The Luck Charm Chapter 2

2013

     Anna sat at her desk with her cup of coffee and stared at the pile of bills stacked high on the table. Among her were misplaced paper clips, uncapped pens, and wrinkled post it notes. She didn’t even know where to begin searching for things. She was sitting at Laurie’s desk and had no idea where to start. She moved her coffee cup, feeling as if it added another unneeded clutter. She gathered up what she could of the paper clips and set them aside. There were pens in a variety of colors spread around the table and she shook her head, amazed at the amount of time she always spent looking for a pen. She should have looked here. Next, she started looking through the bills and sighed deeply.

     Laurie had died last month from cancer and all the time spent in the hospital hadn’t been nice to their financial needs. Since Laurie had been a freelancer and Grant had owned his own business, they couldn’t afford a good medical plan and had to pay most of what they could out of their own pocket. Before long, they were beginning to drain their savings account and when Grant finally called her about wanting to borrow money, they had already used up their savings.

     She flipped through the unopened letters and noticed they were all from the hospital. They were all about wanting payment, she was sure. She tossed them aside and dug through other things until she found a picture of Laurie on the hospital bed a few days before she died. She had no hair due to the chemo and had lost forty pounds. She was still smiling as she looked at the camera. Tears filled her eyes and she ran a finger over Laurie’s face.

     When she’d left for college, Laurie and Grant kept close tabs on her education. She had done well though, graduating with high honors and got hired right after graduating. She had a wonderful record of experience that made many employers around the world offering her jobs. But she chose to travel out east to work. She’d been working out east for the past six years and just recently returned to be home again after Laurie died. She was worried about Grant and wanted to be close to home.

     Grant, losing his life partner, had taken it quite hard. He’d hired an employee to take over his station so he could spend his days with Laurie. He’d lost weight and when he fainted at the hospital, she knew she had to come back home. She couldn’t lose both of them. She wouldn’t survive. She put the picture down and wiped her eyes. She heard footsteps coming down the stairs and she turned to find Grant walking into the den with a box in his hands. He hadn’t been eating or sleeping well and it was showing on his face. The 12 years that she’d been away had showed on his face and she was worried. His brown hair had thinned and began receding.

     “I found this. I thought you might want to look through it and see if you wanted anything of hers,” he said as he set it down.

     She got up from where she sat and reached into the box. There were pictures of her and Laurie at their family vacations when she was younger. She smiled and set them aside. There were also some old antique jewelry boxes that Laurie used to collect. A few hair pins and some old records that were dusty. Then at the bottom of the box she found an old black and white photo of a man and a woman she didn’t recognize. She frowned and held it up for Grant to see. He looked at it and laughed.

     “Oh, these were Laurie’s parents,” he said shaking his head.

     “Why do you shake your head?”

     Grant smiled and looked up at her. “They hated me. They thought I was a bad influence on Laurie. They always told her that if she married me she would end up regretting it.”

     “A bad influence? You?”

     “Hey, I wasn’t like this back then. I was a horny teenager once.”

     Anna made a face. “Spare me the details, Grant. I’d rather not shock myself with my own mind.”

     He laughed. “That’s what I thought.”

     “Did they ever accept you?”

     Grant smiled. “I’d like to think so.”

     “Why do you say that?”

     His smile faded. “Because they died before we got married.”

     “How come Laurie never told me this?”

     “Did you ever ask?”

     Shaking her head, Anna replied, “No, I didn’t. I guess I missed out a lot, didn’t I?”

     “Well, you came from a tragic home when you were given to us. You hadn’t learned to trust anyone yet and when you did, you were so used to being alone that it didn’t seem to bother you. But no matter how you thought of us, we loved you like you were our own.”

     Anna smiled and put her arms around him. “I love you too, and Laurie. You two are the only true parents I know and will ever know. I’m just sorry I couldn’t do more.”

     “You did enough when you came into our lives. We were struggling to have a child for so long that when you entered our lives, we were just happy enough to have you.”

     She smiled and then pointed to the picture. “What happened?”

     He sighed, long and heavy. “They drove their car to an anniversary party one night and never came back home. Laurie was crushed. It took her a long time to get over it and when we got married, and she had trouble conceiving, it nearly killed her because being a mother was the one thing her mother had wanted her to experience. And if she failed at that, it felt like she had failed her mother.”

     “Wow,” Anna said in shock. “I wish I had known.”

     “Trust me; you gave her more than you ever knew.”

     Anna smiled and nodded. “I’d like to think so.”

