Good Luck Dispenser
March 27, 2023 – New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
The two young women paid attention to the warnings about being on the New Orleans streets at night. They hurried from their hotel in the late afternoon for a chance to see the French Quarter before their meetings began. They planned to stick to the high-traffic areas and be back before dark.
After admiring the wide, muddy Mississippi River, Gemma and Aimee walked less than a mile to Jackson Square – the most famous piece of real estate in the city. Gemma complained that she should have worn different shoes. Those on her feet pinched and were not designed for long distances.
Aimee had worked with Gemma for almost a year and was used to her looking on the dark side of every situation. If it was not her shoes, she was sure to come up with something else bothersome about the walk. It might be the narrow streets or the smell of the horses pulling open carriages. Her dark moods usually lingered and Aimee already projected Gemma to be sour faced when they set up their booth the next day in the hotel’s conference space.
The central garden of Jackson Square was ringed by a wall lined with vendors selling every kind of souvenir. Gemma and Aimee strolled past T-shirts, hand carved musical instruments, and neon-colored paintings. Without considering a purchase, they walked into the publicly accessible St. Louis Cathedral and read the descriptive signs posted on the walls and attached to metal stands.
“I thought New Orleans would be more interesting,” Gemma said to Aimee.
“What do you mean?”
“I dunno. I guess I expected non-stop parties and weird stuff going on. Where are all the celebrities? Outside looks like any other touristy place and this looks like any other church.”
“No, it doesn’t. I think it’s plenty interesting.”
Gemma acted bored until Aimee followed her outside. They walked down one of the side streets which converged on Jackson Square and Gemma looked skeptically at the T-shirt and trinket shops. Then she stopped in front of a sign that read, “Voodoo Magic and Fortune Telling.”
“This looks more interesting,” she said, opening the heavy wooden door below the sign.
As soon as Gemma and Aimee stepped into the small shop, they smelled incense and candle wax. When the door closed behind them, they realized how dark the interior was. Flames burned on candelabras on each of the four walls. A single, low-wattage incandescent bulb hung from the ceiling by an electrical cord. Shelves and racks held some of the trinkets being sold outside the walls of Jackson Square, but there were also new, mysterious objects in glass cases. Many appeared to be made from bones and hair.
Ghostly, organ music played in the distance, punctuated by irregular howls. Suddenly, a woman appeared behind one of the glass counters. Gemma and Aimee both blinked with wonder at how she materialized. Her rough clothing and wild hair perfectly matched what they might have expected from a Voodoo priestess.
“Are you new to the city? Are you here to seek your fortune?” the Voodoo priestess asked in a French Caribbean accent.
Gemma stood speechless for a few seconds before stammering, “We’re here for a conference. Five days. Not even a whole week. We’re in one of the big hotels.”
“Are you looking for something special? Something to help your life? Maybe your love life?” The Voodoo priestess smiled to show a set of straight, white teeth.
Aimee chuckled while Gemma remained strangely serious. She moved closer to the glass case and said, “Have you got any cures for stress? I mean, sometimes things can feel too much.”
“Ah, you need more good luck. With the right magics, good luck is drawn to you and bad luck pushed away.”
“I do need good luck. Nothing good ever happens to me.”
“Yes, I see that.”
“So what would you recommend?”
“You may know a rabbit’s foot can bring more good luck than usual.”
Aimee and Gemma both smiled as Gemma said, “A rabbit’s foot? Are you serious?”
“Yes, but a rabbit’s foot does not hold much magic. If you are looking for something more powerful, I can show you.”
“Okay, show me,” Gemma said with curiosity in her voice.
The Voodoo priestess reached behind the dark counter and produced a necklace. It consisted of a green gemstone placed in a wooden medallion and hanging from a string decorated with bone and shell beads.
“This amulet has strong magic. It guarantees one good thing will happen to you each day.”
Gemma looked greedily at the necklace as she said to Aimee, “Wouldn’t it be great to have something good happen every day.”
“You have lots of good things happen to you,” Aimee protested.
“No, I don’t. I’d love to be guaranteed one.” Gemma smiled at the Voodoo priestess and asked, “How much is it?”
