The Higher Power of Lucky (16 page)
Lucky raked the patio in front of the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center. There was much less litter now that Brigitte’s Hard Pan Café had opened for business. People went before and after the anonymous twelve-step meetings to get a piece of apple pie or a ham-and-cheese sandwich, which Brigitte wrote on the blackboard menu as
tarte aux pommes
and
croquemonsieur
, and pretty soon the geologists and tourists and everyone in the town knew how to say a lot of French words.
Once in a while, Brigitte put out a platter called “Commodity Tasting,” cooked from the free Government food, and people helped themselves. Usually she added garlic and herbs and spices to make it taste better, and Lucky had the job of sprinkling the platter with parsley.
Lucky twisted shut the top of the black plastic trash bag and hauled it to the Dumpster in back. She inspected the place where the hole in the wall of the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center had been. She had plugged it up with Fix-All.
Not a sound emerged from inside.
She had done a good job.
Acknowledgments
The author is deeply grateful to the following people for their advice, expertise, and support:
- My friends and colleagues at the Los Angeles Public Library. LAPL has been a second home to me almost my entire life, as well as a life-support system. Its staff is the best in the world.
- Priscilla (Moxom) White, whose courage and integrity are unparalleled in this universe.
- For their thoughtful reading of the first draft, deep thanks to Eva Cox, Nadia and Eva Mitnick, Erin Miskey, and Georgia Chun.
- Dr. Steven Chun, for invaluable pediatric advice.
- Patricia and David Leavengood, for extraordinary generosity.
- Jean-Marie and Aglaë Chance,
nos très grands amis. - Suzanne Cuperly
et
Liliane Moussy,
chère belle-sœur
. - Myriam Lemarchand,
qui m’a fait comprendre tant de choses
. - Joe and Jody Bruce, whose stories ignited this one.
- Lindsey Philpott, of the Pacific Americas Branch of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, for crucial technical support, and the Guild itself.
- Virginia Walter and Theresa Nelson, charter members with me of the DJ Fan Club. And warm thanks to Amy Kellman, whose encouragement helped me pitch the story.
- Susan Cohen, my kind, protocol-proof, good-humored agent.
- Matt Phelan, for giving these pictures such tender life and immediacy.
- Richard Jackson, dear world-class editor, for everything, but especially for having so much faith all these years.
- The Nortap clan: Sir Nigel, Beauregard, and my beloved Ernie.
To the Reader
The book Ms. McBeam reads to Lucky’s class is
The Tree of Life
by Peter Sis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).
The book Miles reads,
Are You My Mother?
was written and illustrated by P. D. Eastman (Random House, 1960).
The website for the International Guild of Knot Tyers is www.igkt.net.
This is the little prayer that Lucky hears at the twelve-step meetings:
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
