I sat at the park bench and opened my lunchbox. Inside lay delicious-looking pound cake slice with sugary, nearly see-through white cream dripping off the top. The soft yellow bread looked irresistible. I could hardly wait to dig in.
Just before the bread hit my mouth, I got two soft taps on the shoulder. I looked up. Roe stared back down at me, his nearly black eyes smiling mischievously at me.
“Don’t tell me. You’re gonna interrupt my relaxation dessert with that swimming-practice crap.”
“Common, Muti, I’m training to be a lifeguard. You can’t pretend to be drowning once?”
Well, the lake did look nice today.
“...fine. I’ll help you with your lifeguarding. But you gotta wait until after I eat, and after I get my swimsuit back from my house.”
“Muti, you’re always eating. Do you ever get full?”
I thought about it. “No.”
And we both laughed. For over ten years, Roe and I had been best friends. Our mothers would often bring us to each other’s houses for playdates. Roe’s Mother thought my Mom was fascinating, with her silver eyes and fuzzy dreaded hair that seemed to move by itself sometimes…
I jumped into the water and swam for a while, enjoying how it felt to go underwater and how cool the air felt on my skin as I came up again. Every once in a while I’d yell “Help! Help!” and Roe would come into the water and save me. Sometimes I made it tricky for him, diving underwater or swimming away from him, and in return I’d get a “Hey, stop! That’s not what a drowning person would do!” and we’d laugh. We ‘trained’ until I got cold from all the swimming and my cheeks ached from laughing.
“I gotta’ head home.” I said.
“When I got home, I found my Mom at the table with her reading tablet and clover tea, and my Dad lifting a dumbbell with his right arm while watching TV. hmm. Both of them were using their Lucky Clover objects.
I went over to my father. “Hey, Dad, what’s for dinner?”
“We ordered pizza. It’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
“30 minutes! I’m starving!” I told him.
“You’re always starving,” he said smiling.
“And you’re turning that dumbbell gold.”
Dad looked at the dumbbell to see a wave of shiny, silky gold growing over the dumbbell like moss.
“Op! That’s why it was getting so heavy!” Dad set the dumbbell down and ran out of the living room. “I need to get my shamrock dumbbell!”
When I woke up the next morning I felt really strange. My body felt cold, and my hands felt stiff.
Oh gosh, why couldn’t I have been sick on a weekday?
I got up to grab my favorite purple wristband only to have my hair swipe it for me.
“Wha?” I said as my hair slipped the wristband on my arm.
That is not normal.
And then I heard a hiss noise.
Oh no.
I quickly got up and ran to the bathroom to have a look at my hair. I tried to grab the hand mirror, but as soon as my fingers tapped the handle the mirror became cased in silky gold.
“Oh no, oh no! This can’t be happening!” I looked in the mirror to see me, but with a bunch of brown snakes growing from my scalp instead of hair.
“What the…”
The doorbell rang. I quickly tied the snakes behind me with a hair scrunchy (they hissed in disagreement) and went to the front door.
“Here’s your mail- AHH!” The mail man’s eyes went wide as he looked in my eyes and then he turned into crusty stone.
“-WOAH!” was all I could think to yell as I stepped back. I could never turn anyone to stone.. Not unless…
“Mom, Dad!” I yelled. Soon enough I quickly heard them run down the stairs.
Dad looked past me at the mailman who was now made of stone. “What the-what happened here!?”
Mom took a longer time to assess things. She looked at the mailman, then me, and sighed.
“Calm down, Muti-mutika, there is a lot to explain.”
Mom closed her eyes and summoned her power, turning her hair into snakes, and then touched the cap on the mailman’s head. He slowly came back to life, cracking through the cement-like rock and ran away as far as he could, screaming.
“Seems to me her power is finally coming in,” Mom turned and looked at Dad.
“Huh. So it’s your Mom’s power you got,” said Dad.
“No, I got your power to0,” I said, tears filling my eyes. “I can turn stuff gold as well.”
My Mom and Dad were actually Midas and Medusa. I hate getting into it, so I’ll just say that they are both magical beings, my father being able to turn anything he touches into gold, and my mother having the power to turn anyone who stares into her eyes to stone. What keeps their powers at bay is their ‘Lucky Clovers’, which was a special object they had that kept them relaxed and their powers at bay. They were called 'Lucky Clovers’ because somehow, some way, a four-leaf clover appeared when they discovered their special object. My Mom's special object was clover tea. My Dad knew Lucky Clover was his trusty dumbbell which had a picture of a clover on the side.
I had the worst of both worlds! If I looked at someone, they would turn to stone, but if I touched anything, it would turn to gold!
“Stupid family genes!” I yelled as soon as I was in my room alone. I began punching my pillow out of anger, which began to turn hard and golden.
My mother came in and hugged me. My parents, being magical themselves, were the only ones that could touch me or look at my face.
“I’m sorry Muti. Don’t worry, me and your Dad are trying to find your lucky object. You like to eat. Could it be a food?” Mom guessed.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” I said back.
That’s when the doorbell rang.
“It’s Roe!” Dad yelled from upstairs.
“Oh no!” I teared up. “Until we find out what my Lucky Clover object is, I can’t hang out with Roe! What if I touch him and he turns to gold!? Or what if he looks into my eyes and…” I stopped. Preventing tears from rolling down my face was much more important than finishing sentences.
“Aw!” Mom rubbed my back. “Don’t worry Muti, me and your Dad will find out your Lucky object soon enough. Want me to tell Roe you're sick?”
“No,” I answered. “I tell him to leave myself.”
I went downstairs and opened the door.
“Hey Muti. Woah, sunglasses and gloves? Are you hot or cold!?” Roe joked.
“I’m, I’m just cold.” I lied. And the sun’s glaring at me.”
“Oh, well, I bought you this jacket as a gift for helping me become a lifeguard. You’re my best friend and you’re one of a kind, Muti. You may be lazy at times, but you're smart, beautiful, and kind too. You’re perfect, in your own way."
I smiled. Ha, he forgot my love of food, but how sweet of him.
You can put it on right now if you're cold,” Roe told me, and handed me a bright green jacket.
I quickly took the jacket, wanting to avoid physical contact as much as possible.
As soon as I put the jacket on though, my hands felt soft and my body felt normal again.
“Thanks, I like this jacket,” I told Roe.
“I know, you’ve always liked green clothes. So I decided to get you a shamrock jacket with clovers all over the back for luck,” Roe told me.
I quickly took the jacket off and looked at the back. Wouldn’t you know it, the back was sprinkled with lucky four-leaf clovers!
“Thanks Roe!” I yelled and hugged him.
That’s when I realized I had touched him, I backed up to see he was perfectly fine.
“Uh, Muti-Mutika, you looked shocked. Are you okay?” Roe asked.
“Uh-yep! It’s just-one second!” I said and closed the door.
I told my parents all about the jacket and how I touched Roe with no consequences.
Is it my Lucky Object!?” I asked them.
Mom and Dad smiled. “I think it is!” Mom said.
“Funny you got it from your best friend,” said Dad.
I ran back to Roe. “Thank you, so so much!” I told him.
“You're welcome. What’s with the ‘so so much’?” he asked.
I looked at my parents.
“You can tell him,” said Mom.
“About what!?” Roe looked around confused.
Well, what can I say? He asked.
Speaking of Pound Cakes, I've got a New NFT collection called the Algo Pound Cakes on Algogems!
there will only be 1,000, and you can find them here!: https://algogems.io/collection/3265
Thanks for reading!