“A small price. One hundred-fifty dollars.”
“That’s kind of a lot. But it is cool looking. And if it brought me something good every day . . .”
“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Aimee asked in amazement.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Gemma’s face grew determined. She told herself she was daring and adventurous. Then she pulled out her credit card and handed it to the Voodoo priestess. The woman was happy to swap the card for the necklace.
As Gemma was leaving the shop, the Voodoo priestess called out some final warnings. “As the owner, you don’t have to be wearing it for it to work. And it will guarantee one and only one good thing will happen.”
Gemma paused. “Only one? Well, that’s a lot more than usually happens to me.”
“And if you decide you don’t want the magic anymore, you must bring it back here to get rid of it.”
Gemma slipped the amulet over her neck and walked outside ready to suck in some luck. She turned to Aimee and said, “Do you think it’s too late in the day for it to work? Will I have to wait until tomorrow?”
“You’re asking me?” Aimee replied with a shake of her head. “You know you sound crazy, right?”
Somehow Gemma contained her excitement about the necklace during the walk back to the hotel. She spent a quiet evening anticipating what might happen to her the next day. When morning arrived, she did not mutter one complaint as she helped Aimee set up their display booth. They snagged a high-traffic location sure to catch the attention of doctors attending the five-day medical conference.
The women represented a company selling software to help radiologists interpret X-ray and MRI images. Their table and video displays were barely set up when Chuck Finley stopped for a chat. He oversaw imaging for a large hospital network and was so interested in their software, he skipped the presentation he planned to attend. Before he walked away, he set up a future meeting to discuss costs and how quickly his hospitals could adopt the new technology.
“That’s going to turn into our biggest sale ever,” Aimee said excitedly to Gemma after Chuck Finley was gone. “We should call and get our engineers ready to meet him.”
“You know why this happened don’t you?” Gemma replied smugly. She revealed the Voodoo necklace she wore under her shirt.
“You think it was the necklace?”
“Of course it was the necklace. Think of how many of these meetings we’ve been to. The first person we meet right after I get the necklace just happens to be our biggest client ever.”
“It’s got to be a coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe things happen for a reason.”
“I’m just glad it happened.”
The smile suddenly slipped off Gemma’s face. “I just realized this means my one good thing has already happened for the day. Everything else is going to be bad. I don’t have anything to look forward to.”
“You’re taking the necklace too seriously.”
“You watch. The rest of the day is bad luck.”
Aimee gave Gemma a skeptical grin and then looked up phone numbers for the engineering team at company headquarters. Gemma slumped into a chair practically facing a wall to show that she did not expect to meet more customers.
For the rest of the day, Aimee tried her best to wave over conference attendees. No one seemed interested. The hotel was supposed to provide lunch to her and Gemma, but the orders got confused. They were served a bland meal of broth, toast, and Jell-O.
“This is something they would give to a hospital patient,” Gemma complained. “See, nothing but bad luck.”
When it came time to close their booth for the day, the two young women anticipated an outdoor stroll to see more of the city. They walked to the lobby and discovered rain pouring down on the streets.
“Should have known,” Gemma said matter-of-factly. She returned to her hotel room and found none of the channels worked on her TV. She pulled the Voodoo necklace out from under her shirt and dropped it on her nightstand. “Tomorrow, I want something really good.”
When tomorrow arrived, the rain had stopped and the weather looked beautiful. Gemma and Aimee met outside in the sunshine and strolled to a café with a peaceful view of the river. They ordered croissants, perfectly seasoned eggs, and fresh orange juice. They savored every moment of their meal.
Gemma leaned back in her chair and said, “That was the best breakfast I’ve ever had.” She instantly covered her mouth as she realized what she had uttered. “Oh no! That was my one good thing for the day. I was hoping for something at least as good as finding Chuck Finley as a client.”
“You’re talking crazy again,” Aimee said dismissively. “And you don’t even have your magic necklace with you.”
“Doesn’t matter. You heard what the woman in the shop said. As long as I own it, the luck follows me around.”