 

     Jedidiah hung the jacket in his walk in closet and let out a deep breath. It had been a long day at the office and he was ready to take a dirt nap. He unbuttoned the white crisp white shirt and dropped it into the laundry basket. He worked hard at keeping his body in shape and was proud of it. He wasn’t heavily muscled, but he wasn’t thin either. He had bigger arms than most men did and his chest was strong and wide. He enjoyed working out. It gave his mind to think and he thought best when working out. At a younger age, he’d kept his hair longer, but now at 34, he had it shorter. He pulled the black pants off and stared at himself in the full length mirror. His eyes caught the silver necklace around his neck and he reached up to touch it. The necklace was silver and carried with it the shape of a cross. He found the necklace inside his left breast pocket of the jacket he had been wearing the night his brother died. He knew it belonged to the young girl who had been there that night. He knew because he’d overheard her say she was missing her necklace. When he found it, he thought about returning it, but decided to keep it as a reminder of what had happened. But over the years, he had learned that he kept it because he hated her. He hated her. It was her fault that his brother had died. If only she had been watching where she was going, they wouldn’t have had to stop and Hans would be alive today, probably married and had a few kids already. But no, Hans died at age 26. For the last 12 years, Jedidiah had hoped he would never see her again. And he was lucky enough that he didn’t. He carried on his life as best he could without his brother. He managed the family business and he took care of their grandmother. Their parents were long gone and it was only his grandmother who was family. But her health was failing and the doctor had advised him to get her a nurse to care for her at home. He wasn’t home most of the time due to his business and the doctor felt a stay at home nurse would help make things easier on him if he had to travel far. He had been looking, but he hadn’t been able to find one that fit his needs. As far as he was concerned, he felt no one was qualified to care for his grandmother except him. But he couldn’t do it and run the business at the same time. He knew he had to make a decision soon.

     After showering, he dressed in gray sweats and a white t-shirt, and then walked across the hall to his grandmother’s room. He knocked and when heard the invitation, he opened the door. She was sitting in bed knitting wearing a white silk robe. His grandmother, Rose Thao, was a beautiful woman even at age 75. She was the spitting image of his dad and it reminded him of how he had been stripped of his parents at a young age. But his grandmother had taken care of him as best she could and had taught him everything she knew. She never let him envy anyone else and taught him that if he wanted anything, he’d have to work hard at it himself. So that’s what he did. He worked hard in the family business and succeeded, but also kept the business alive.

     “You’re home quite late. How are things at the office?” she asked as she set her knitting aside.

     He took a seat at the edge of the bed. “Everything is fine. Joe wants to trade some stock with us, but I declined. We’re way in over our heads as it is now and I don’t want to risk anything. Besides, Joe’s company is about to go bankrupt. If anything, his stock will be worthless in a few months. He’ll be selling it at the cheapest prices to get rid of it.”

     She smiled. “Joe has always been a big talker and a little walker. He never seemed to get enough of being bankrupt. I told him this a few times, yet he never believed me. I want you to buy those stocks.”

     Jedidiah frowned. “Why?”

     “Because if we’re going to make a fool out of Joe, it’s through his stocks. He wants to get rid of them as fast as he can. Buy them at his price, wait until his company goes bankrupt and sell the stocks to the highest bidder. We’ll make three times the amount and then we’ll fire Joe all over again.”

     Jedidiah nodded. “I suppose that is another way to embarrass him.”

     She patted the space next to her. He got up and walked to sit down. She took his hands and held them. She looked rested, but he knew that she was exhausted. For the past six months, she’d been battling with high blood pressure, had a hip replaced, and was trying to hold onto things to make it look like she was still well. But he knew that at night when she was alone, she was beyond fatigue of her health.

     “Have you given Vivi any more thoughts?” she asked.

     Jedidiah sighed, knowing this was one of the conversations she was going to have with him. Vivi Ly was a young girl whose grandmother was good friends with his grandmother. And in a moment of two ladies sharing photographs of their grandchildren, his grandmother had a sudden impulse to get him to date Vivi. The girl was pretty, yes, but she wasn’t really his type. One, she didn’t know how to have fun. The last time they were together, she spent it inside the walls of Neiman Marcus wowing over their new fall collection. She wanted him to take her to Fifth Sakes Avenue just so she could try on all the samples. Her idea of having fun included golfing in her five inch heels. She didn’t enjoy eating, which made the idea of them dining out completely useless. She also asked him to make sure he applied sunblock on her every five minutes and she refused to go outside on a windy day, on the off case that the wind should ruin her hair. She put the latest fashion magazine in his lap every time they sat down together and he was too exhausted to talk about the latest DNKY dress that looked exactly like the one from last year’s.

