Miss Fortune

by Brandi Dougherty

“You did?” Mia exclaimed. “Nice!”

  “Then he asked about my film stuff,” Zoe continued. “He knew I went to camp at the Portland Art Institute this summer, so he must have been asking about me.”

  “Wow,” Mia remarked. “Points for Tomo and Andrew for filling him in.”

  “Totally!” Zoe’s voice bubbled with excitement. “Then he asked if he could have my number so that we could hang out again sometime.”

  “That’s so perfect,” Mia said with a sigh.

  “I still can’t believe how nervous I was, Mia. My face was totally on fire.”

  “I’m sure Noah was nervous, too,” Mia said reassuringly. “He’s so quiet. And I love that he gave you the bear he won at the ringtoss.”

  “I know!” Zoe beamed. “He’s so cute.”

  Mia finished her second doughnut and then stood up, brushing some chocolate crumbs from her lap. “Well, I guess I should get dressed and head home. I’m supposed to help my mom clean out the garage today.”

  “Want me to walk you home?” Zoe asked. “I can bring my bike and ride back.”

  “Sure, thanks!” Mia replied.

  “Okay, let me just leave a note for my dad.”

  Zoe and Mia strolled leisurely through their southeast Portland neighborhood. The huge trees lining the streets created a nice shade from the sun. They could hear an ice-cream truck and a few kids shouting and playing somewhere in the distance.

  “So, there’s something else I didn’t tell you yet,” Zoe started.

  “Oooo!” Mia squealed. “What is it?”

  “Well, when we were on the Ferris wheel last night, Noah …” Just as Zoe was about to tell Mia about Noah touching her hand, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She looked up in time to see a giant blackbird swoop down from a tree. It was diving straight toward her!

  “What the …” Zoe ducked down next to her bike and felt a rush of wind from the bird’s wings as it flew over her. It had come within a few inches of her head. “Did you see that?”

  “Yes!” Mia crouched down next to Zoe. “I think it was that big raven that’s up in that pine tree now. See it?”

  “Uh-huh.” Zoe’s heart was pounding. She felt a knot of anxiety settle in her stomach. She shaded her eyes and peered up. “It looks like it’s watching us,” Zoe whispered to Mia. She shivered, but she wasn’t even cold.

  “Come on.” Mia stood up. “Let’s go before it decides to dive-bomb us again.”

  They hurried down the sidewalk and turned onto a side street to take a shortcut to Mia’s.

  Zoe nervously looked over her shoulder as they walked. “That was really weird,” she croaked. Her throat was dry.

  “Yeah,” Mia agreed with a slight shrug. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Zoe couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with the “power of the snake eye.” The more Zoe thought about it, the more the woman at the carnival really creeped her out. Mia didn’t seem very rattled by the whole thing though, and Zoe didn’t want to make her nervous. After all, Mia was usually the one who freaked out about things, not Zoe. So Zoe decided to keep quiet about Serafina and tried to put the bird incident out of her mind.

  The girls turned onto Mia’s driveway and saw that Mia’s mom already had half the contents of the garage spread on the lawn.

  “Oh, great,” Mia groaned.

  “Zoe!” Mia’s mom chirped from behind a mountain of stuff. She had the same small features and jet-black hair as Mia, but somehow appeared even tinier than her daughter. “Did you come to help us with our little project?”

  “Uh …” Zoe stammered. As much as she loved Mia, helping her and Mrs. Wang clean out their garage was the absolute last thing she wanted to do on a beautiful summer day. She shot Mia a look of desperation.

  “No, Mom,” Mia said. “Zoe has better things to do today.”

  “What, honey?” Mia’s mom asked absentmindedly as she arranged boxes on the lawn.

  Mia rolled her eyes and Zoe giggled.

  “Well, good luck,” Zoe said, still laughing. Then a shiver ran up her spine as she remembered Serafina standing in the candlelight of her tent.

  “We’ll talk later,” Mia said as she shuffled reluctantly toward the tower of boxes.

  Zoe decided to ride her bike the long way home, past Laurelhurst Park. It was her favorite park in Portland, and Zoe wanted to spend as much of her sunny summer day outside as possible. As she rode, she thought about Noah. She was glad now that she hadn’t had the chance to tell Mia about him touching her hand. She liked having that part to herself — at least for now.