Aimee tried to point out that lots of other good things were happening all around Gemma, but she did not listen. She was not interested in celebrating her good health or the natural beauty around her. She sat at their booth the rest of the day pointing out how few conference attendees were interested in their company’s software. Then she got news from home that her mother was sick. She began feeling a tickle in her own throat and knew it could only be bad news. The necklace’s power was proven again.
The third day of the conference included an afternoon break intended to let visitors explore the city. That morning, Gemma called Aimee and begged her to sit at their booth alone until the break.
“I’m staying in my hotel room and I’m not talking to anyone or eating anything,” Gemma explained. “I don’t want to use up my good luck on something small.”
“Are you still hoping to meet a celebrity?”
“Don’t jinx it by talking too much about it, but if we go on a bus tour, I know something big like that will happen.”
Aimee agreed to work alone and then buy tickets to a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the city. When Gemma finally joined her, she talked excitedly about winning a prize or spotting Harry Connick Jr. As they stepped onto their bus, the tour’s narrator handed them plastic beads left over from celebrating Mardi Gras.
Aimee turned to Gemma and said, “I guess you got your prize.”
“Cheap beads? I don’t want these. I can buy three of these strands for a dollar. Here, you take mine so it looks like I haven’t gotten anything.”
“I don’t think that’s how luck works,” Aimee replied with a teasing grin.
Gemma took her very seriously and replied, “You’re right.” She found a seat on the bus and slumped down in disappointment.
The bus tour proved to be hot and muggy. The loudspeaker used by the narrator was broken so all Gemma heard was mumbling static. And no celebrities appeared. Not even close. Gemma and Aimee hopped off the bus at their hotel and spent the rest of the day feeling disappointed about their booth.
“I can’t take this!” Gemma cried out.
“It’s a slow day, and remember, no matter what else happens we found Chuck Finley our first day,” Aimee replied.
“I’m not talking about sales and the conference. I’m talking about living my life this way. I guess I want more than one good thing to happen each day. I want to look forward to something. I don’t want to be one and done, especially if that one thing is small.”
Aimee smiled sympathetically. “It does change your perspective on the world if you’re thinking that way.”
“I’ve got to get rid of the necklace.”
“So throw it away. Or light it on fire.”
“No, I have to take it back to the shop. You remember what the woman said. Come with me, okay?”
The next morning, Gemma and Aimee left their booth unattended and walked to the French Quarter to find the Voodoo priestess. Her shop was open and as soon as Gemma stepped through the door a voice called, “Ah, you’re back.”
Gemma stepped forward to the glass counter and held up the necklace. “I thought this would be great, but I can’t live this way.”
“You said nothing good happened to you before buying the necklace. You’d rather have nothing good than one thing good?”
“Well, I guess I was exaggerating about nothing good happening. And the necklace always works at the start of the day, leaving the rest of the day pretty terrible. I want good things happening the whole day.”
“I don’t have anything right now which can guarantee that. It requires very power magic and would be very expensive.”
“Then I’d rather have my life go back to the way it was before.” Gemma placed the necklace on the glass counter.
“I can take this back from you and remove the spell, but I cannot return your money.”
“Fine. I just want it gone.”
The Voodoo priestess smiled, showing her vibrant teeth. She picked up the necklace and returned it to the dark shadows behind the counter. “You are now free.”
“I already feel a weight lifted from me,” Gemma replied.
“Before you go, I’m wondering if maybe you bought the wrong amulet.” The Voodoo priestess searched through her merchandise and produced another necklace. It looked similar to the first except for a red gem in the center of its wood medallion. “This one guarantees that only one bad thing happens to you every day.”
The new necklace mesmerized Gemma. “Only one bad thing,” she repeated. “Usually hundreds of bad things happen to me every day. Only one bad thing sounds pretty good.”
“No, no, no! Don’t even think about it!” Aimee called from behind her. She grabbed Gemma’s arm and pulled her from the shop. “We have an empty booth waiting for us.”
Please remember to subscribe for weekly reminders about new stories. You can subscribe by clicking here: Subscribe. You can also follow new content on any Podcast platform or on YouTube.