Dear Arizona,

My brother is so lucky. Good stuff is always happening to him. Do you believe in luck? And if so, how can I get more of it?

—Looking for Luck in Louisiana

Dear Looking,

I was eating breakfast with one hand, petting my cat, Cow, with the other, and reading the back of the cereal box, when—“YOUCH!” I screamed. “Why’d you pinch me?”

“You’re not wearing green,” said my little brother, Tex. “Everyone knows you get pinched if you don’t wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day!”

“It’s true,” said my little sister, Indi.

I was mostly mad about getting pinched, but also a tiny bit glad about being reminded that it was Saint Patrick’s Day.

I panicked. “What am I going to do? I don’t have time to change. I’ll get pinched all day long!”

“Well,” Tex said, taking the old green baseball cap off his head, “you could borrow my lucky hat.”

“But it’s your favorite!” I said.

“I know,” said Tex. “Just promise to give it back after school.”

“No problem,” I said, glancing in the mirror on my way out the door. “I look like a goofball in this thing!”

“A lucky goofball!” said Tex.

“Humm.” I grabbed my backpack. “Thanks, I think.”

Now, before I go on, you should know that I’m not an overly superstitious person. I don’t believe that thirteen is an unlucky number or that breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck.

I definitely don’t freak out if a black cat crosses my path. And when it comes to things like lucky four-leaf clovers and lucky pennies, I just never believed in them.

Anyway, I was racing to catch the school bus, and I saw a dollar on the sidewalk! I looked around to see if anyone was looking for it, but people just kept stepping on the poor thing, so I decided to rescue it. I’d found pennies and nickels before, but never a dollar!

Then, I didn’t miss the bus, because the bus was even later than me——which never happens!

My luck didn’t stop there. Carlos and Jackson were sitting behind me, quizzing each other on spelling words. I turned around and said, “You guys know that test isn’t till tomorrow, right?”

“It got switched to this morning,” said Jackson. “Remember? There’s some assembly tomorrow. ”

“That’s right-I totally forgot!” I said. “I’m so lucky that I sat in front of you. If I hadn’t , I wouldn’t have found out till it was too late!”

I got out my spelling words, studied all the way to school. And ended up acing the test!

The minute I got home, I gave Tex a gigantic hug.

“This is the luckiest hat in the world,” I said. “I’m never taking it off!”

“But you promised to give it back!” said Tex.

“I know, but…” I pretended to try to pull the hat off my head. “I think it’s stuck.”

“It is not!” said Tex.

“Please-oh-please let me borrow your lucky hat for one more day!” I begged. “Tomorrow I’m auditioning for the school play, and I need every bit of help I can get.”

“OK,” said Tex. “One more day. But you’d better be really nice to me.”

“I will,” I agreed. “, In fact-here you can have my lucky dollar!”

Tex let out a whoop, then started dancing around and waving his gift in the air.

The next day turned out to be super lucky. My audition couldn’t have gone better.

“Wow, Arizona!” said my friend Mareya. “I can’t believe how amazingly you just did! You are so getting a major part in this play!”

“Thanks! You did really great, too!” I said. “But honestly, the only reason I did OK is because I had my lucky hat.”

“What lucky hat?” asked Mareya.

“This one,” I said, reaching into my backpack, where I thought I’d put Tex’s hat since I couldn’t wear it for the audition. But it wasn’t there! “Oh no!” I cried. “It’s gone! What am I going to tell Tex?”

Mareya helped me look for it . Luckily, we found Tex’s hat in my locker. Also luckily, I discovered that I could be lucky with or without a goofy-looking cap in my possession.

“So it wasn’t the hat,” said Mareya. “This is just a wild guess, but maybe it was all those hours yo spent practicing over the past month.”

“Hmm,” I said. “It’s possible.”

So, dear Looking, I guess you could say that luck is a combination of being prepared, beliebing in yourself, … and maybe just a tiny bit of magic! In other words, luck may come your way, but you have to be ready for it when it does!

Ciao for now

Arizona

親愛的亞利桑娜，

我的兄弟運(yùn)氣特別好，常有好事在他身上發(fā)生。你相信運(yùn)氣嗎？如果真有運(yùn)氣，我怎么才能得到更多一點(diǎn)呢？

——尋找好運(yùn)的人 寫于路易斯安那

親愛的尋覓者，

我正一只手吃著早餐，另一只手撫摸我的貓——高，一邊閱讀著燕麥片盒子的背面?！鞍ミ稀?，我尖叫起來，“你干嘛捏我？”

“你沒穿綠色衣服，”我弟弟泰克斯說，“每個(gè)人都知道如果在圣帕特里克節(jié)里不穿綠色衣服，就會被捏?！?/P>

“這是真的！”我的妹妹英蒂說。

我非常生氣被掐，有一丁點(diǎn)值得高興的是，這提醒了我今天是圣帕特里克節(jié)。

我驚慌失措：“怎么辦，我沒有時(shí)間換了，一整天我都會被人捏。”

