The Fortune Master

Chapter 3

Connie rubbed her forehead in frustration. Ugh, why was everything going perfectly today?

She'd gotten to work right on time because there seemed to be no traffic, but when she looked behind her, other cars were angrily honking their horns and shouting ... colorful words. Then her boss was far too eager to see her at work and gave her the easiest part of working at Drizzlery but for a very high cost—beginning the web design for their new website. Connie knew she'd mastered it as a college student, but her colleague Veronica was much more fit for it. However, Connie's boss treated Veronica like nothing.

Connie sighed. Why was she even at work? She'd promised Lucy that she'd take a couple of weeks off. But she guessed the temptation was just a lot, and if she could pay for an extra treat for herself, that would be fine. Especially if she was just working on the Drizzlery's web design.

Connie was on a coffee break at a nearby cafe and bakery right now. As she walked, she accidentally bumped into another woman around her age, and the coffee spilled. Obviously, with how close both of them were, they would have to be extremely lucky for it not to drip the smallest bit on either of them.

Connie groaned in frustration as she realized her work clothes were perfectly clean. After apologizing she asked for a new coffee, and very much to her dismay, they'd, for some reason, already had one coffee cup that matched exactly what she wanted. "My, my, I reckon you're quite the lucky woman today, aren't you?" said the man behind the counter with a smile.

Being lucky was sometimes so irritating. Couldn't something just go wrong?

All day she'd been trying not to be so lucky. This was an odd kind of luck, though. A mystery luck. The earth's silver lining in the clouds—but why did the silver lining have to house itself with the Stewarts? It was suspicious, and she was sure some other woman in her twenties would appreciate it more than Connie did.

Connie sat down and sipped her coffee. It was sweet with a bitter and warm aftertaste. How did they even know she wanted it that way before she'd asked them?

The door to the cafe opened once again and the same woman Connie had bumped into was there. Now that she realized it, the woman seemed... Normal. Glad, even. That wasn't very common to see in the global crisis of unfortunate circumstances. Connie peered at her above her laptop screen and frowned. She wasn't yelling about something on fire... Or about how all of her electrical cords were cut and her water turned off... What was up with her?

Was she lucky, like Connie?

That would explain the woman's dry clothes. Connie hadn't noticed that her clothes didn't have a drip of coffee on them, either. She sunk lower into her chair.

—————————————————————————————————————————

"Veronica, I'm so sorry for how Gerald was being today!" Connie said into the phone, lying flat on her bed. "I know! That was so awful, and it's terrible that you have to go through that! He's being so unreasonable to you."

"It's fine," Veronica said on the other end of the phone. "Gerald's probably just grumpy. Or it's just more of the world's really bad luck."

Connie froze. "Yeah, that must be it. When I was out, were there any important announcements that Gerald made?"

"Oh, nothing really. He said something about the web designers, but you don't do that, so I don't think it really matters."

"What?" Connie said frustratedly. "No way! I was a web designer today!" She began grinning as she realized how unlucky this was for her.

"Wait, I totally remember it now! Word for word, no joke. That is so weird, don't you think?" Veronica laughed. "Maybe you're just lucky."

Connie laughed nervously. "Yeah, yeah, you're hilarious, ha ha ha... Oh, hold on a sec, Jacob wants to talk."

"Nah, that's cool, I need to go anyway."

"K, bye." Connie turned to Jacob, who was nervously poking his head into the door. "Come on, Jacob, you've been in my bedroom before!"

Jacob ran in and bounced on the bed. "Lucy and I wanna play hide-and-seek."

"I swear, you guys are more seven-year-olds than seventh-graders," Connie said. "Alright, who's hiding first?"

Lucy popped in through the door. "You and Jacob! I'm counting to twenty and you guys have to be inside this room."

"Wait, my bedroom? I just made—"

"One," Lucy said with a look in her eyes that said Trust me. She covered them and turned away. "Two."

Connie scoured the room for a hiding place and eventually deciding on hanging under her bed by the push-in square underneath it, so that if they looked under they wouldn't see her, because she'd be above their line of sight. She pulled onto it and got in the pose when she felt something under her fingers.

She almost gasped, but kept it quiet. It was a very neatly folded piece of paper, but it was folded so tiny that it was thicker than Connie's thumb. She held up herself and heard Lucy count, "Twenty!"

Connie heard Lucy's footsteps following around the room, but soon they were drowned out with thoughts. How had this gotten here? Why was it here? What did it say? When would the game be over so she could check it?

"Connie!" Jacob yelled. She screamed and fell from her hiding place. "Connie, we've been calling your name for, like, ever! The game ended five minutes ago."

"You don't say," said Connie, wriggling out from underneath the bed with the thick paper in her hands. "Well, I think I need to take some mouthwash, the dust was not good for me down there. I need to clean there more often."

"Okay, we can stop the hide-and-seek." Lucy's eyes got a familiar glint, one that shouted I know what's going on or I am all-knowing, don't hide your secrets from me. Kind of creepy, but quite reasonable considering what kind of person Lucy was. Quiet but intelligent.

Lucy and Jacob rushed out of the room and Connie closed the door behind them. As soon as it was shut and she couldn't hear their footsteps, she scrambled to open up the note.

Ms. Stewart

I believe in something powerful. Something so powerful that it doesn't belong in a world like this, yet it does. Just like me. And I need help with it. FIRST, YOU are the perfect type for this.

MEAT (and here there was a picture of a star, a sun, and a coffee mug) 03301800 | SECOND 00810330

THIRD NCG345-403

----------------------------------------------------

-FM

Connie's eyes stayed wide open as she gaped at the letter. What was this? And why was it happening to Connie and no one else?

But maybe it was happening to someone else. That girl she'd bumped into! Now that Connie remembered it, she didn't see the tiniest drip of coffee when she'd walked in with her white T-shirt and jeans.

What if she was lucky, too?

What were the odds that they were both in Astryl at the same time?

They were low. Very low. But because of this whole luck thing, most likely, the low odds would overrule.