The prompt is SUPERSTITION.

This one brings a memory or two to mind.

My father was a storekeeper.  He had first a deli, and then later a small supermarket on the West Side of Manhattan.  I worked there with him till illness forced him to close when I was 29 years old.

Over the years the store was robbed several times.  My father noticed that no robbery ever took place when I was on the premises.  They would happen 20 minutes before I arrived, or a half hour after I left.  It got into his mind that I was “lucky,” and so he would become very agitated if I was late from classes or wanted to leave before our official 9 pm closing time.

If I wanted something from the outside world he would send our delivery boy for it.

Needless to say during my dating years all my boyfriends knew not to show up before closing!

Now my father’s mother was a different story.  What a character.   Grandma grew up on a farm in the Amalfi Mountains of Italy.  And she was quite superstitious.

Somehow she got it in her mind that I had the power to jinx things.

It started when I was about 12 or so.  Some friends were coming to visit on a Sunday, and that morning I got up and told her I dreamed one of them had an accident.  And wouldn’t you know it – their son fell down and hurt his arm.

My grandmother panicked when she got the call.  I remember her whispering to me that I should never mention the dream to them.   Eventually what had happened could not be said in a normal tone of voice.

Shortly after that someone in the family talked about a can’t miss project.  After they left I told my grandmother that I didn’t think it would work.  You know what happened right?

After that my grandmother officially declared me a jinx.  This was no joke; she actually believed this.

Family members were told not to tell me about any plans for fear that I might jinx them.

Granma also believed shoes on a table were bad luck, that seeing an owl meant someone would soon die, and that you should always say Rest in Peace when you mentioned a dead person’s name.

I have to say that Grandma loved me despite my being a  jinx.

Rest in Peace Ma – I love you too.

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