  Zoe was riding along dreamily enjoying the warm breeze when all of a sudden her handlebars jerked violently to the right. She tried to turn them and steady herself, but she no longer had control over her bike. The bike careened violently into the ditch of the vacant lot she was passing. Zoe tumbled head over heels into the dirt. She felt a sharp sting on her elbow and saw that her shorts had caught on the bike chain as she fell and were now torn at the hem. The tear looked like teeth marks from the edges of the chain. Stunned and confused, Zoe sat up. She shakily checked herself for other injuries. Other than another stinging scrape on her knee and her pounding heart, she seemed okay. The rushes of adrenaline she felt talking to Noah or riding the Kamikaze had been fun, but the rush of adrenaline she was experiencing now was something Zoe could have done without.

  Zoe pulled herself up out of the ditch and tried to dust some of the dirt from her clothes and legs. She took a deep breath and got back on her bike. She pushed off the pavement, but as soon as she was riding, the bike pitched and jerked her toward the ditch again. Zoe leaped off the bike and let it fall to the ground, her hands trembling wildly now. What is going on? she thought frantically.

  Zoe couldn’t help but wonder if this had anything to do with the woman’s weird prediction. It appears that you will make a bad decision, she had said. This decision may lead to some regrettable events. Maybe falling off her bike was the “regrettable event.” But what had her bad decision been? Zoe knew she could have done more to take care of her bike since she’d gotten it for her birthday. Yes! she thought. That must have been what the woman was talking about! I shouldn’t have left my bike out in the rain last week. Maybe it got a little rusty and that’s why the handlebars got stuck. That must have been my bad decision.

  Zoe checked her pocket and realized she’d left her cell phone at home.

  “Another ‘bad decision,’” she mumbled to herself. With no way for her to call her dad for a ride, Zoe had to walk her bike all the way home.

  Forty-five minutes later, Zoe stumbled into the driveway. Her dad looked up from his worktable in the garage and saw the bloody scrape on her knee. He ran out to meet her.

  “Zoe, what happened?” he asked worriedly. He took the bike and led her into the garage.

  Zoe didn’t even know where to start or how to explain. She had just managed to calm herself down on the long walk home, but as soon as she saw her dad, tears welled up in her eyes and she got upset again. Why did she still feel like a baby around her dad sometimes?

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I just couldn’t control my bike. The handlebars swerved and I … I fell in a ditch by the park.”

  “Well, just sit here for a minute,” her dad instructed her in a soothing voice. “Let me get something to clean up your elbow and your knee, and then we’ll take a look at your bike. Okay?”

  “All right,” Zoe managed. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down again.

  Zoe’s dad returned with hydrogen peroxide and a wad of cotton balls and Band-Aids. Zoe cringed as he dabbed her cuts with peroxide. Once Zoe’s wounds were taken care of, he walked over to look at her bike.

  He sat on the seat and swiveled the handlebars back and forth. “Well, everything seems okay,” he said. Then he kicked off and rode the bike in a circle around the driveway and came back.

  “It seems fine to me,” her dad said. “
Maybe we should just tighten up the handlebars a little.” Zoe nodded. Maybe her bike really was fine, and she had just hit a rock or something while she had been riding.

  “Let me just grab a wrench,” Zoe’s dad said. She followed him to his tool closet. He opened the door and began rummaging around for a wrench on one of the lower shelves. Zoe heard a creaking noise above her and looked up just in time to see a hammer from the top shelf of the closet drop off the edge. She was frozen in such disbelief that she didn’t think to move her foot before the head of the hammer slammed down right on her big toe.

  “Owwww!” Zoe buckled, grabbing her foot.

  “Zoe!” Her dad swooped down and picked up the hammer. “I’m so sorry, honey!”

  “It’s … it’s … okay, Dad,” Zoe managed in between gasps and tears. Her dad hadn’t been anywhere near the top shelf of the closet! How had the hammer fallen out and hit her on the toe?

  “I really need to be more careful with this stuff,” Zoe’s dad said apologetically.

