On The Ship

Life On The Big Pond

The Luckiest Man

One of a series, by BILL DAME

Lucky Louie and one of his buddies were sunbathing on the fantail of the trans-Pacific luxury liner and carefully study ing the racing forms of Auckland and Sydney. The ship was southbound to these ports and the men were planning their bets.

“How do you explain your phenomenal winning streak?” the buddy asked. “Seems like you win every race and pool.”

Lucky Louie smiled. “Two things are involved”, he said.

“First, I learned long ago to study a situation carefully, then follow my hunch. Second, I have a little jade pendant that seems to help”.

That amused his buddy, who sneered: “You’re a superstitious fool. There’s no more power in a piece of green rock than there is in, in . . . my watchband”.

Tall tales

Lucky Louie wasn’t upset.

Good-naturedly he explained, “When I wear the pendant, I almost always win. When I don’t wear it, I’m fifty-fifty”.

Lucky Louie told his buddy that he had bought the pendant from a tattooed old seaman in a Suva bar. The seaman had told him that he’d offended the little fellow some way and couldn’t get him to work anymore, but told some tall tales about his past in fluence, “I didn’t believe a word of all that rot,” said Lucky Louie, “but I did take pity on the old geezer and bought it. I had a jeweller clean it up and attach a fine gold chain and intended to take it home to Margie.

“Didn’t want to leave it in my locker, so I wore it, and that’s when my luck began to change.

I won the next three pools and a tape recorder, a transistor radio and a camera.

“I wore him around my neck for several weeks and couldn’t lose for a while, but gradually I did. So I put him back in his velvet box in my locker and forgot him.

Couldn't lose

“I tried to figure it out, and the only crazy thought that made any sense was that I must have run him down. So after he was in my locker for a week or more, I felt lucky one night and put him around my neck and sat in a poker game and couldn’t lose. So I figured like this: when I wear him for short spells, I win; when I wear him too long, I lose. So now I bring him out only when I need him. Can you explain it?”

The sceptical buddy debated the question in silence. Then, look ing to the deck above, he asked, “Do you know any of those men up there skeet shooting?”

Lucky Louie squinted at the group and said, “No. Why?”

Unsuspecting

“Well, take that little friend of yours out of your pocket and let’s see how good he is today.

See the man in the blue sports shirt? My five bucks says he’ll miss three of his clay pigeons.”

Lucky Louie fumbled in his pocket and soon had his little jade friend safely chained around his neck. He gently rubbed it as he studied the unsuspecting passenger in the blue shirt, licked his finger and held it in the wind for a second, and said, “My five bucks says he’ll miss four”.

A few moments later blue shirt’s turn with the shotgun

came. He positioned himself, and, 10 clay pigeons later, had missed only three.

Lucky Louie’s buddy was triumphant. “Like I said. Lucky, you’re superstitious”, he chortled.

“And you owe me five bucks”.

Sneer

“I didn’t say that he was always accurate,” Lucky Louie protested, “And I think I’ll leave him around my neck because I’ll be picking a winning number on the Auckland pool tonight.” Lucky Louie rubbed his little friend reflectively and watched a sneer slowly appear on his buddy’s face.

Up on deck, the blue-shirted passenger opened his wallet and withdrew a SlO bill to pay off his own bet with a fellow passenger.

The winning gentleman smiled broadly as he opened his own wallet to place the $lO inside, sneezed, and the bill fluttered away and was caught in a down draft which blew directly towards Lucky Louie who was in the middle of a luxurious, arm stretching yawn. The flying bill struck his outstretched hand which he clamped shut immedi ately.

His buddy had witnessed every thing and sat bolt upright, his eyes wide in enraged, incredulous disbelief. He stammered for words, but found none.

"Keep it, man"

Both passengers and the skeet shooting officer bounded down the stairs. Lucky Louie casually extended the bill and asked, “Whose is this?”

“Keep it man, keep it!” The sneezer ordered, laughing, “If you hadn’t caught it, it would’ve blown away.”

Lucky Louie stuffed the bill in his trouser pocket, then raised his little jade friend to his lips and kissed it tenderly, saying, “Thanks.

I forgot to let you warm up a while ago, didn’t I?“