazy relatives. I loved the idea that now I had a few crazy relatives! YAY!
    He said, “Quilly. It’s just Quilly.”
    I was getting frustrated. How was I going to find this guy without his name?
    Another guy was listening, and he said, “Leo . . . er . . . Lem . . . er . . . Lefty . . . er, maybe Ted.”
    Anna shrugged. She tucked the ladybug back into her sock; reached into her muddy pocket, where another soft pretzel was hiding; and put it into her mouth. “And you say he’s your cousin? How is he related to you?”
    â€œOur mothers are sisters.