“好吧，”泰克斯從他的頭上拿下他那個(gè)綠色的舊棒球后，說，“你可以借我的幸運(yùn)帽。”

“但，那是你最喜歡的?！蔽艺f。

“我知道，”泰克斯說，“只要你發(fā)誓放學(xué)后還給我?！?/P>

“沒問題，”我說，出門前我照了照鏡子：“戴著這個(gè)，我看上去像個(gè)小丑?！?/P>

“一個(gè)幸運(yùn)的小丑！”泰格說。

“唔，”我背上書包，“謝謝！我想！”

說到這里，你應(yīng)該知道我不是一個(gè)極度迷信的人。我不認(rèn)為13是個(gè)倒霉的數(shù)字，或者打碎了鏡子會帶來7年的壞運(yùn)氣。

我也絕對不會因?yàn)橐恢缓谪垙奈仪懊娴穆飞洗┻^而被震住。更不相信什么四片葉子的幸運(yùn)三葉草，以及幸運(yùn)便士。

不管怎樣，當(dāng)我正拼命追趕校車時(shí)，我看到一美元躺在路邊，我朝四周看了看，是否有人在找它，但是人們都踩著這個(gè)可憐的東西過去了。我決定營救它。我以前發(fā)現(xiàn)過便士和鎳幣，從沒有一美元。

而且，我沒有錯(cuò)過校車，因?yàn)樾＼嚿踔帘任疫€晚——這是從未發(fā)生過的！

我的運(yùn)氣并未就此打住?？逅购徒芸诉d剛好坐在我后面，正彼此測驗(yàn)著拼寫單詞。我轉(zhuǎn)過頭去說：“你們知道明天才測驗(yàn)，對嗎？”

“已經(jīng)改到今天早上了。”杰克遜說。“記得嗎？明天有個(gè)集會?！?/P>

“我忘得一干二凈。”我說，“坐在你們前面是多么幸運(yùn)啊，如果不是，當(dāng)我發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)就晚了?！?/P>

我拿出拼寫來，一路學(xué)習(xí)。最終通過了測試。

一到家，我給了泰克斯一個(gè)大大的擁抱。

“這是世界上最幸運(yùn)的帽子。”我說，“我永遠(yuǎn)不取下來了?！?/P>

“但你答應(yīng)要還給我的?！碧┛怂拐f。

“我知道，但是。。?！蔽壹傺b試圖把帽子取下，“我想它粘住了?！?/P>

“沒有！”泰格說。

“求求你，多借我用一天。”我請求道。“明天我要試聽學(xué)校的表演，我需要獲得一點(diǎn)幫助?！?/P>

“好吧！”泰克斯泰格說，“再借一天，但是，你要對我好點(diǎn)?！?/P>

“我會的，”我表示同意，“事實(shí)是，你可以得到我這里的幸運(yùn)美元?！?/P>

泰克斯一聲歡呼，一邊跳起舞，一邊在空中揮舞著他的禮物。

第二天運(yùn)氣更好，我的試演好極了。

“哇，亞利桑娜！”我的朋友瑪瑞婭說，“你剛剛太讓人驚奇了，我簡直不敢相信，你在這次表演中太出色了?！?/P>

“謝謝，你也做得很好！”我回答道，“不過，老實(shí)說，我做得好的一個(gè)原因是因?yàn)槲矣幸豁斝疫\(yùn)帽?！?/P>

“什么幸運(yùn)帽？”瑪瑞婭問。

“這個(gè)，”我說著從書包里找尋，我想我把泰克斯的帽子放在書包里了，因?yàn)槲也荒艽髦硌荨５?，帽子不在書包里！“哦，不！”我喊道，“它不見了，我怎么跟泰克斯說？”

瑪瑞婭也幫我找，幸運(yùn)的是，我們在儲物柜找到了它。同樣幸運(yùn)的是，我發(fā)現(xiàn)戴不戴那頂讓我看起來滑稽可笑的帽子，我都能有好運(yùn)。

“所以，并不是因?yàn)槊弊樱爆斎饗I說，“那只是一個(gè)無聊的猜想，也許是你過去近一個(gè)月全力以赴練習(xí)的結(jié)果?！?/P>

“唔，”我說，“可能是！”

你看，親愛的尋覓者,我想你可以說幸運(yùn)是一個(gè)組合，包括做好準(zhǔn)備，相信自己……也許有那么一點(diǎn)魔法?？傊?，運(yùn)氣正向你走來，但在它降臨時(shí)，你要做好準(zhǔn)備。

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亞利桑娜

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