     “Grandma, Vivi is a nice girl, but she’s not really my type. I’ve tried to make it work, I have, but it’s just not clicking,” he said.

     Her smile faded. “Jedidiah, you’re not really trying. Every time I see you with her, you’re twirling your thumbs while she’s talking.”

     “That’s because we have nothing in common!”

     “If you tried harder, you’ll find something in common. You’re not getting any younger and neither am I. I want to see some grandchildren before I go. You’re not being kind to me here, Jedidiah. I’ve been waiting patiently. If your brother was alive, he’d have some for me now, but he’s not. So you’ll have to do the duty of making me a happy grandmother.”

     “And I am trying, grandma, I really am. But until I find the right girl, it’s not happening any time soon. The woman I want as the mother of my children must be one that I love deeply. If not, then there’s no point in bringing children into the world. It’s already messed up as it is. Weren’t you the one that taught me that, grandma?” Jedidiah asked.

     “Are you trying to mock me?”

     He smiled and pretended to be hurt by her question. “Me? Oh, I wouldn’t dare.”

 

     Jedidiah descended down the stairs and made his way to the den. He opened the patio doors to let in some air and sat down on the couch. Sighing, he put his hands behind his head and leaned back. The night was quiet as usual and he didn’t quite mind it anymore. Judy, their caretaker, had already gone to bed and she had left him his dinner in the oven. After his brother’s death, it had been hard to live in the big house without going crazy. Hans enjoyed music and on nights like this, the house would be blaring with his piano playing. He turned his head and saw the piano sitting in the corner of the house.

     12 years without hearing his brother’s piano playing and the piano sat there haunting him. He’d thought over and over how that night had happened and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. The truck driver was sober and the death had been filed as a “tragic accident.” No one got pinned for anything and his brother had died while everyone went on living, especially her.

     He shut his eyes and he could feel the hate seeping into his veins as it did each time he thought of her. No, he couldn’t forgive her, even as much as his grandma had told him it wasn’t her fault. It was an accident, she’d said over and over. Hans just happened to be there at the wrong time. It proved that his time on earth was picked out. But Jedidiah couldn’t accept it. He just couldn’t because Hans was too young to die and he was his brother. He’d been left alone for 12 years and he couldn’t find a way to find forgiveness.

     For 12 years, he’d hoped that he wouldn’t meet that girl again. Though now, she’d be a woman, and he prayed that he wouldn’t run into her. If he did, he wouldn’t know what he’d do to her. The last time they met was at the police station when she came to give her statement. After that, they’d gone on their own ways of life and he hadn’t heard or seen her again. They were just strangers who happened to cross paths for the wrong reason.

     He couldn’t forget her voice and he hated how it sounded in his dreams. She would laugh at him and call him names for not being able to get over his brother’s death. Funny, he’d learned to forgive the truck driver, but he couldn’t forgive her. Perhaps it was because he’d been heartfelt when he apologized while she wasn’t. He hoped that she had been unable to go on with her life as he’d hoped. He hoped that guilt ate at her all these years. He touched the necklace and sighed deeply. He wasn’t quite sure why he wore it around his neck. He could have just kept it in a drawer, but for some reason, he liked how it felt. And for the strangest reasons, he felt as if the cross was protecting him. He was happy that he took something away from her and made it his. A smile spread across his lips when that thought entered his mind. He liked the idea of taking something away from her, especially something that had meant so much. He remembered her telling the officers to find it for her for it held deep meaning to her. Now, he held it in his hands, and she was without it. Smiling, happy once again, he sighed deeply and closed his eyes, finding sleep.

 

     Anna dropped the letters into the drop box at the post office and sighed deeply. There went her last savings and she was still without a job. She thought she had enough to help Grant out, but now it seemed like she was using up everything. Grant hadn’t known of her situation or that she was running low on money. He had enough to worry about because this past month, he had received a foreclosure letter from the bank that mortgaged their home. But because she was too worried about his well-being, she hid the letter. What she needed was a job and a job that paid close to what she made before, with the hours she desired. She didn’t want to do night shifts anymore. It killed her when she first started doing the graveyard shift. She felt like a zombie every day and it made her lose weight and hair.

     Anna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Everything would be ok. She walked back and started her car. She was on her way to meet Xee and Meena, her two best friends from high school. It had been 12 years since they’d seen each other. When she returned, she called both of them immediately and with their busy schedules, was finally able to set up a date to meet and have lunch.

