Cynthia Kadohata - The Thing About Luck

Obaachan went to check on Jiichan and Jaz. We’d turned down the air conditioner to save energy for the Parkers. But with the stove back on, sweat started to drip down my face and chest. I washed my hands and stepped outside. It didn’t feel much better out there, but at least it was windy. The uncut wheat looked like a flying carpet in the distance.

I stared for a moment at the Parkers’ camper. I decided to go say hi to Robbie, then I decided not to because it was being too forward and he’d been ignoring me. Then I decided to do it after all. I knocked, and Robbie answered. Right behind him was Mr. Laskey’s pretty daughter. I stared at her for a moment. I was so surprised that for a second it was like my whole brain was empty. Then I blurted out to her, “What are you doing here?”

Robbie turned to her and said, “Her grandfather is a combine driver for us.” And from the way he said it, I could tell he meant that I wasn’t important, and neither was my family. I remembered I still had my apron on. I looked down and saw blood and guts on it. Anger and sadness washed over me at the same time, and I was torn between wanting to cry and wanting to shout at him.

Instead, I said calmly, “You didn’t seem bothered by that when you kissed me.” He looked truly surprised, and I felt a surge of triumph.

I walked away, making sure to hold my head high. Jaz was sitting by himself under our “porch” light, his head lolling to the side. “What’s that?” he asked me.

“What’s what? I’m in a bad mood, so don’t bother me. What are you doing up?”

“There’s something on your forehead.”

I wiped at my forehead and found a piece of rabbit guts. That meant I’d had it on my forehead when I went to see Robbie. Wasn’t that wonderful? “Mind your own business!”

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: What did I do?” Jaz scratched at his face, then suddenly fell to his knees and started pounding his head on the ground. I grabbed him from behind, enveloping his arms. He was too sick to put up much of a fight, and in a moment he calmed down. Sometimes he did that as a trick, so that I would let go and he could pound his forehead some more. I took a chance and released him. We were both dripping sweat. He lay out on the ground like Obaachan does, then gagged.

“If you’re going to throw up, maybe you should sit up so you don’t choke,” I said. “Why are you even out of bed?”

“I don’t know. I’m sick of being inside. I’m just going to lie here and maybe go to sleep.”

“You can’t sleep out here.”

“Will you carry me inside?”

“I can help you, but I can’t lift you.”

“Then I’m going to lie here.” He closed his eyes and really did seem to be asleep.

I sat on the steps and leaned my head back against the door for a long time. I felt like I didn’t understand a single thing in the whole world. I didn’t understand a single person. I didn’t even understand myself.

I went inside and took Obaachan’s cell phone from her purse. Then I went back outside, away from Jaz, and dialed Melody. One of the combines was driving in for some reason.

“Hi, Mel.”

“Summer! I was just thinking about you. Mr. Lerner had a family emergency so we have a substitute for the rest of the year, and he gives so much homework and he’s so mean. You’re lucky you’re not here.”

“Mel, I kissed a boy.” I spoke urgently but also quietly enough that Jaz couldn’t hear me.

“What?! Who?”

“A boy named Robbie Parker. He’s the son of the people we’re working for. I had a crush on him, and then he must have liked me too because he kissed me.”

“That’s amazing!”

“No, now he likes the girl who lives at the farm here, and he kind of insulted my grandfather.”

“Oh, that’s terrible. What a jerk!”

“And I have to see him all the time for the whole rest of the harvest season. What should I do?”

“Maybe he’ll apologize to you.”

“Nobody can insult my grandfather. I don’t even like him anymore.”

Then the camper door started opening, and I slipped the phone into my pocket.

Obaachan stepped out. “Don’t ever leave stove on when you go out. What I just say?”

“Don’t ever leave the stove on when I go out,” Jaz and I both recited.

The combine that had been heading in finally reached the edge of the wheat field and pulled to a stop. Mrs. Parker climbed down and headed over.

“I was worried about Toshiro and wanted to check on him,” she said. She glanced at Jaz. “Why is he on the ground?” She cocked her head. “And what is that sound?” It was Mel’s little voice talking to me from my apron pocket.

“My husband sleeping already,” Obaachan said.

“Do you think we need a doctor?”

“No doctor. Doctor give you pill and make you drug addict. He get better. Jaz stay sick a long time, but Toshiro never sick long time in his life.”

Mrs. Parker looked thoughtful. “Well, all right, if you think he’ll be fine.” She glanced at Jaz again. “You can’t leave him there.”

“He’s too heavy for me to carry, and he refused to get up unless I carry him,” I explained.

“Well, that’s a problem easily solved,” Mrs. Parker said. She knelt down and, with a huge grunt, pulled Jaz over her shoulder, as if he weighed twenty pounds instead of eighty.

Then she said, “There is that noise again!” Then the noise stopped, and I knew that Mel had hung up.

I held the door open as Mrs. Parker climbed up the three stairs into the camper, grunting all the way. She tried to lay Jaz in a bottom bunk, but she missed and got only one side of his body onto the mattress. His other side, with nothing to support it, pulled him down. He plopped to the floor. “Ahh,” he groaned. “Mrs. Parker, please don’t ever do that again.”

“I’m so sorry, Jaz.”

Jaz slowly pushed himself up and fell into bed.

“Now all of you get some rest. I can’t be worrying about everyone while I’m driving,” she said crisply.

I liked Mrs. Parker. I mean, she was a pain in the neck, but at the same time I knew she was a pain in the neck only because she cared about all of us. I followed her outside. I had a question that I would ordinarily ask my mother. But since Mom wasn’t around, I thought I should ask Mrs. Parker. When we reached her combine, she turned to me. “What is it, Summer?”

“Mrs. Parker?”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever felt humiliated and proud at the same time?” I blurted out.

“It’s the human condition, sweetie,” she said in her no-nonsense voice. “Now you get some rest. It’s late.” She climbed up her combine.

I realized how exhausted I was. Being humiliated and then getting mad had done me in. I went inside, returned Obaachan’s cell phone, and lay down in my bunk, together with my sick, sleeping family, where I felt safe.

The chirp of crickets accompanied the soft sounds of country music—the music a little scratchy from the cheap radio, the chirping strong and clear and seemingly coming from everywhere in the world all at once. In the dim morning I could see Robbie inside the cab of a combine, cleaning the windows. It was six a.m. Jiichan and Mick each loaded a combine onto a trailer attached to a semi. The music was coming from one of the big rigs, with Mr. Dark sitting in the cab waiting for everyone to load up.

This is what our group was bringing to Oklahoma:

1. Big rig hauling combine and grain trailer