  “It’s not your fault,” Zoe whispered. Her knees were weak, and she felt nauseous. “I think I’ll just go inside and lie down for a bit. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

  Zoe turned and limped toward the house, hoping her swollen toe was the last of her bad luck.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Later that afternoon, Zoe hobbled into the backyard with a few supplies. In one hand she held a large icy glass of a sparkling fruit-juice concoction she’d just made in the kitchen. In the other, she carried a bag of frozen peas and a worn copy of her favorite book. A giant beach towel and a pillow were tucked under her arm.

  She limped to the edge of the backyard and arranged the beach towel in the hammock. She had begged her dad for a hammock at the beginning of the summer, so she wanted to be sure he knew she was getting plenty of use out of it. And she was. Reading in the hammock was her favorite summertime activity, aside from hanging out with Mia, of course. Zoe settled into the hammock and gently placed the bag of peas over her now-purple toenail, wincing a little bit. She leaned back and positioned the pillow behind her head.

  A few chapters later, Zoe’s dad sauntered across the lawn.

  “Hey, Zozo?”

  “Yeah, Dad?” Zoe marked her place with her thumb.

  “I’m going to run some errands. I’m starting a big landscaping job in Beaverton tomorrow, so I need to get a few more supplies.”

  “Okay.”

  “You all right?” her dad asked, his voice concerned. “How are your injuries?”

  “They’re fine,” Zoe replied. “Just icing my toe and stuff.”

  “Well, just take it easy.”

  “Yes, sir.” Zoe saluted and smiled.

  “Oh, I almost forgot!” her dad said. “I made lasagna for dinner.”

  “Yes!” Zoe hooted. Lasagna was her absolute favorite. Her dad must have been feeling bad about the hammer incident.

  Zoe’s dad laughed. “It’s in the fridge all ready to go. Can you put it in the oven at five o’clock?”

  “Sure, no problem.”

  “Just set it to bake at three fifty, okay?” her dad instructed. “I should be home by five thirty.”

  “Got it, Pops.”

  Zoe’s dad gave her a kiss on the forehead and headed into the garage. Zoe heard his truck pull out of the driveway as she set the alarm on her cell phone for five o’clock. She still had plenty of reading time before then.

  When the alarm started beeping, Zoe almost fell out of the hammock. She had dozed off. She stared up through the trees at the weakening sun and took a minute to realize where she was and what the annoying sound was. She located her phone in the grass and switched off the alarm. Then she gathered up her things and headed for the kitchen. The bag of peas was a mushy, melted mess. At least my toe feels a little better, she thought, even though the purple was already darkening to almost black.

  Zoe noticed a strange smell as soon as she opened the kitchen door. It almost smelled the way it did when her dad turned on the heat for the first time each fall. But it was way too warm outside for him to have turned on the heat today. Zoe threw her towel and book on the dining room table and glanced around the room. Everything looked normal.

  She opened the refrigerator and reached in for the lasagna, but it wasn’t on the top shelf. Zoe searched every shelf of the refrigerator, but the lasagna wasn’t there. Maybe her dad had put it in the freezer instead. But when she searched the freezer, it wasn’t there either.

  The weird smell was getting worse. It smelled like something was burning. Zoe turned toward the oven and gasped. The entire inside of the oven was engulfed in flames! She had never seen anything like it. She ran to turn the oven off and stopped short. The oven wasn’t even on.

  “What the —?!” Zoe whispered. What was going on? She was terrified. It’s not even on. The oven is not even on! she repeated in her head.

  Zoe spun in a circle. She didn’t know what to do. Should I call 911? she wondered desperately. But what if they don’t get here fast enough? Zoe stared at the oven, trying to think. Then she remembered that they had a fire extinguisher in the garage. She ran out there as fast as she could on her injured toe and grabbed it. Her heart was racing the entire time. She quickly read the instructions and decided to spray a little bit of foam on the outside of the oven before she opened the door. Then she took a pair of wooden salad tongs out of the drawer and used them to open the oven door from a distance. The second she had the door open, she showered the inside with the fire extinguisher. Luckily, the fire went out quickly but the smoke set off the fire alarm.