     She knew that Meena was now married to a businessman and was expecting her first child in a few months. She finished college and worked with Hansen, Joe, and Thao as a civil litigator. Within a few short months she made partner and was well off. She got married a year and a half ago. Due to her busy schedule, she wasn’t able to attend Meena’s wedding, but she sent a gift and a note expressing her apologies.

     Xee’s career as a singer had sky rocketed and her very first solo was a best seller, selling over a million copies. She was still single, enjoying the single life and the life of an artist. She had a home in Italy and Spain where she lived during the winter months. She resided in Minnesota during the summer months and wrote songs for extra income.

     Anna entered the busy restaurant and scanned the room, looking for her friends. It was quite busy and she wondered why since it was past the lunch hour rush. She pushed her purse strap up her shoulder and caught sight of a lovely woman wearing a white jumpsuit with gold hoop earrings staring at her with a big smile on her face. It took her a few moments to realize it was her friend Xee. She gasped and walked to her as Xee stood up.

     “Wow! Look at you!” Anna exclaimed as she hugged her friend.

     “Darling! I’ve missed you so much!” Xee cried.

     Anna pulled away and looked at Xee’s perfectly made up face of blush, eye shadow, and red lipstick. She hadn’t aged at all; in fact, she had grown younger and more beautiful. She had grown curves, legs, and everything else a beautiful woman came with. Her hair was long and up in a high pony tail and she sported fire red engine nails. Looking at her, Anna felt too plain in her jeans and button down blouse.

     “You’re making me feel like I came from Target and you stepped out of Bloomingdales. I know which one the guys will be ogling at,” Anna said.

     “Stop it! You haven’t changed a bit. You’re just as beautiful as before.”

     “You have changed a lot from the tough girl to this…stunning artist! I can’t believe it. You caught your dreams. I’m so proud of you.”

     Xee pulled her to sit down. “And you, look at you! A nurse, just like you wanted to be. You’re doing amazing work.”

     “It’s alright, I suppose.”

     “I just got a text from Meena. She’s running a bit late.”

     “That’s fine. That girl is pregnant and needs to take it easy.”

     Right as she said that, Meena walked in wearing a hot pink dress that made her six month bump look perfect. She had her hair braided down on one side and removed her sunglasses as soon as she saw them. She smiled and hugged them both.

     “You make pregnancy look amazing,” Xee said.

     Meena smiled and patted her bump with her left hand, showing off her large diamond ring. “You shouldn’t see me at home. You’ll get scared.”

     Anna laughed. “How are you?”

     “I’m well. I’m through with morning sickness and now can finally eat again. So bring on the food.”

     They sat down and when the waitress came by, put in their order of food. For the next two hours, Anna listened and spoke with her friends about their lives. She realized how much she had missed them and how lonely she had been without them. As much as she missed her old job back east, she knew that this was home.

     Xee’s parents were now retired and living down south. Her siblings were married and one was living in New York while the other one was in Canada. They got together during holidays and stayed in touch through mails and social networking. With her busy schedule, she hardly had time to visit them as much as she’d like. But she was taking a break in a few months and would likely go visit her parents down south.

     Meena’s parents were also retired. They resided in Paris in the rich lifestyles that only they could afford. Her brothers were both living in California with their families. She stayed here because of her job and her husband.

     “Anna, how is Grant doing?” Meena asked a while later.

     “He’s doing as well as can be expected. I’m trying to help out as much as I can. But I’m afraid it’s not getting any easier. If you know of anyone hiring a nurse, let me know. I’ve put in resumes left and right, but nothing is what I want,” Anna said.

     “I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

     “Poor Grant, he’s well, though?” Xee asked.

     Shrugging, Anna replied, “He’s as well as I can see. But I’m sure he’s struggling within himself to go on. I just feel as if I’m not doing enough. I’m literally drained, yet I feel as if I haven’t pushed myself to be there for him.”

     “Don’t say that, Anna. You’re always blaming yourself. It’s time you stopped doing that. You can only do so much. You’ve done everything you can. Sometimes it’s better to let that person mourn properly and then he’ll get back to living. It’s not living that should worry you. But it’s too soon to tell with Grant. But I know him to know that he’ll move on and still keep her memory alive,” Meen said.

     Nodding in agreement, Anna said, “You’re right.”

     “Of course, I’m right. I’m a lawyer.”

     Everyone laughed.