Take, Give Back. Receive, Return.

Chapter 1: Oct. 16, 2015

October 16, 2015~

"When you wish upon a star, it's actually a satellite, and your wish has been recorded and cataloged. An agent is now assigned to your case."

As I'm scrolling through Tumblr, I roll my eyes when I come across this post. I scoff. "Ha. There's no freakin' way that's possible. I've made so many wishes since I was little and precisely NONE came true." I lean back in my chair and looked at Luna, my crazy superstitious Asian bestie who's known me since kindergarten. "Sorry, no offense."

She stares at me for a second with a confused look saying "What the heck are you talking about?" I tell her about the post, trying to word it as best I could without getting another lecture about how stars. Not to point at them, not to count them, to tell the weather, etc. Trust me, I got this all down already.

Then she squeals and instantly steals my phone to send the post to herself, so she could post it and rave about it and spend hours poring over the internet to find out more. "Eeeeeeeee!! I have 8, 688 posts!!! Hey by the way... did you know that I almost had 8,687 posts until I came across this post about mirrors and added it so I had 8,686 posts and THANK GOODNESS of that because I would've had a 7 in it and you know how absolutely terrible that number is because the pronunciation like cheat in Chinese and all that and I feel so sorry for you because your birthday is April 13, 1994 and you know how it would be 4 dash 13 dash 1994 and those are a LOT of unlucky numbers right there. First of all, there are 2 fours and that is horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. 13? Don't even get me started. And those nines!! Ohmigod, 2 nines!!! I am so sorry."

She said all this in about 20 seconds, maybe 21? I don't know. She took a huge breath and opened her mouth again. But before she could say anything else, my mom called us down for lunch.

"Ooooo what are we eating today??" Luna was always excited about food at our house. Mainly because she wanted to tell everyone about the food and (obviously), the superstitions about it.

"It's spaghetti, sweetheart." Luna opened her mouth to say something. My mom gave me a knowing look because we both knew exactly what Luna was gonna say. "Are they cut or broken???" she demanded. She was shaking her head and finger at us. "You know how unlucky it is to cut noodles. Even if spaghetti and noodles aren't the same thing so better safe than sorry." My mom chuckled. "I know sweetheart. I didn't cut them this time."

Last time, when my mom cut the spaghetti, Luna gasped and feign a faint. When she got up, she stared at her bowl. "Do you know how unlucky it is to cut noodles or spaghetti? Uncut noodles will increase longevity. If you cut it then it will cut the longevity. Cckkkkt." She used her finger and pretended to slice her neck with it.

As I snap back to reality, I catch my mom winking at me. I make a face, not knowing if what she said earlier was a good idea. Luna was probably gonna give us both another speech about noodles, but most likely the same one from last time. Almost.

This time, Luna wasn't so... what do you call it... intense? She still opened her eyes really wide, making them look like saucers, and her mouth formed a perfect 'o.' Then she narrowed her eyes. "'This time...?' Are you saying that you don't cut them when I'm not here? Do you know that it still affects the longevity? Ohmigod do you even KNOW how terrible that it for you?? Absolutely terrible."

Once again, she finishes with her trademark, "absolutely ____." My mom chuckles again, but I can tell she doesn't want to hear more about noodles, no matter how much she liked talking about superstitions. Luna seems to get the same message so she sits down at our dining table and starts praying. Of course, we pray with her so there isn't anymore ranting. After prayers, which was like five minutes long, we eat. And of course Luna stares at us while we're eating because she started making us use chopsticks, and there's that superstition about not sticking them upright (because it resembles incense that burns at a funeral), which is something both my mom and I do ALL the time.

"Bread, any of you guys?" I hold my breath when my mom says that. No matter how long Luna and I have known each other, I still get anxious when someone says something that might trigger the Superstition Bomb in her. As usual, Luna asks if there's an 'x' carved onto the bread. It tricks the devil to keep it away from sitting on it and if it's uncrossed, it might act as an armchair for evil spirits, making it a spoiled or cursed loaf. My mom nods.

As you can tell, there is some history between our families. Luna actually got both our families to sit down one day and gave us a 15 minute speech on superstitions. Guess how long her slide show was? Of course no less or more than 806 slides. 'All of them are lucky numbers,' she said. If it was up to me, I would rather have 1,000 slides because that's a perfect number. A straight 1,000? Crisp, clean, and spotless. Neat as a button. Whatever you wanna call it.