  Zoe ran around frantically opening all the doors and windows, turning on fans and using a towel to fan the smoke toward the nearest window. Finally, the alarm stopped beeping. Zoe was sweating and disheveled. She collapsed on the floor in front of the oven, struggling to catch her breath. Once she could breathe again, Zoe peered into the oven. There was something inside. Zoe gasped. It was the charred pan of lasagna!

  Zoe searched for a reasonable explanation. Had her dad changed his mind and put the lasagna in the oven before he left? No, Zoe had seen him walk straight into the garage after he spoke to her in the yard. Had Conner come home early and put it in the oven? No, he was never home from basketball camp before six. And besides, that still wouldn’t explain the fact that the oven hadn’t even been on when the lasagna had caught fire! It didn’t make any sense. What if someone else came into the house? Zoe thought, her head spinning. A thick knot of fear settled in her stomach.

  For the next twenty minutes, Zoe paced the kitchen, nervously twisting strands of hair around her shaking fingers. She couldn’t wait for her dad to get home. When Zoe finally heard the sound of the garage door opening and her dad’s truck pulling into the driveway, she heaved a sigh of relief. Finally! she thought. She rushed to open the door for her dad.

  “Oh, Zoe!” Her dad shouted the minute he stepped into the kitchen. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Zoe burst into tears, and her dad pulled her into a big hug.

  After a minute, Zoe pushed away and wiped her tearstained cheeks. “Yeah, I’m fine … I guess,” she said, her voice wavering with exhaustion and fear. “I don’t know what happened … I … the oven … it wasn’t …”

  “It’s okay, honey — accidents happen.” Zoe’s dad squeezed her shoulder as he looked around the kitchen, taking in the scene. “Did you set the oven too high?”

  “No, I …” Zoe started, but tears flooded her cheeks again.

  “It’s okay, Zoe,” her dad repeated as he wiped a tear from her face with a dish towel. “You must have set the oven to broil accidentally and the lasagna just caught on fire somehow. It’s a simple mistake.”

  “But Dad, the oven wasn’t even on!” Zoe managed between ragged breaths. “I hadn’t turned it on yet!”

  “Honey, that’s impossible,” her dad said reasonably. “Did you fall asleep in your hammock again? I know you and Mia hardly sleep when she stays the night. Maybe
you were still groggy and just weren’t paying attention.”

  “No, I … well, I did fall asleep for a minute, but I swear I … I …” Zoe stammered. She could tell from the look on his face that he was sure Zoe had been mistaken about the oven.

  “I’ll take care of this, sweetheart,” her dad said gently. “Why don’t you go up to your room and relax, okay?”

  “But what about the lasagna?” Zoe held out the burnt lasagna pan with one of the pot holders she’d made in Mrs. Mahoney’s second-grade class. “It’s ruined.” She felt like she might start crying again.

  “We’ll just order some Chinese takeout after I get things cleaned up and Conner gets home.”

  Zoe sighed again. “Okay.”

  Zoe went upstairs and fell onto her bed. She lay motionless for a long time, staring at the ceiling as she tried to replay the events of the day in her head. First the bike, then the hammer, and now the burnt lasagna. Nothing made sense. Zoe couldn’t understand why any of those things had happened — all of them seemed to be completely beyond her control. Maybe her dad was right and she was just overtired. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. Or maybe the woman from the carnival had been right. Everything that had happened had been a “regrettable event.”

  But the lasagna incident had nothing to do with Zoe leaving her bike in the rain last week. What could possibly be the bad decision that made that happen? Falling asleep in the hammock? Zoe laughed tiredly. It was all so ridiculous, but it was scary, too.

  Zoe could barely finish her egg roll and kung pao chicken with broccoli. She knew her dad was worried about all the accidents she’d had that day, but Conner kept him busy with tales of suicide drills and half-court scrimmages at basketball camp. Zoe escaped to her room as soon as she could to get online. She wanted to check her e-mail and hopefully talk to Mia. Zoe set her iPod in the speaker dock and put on her favorite band. Then she started up her laptop. Her mom had a way of making up for her absence by sending expensive gifts. Zoe loved having an iPod and a computer of her own, but having a real relationship with her mom would have been worth the trade.