Dear Arizona,

My brother is so lucky. Good stuff is always happening to him. Do you believe in luck? And if so, how can I get more of it?

—Looking for Luck in Louisiana

Dear Looking,

I was eating breakfast with one hand, petting my cat, Cow, with the other, and reading the back of the cereal box, when—“YOUCH!” I screamed. “Why’d you pinch me?”

“You’re not wearing green,” said my little brother, Tex. “Everyone knows you get pinched if you don’t wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day!”

“It’s true,” said my little sister, Indi.

I was mostly mad about getting pinched, but also a tiny bit glad about being reminded that it was Saint Patrick’s Day.

I panicked. “What am I going to do? I don’t have time to change. I’ll get pinched all day long!”

“Well,” Tex said, taking the old green baseball cap off his head, “you could borrow my lucky hat.”

“But it’s your favorite!” I said.

“I know,” said Tex. “Just promise to give it back after school.”

“No problem,” I said, glancing in the mirror on my way out the door. “I look like a goofball in this thing!”

“A lucky goofball!” said Tex.

“Humm.” I grabbed my backpack. “Thanks, I think.”

Now, before I go on, you should know that I’m not an overly superstitious person. I don’t believe that thirteen is an unlucky number or that breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck.

I definitely don’t freak out if a black cat crosses my path. And when it comes to things like lucky four-leaf clovers and lucky pennies, I just never believed in them.

Anyway, I was racing to catch the school bus, and I saw a dollar on the sidewalk! I looked around to see if anyone was looking for it, but people just kept stepping on the poor thing, so I decided to rescue it. I’d found pennies and nickels before, but never a dollar!

Then, I didn’t miss the bus, because the bus was even later than me——which never happens!

My luck didn’t stop there. Carlos and Jackson were sitting behind me, quizzing each other on spelling words. I turned around and said, “You guys know that test isn’t till tomorrow, right?”

“It got switched to this morning,” said Jackson. “Remember? There’s some assembly tomorrow. ”

“That’s right-I totally forgot!” I said. “I’m so lucky that I sat in front of you. If I hadn’t , I wouldn’t have found out till it was too late!”

I got out my spelling words, studied all the way to school. And ended up acing the test!

The minute I got home, I gave Tex a gigantic hug.

“This is the luckiest hat in the world,” I said. “I’m never taking it off!”

“But you promised to give it back!” said Tex.

“I know, but…” I pretended to try to pull the hat off my head. “I think it’s stuck.”

“It is not!” said Tex.

“Please-oh-please let me borrow your lucky hat for one more day!” I begged. “Tomorrow I’m auditioning for the school play, and I need every bit of help I can get.”

“OK,” said Tex. “One more day. But you’d better be really nice to me.”

“I will,” I agreed. “, In fact-here you can have my lucky dollar!”

Tex let out a whoop, then started dancing around and waving his gift in the air.

The next day turned out to be super lucky. My audition couldn’t have gone better.

“Wow, Arizona!” said my friend Mareya. “I can’t believe how amazingly you just did! You are so getting a major part in this play!”

“Thanks! You did really great, too!” I said. “But honestly, the only reason I did OK is because I had my lucky hat.”

“What lucky hat?” asked Mareya.

“This one,” I said, reaching into my backpack, where I thought I’d put Tex’s hat since I couldn’t wear it for the audition. But it wasn’t there! “Oh no!” I cried. “It’s gone! What am I going to tell Tex?”

Mareya helped me look for it . Luckily, we found Tex’s hat in my locker. Also luckily, I discovered that I could be lucky with or without a goofy-looking cap in my possession.

“So it wasn’t the hat,” said Mareya. “This is just a wild guess, but maybe it was all those hours yo spent practicing over the past month.”

“Hmm,” I said. “It’s possible.”

So, dear Looking, I guess you could say that luck is a combination of being prepared, beliebing in yourself, … and maybe just a tiny bit of magic! In other words, luck may come your way, but you have to be ready for it when it does!

Ciao for now

Arizona

亲爱的亚利桑娜，

我的兄弟运气特别好，常有好事在他身上发生。你相信运气吗？如果真有运气，我怎么才能得到更多一点呢？

——寻找好运的人 写于路易斯安那

亲爱的寻觅者，

我正一只手吃着早餐，另一只手抚摸我的猫——高，一边阅读着燕麦片盒子的背面。“哎呦”，我尖叫起来，“你干嘛捏我？”

“你没穿绿色衣服，”我弟弟泰克斯说，“每个人都知道如果在圣帕特里克节里不穿绿色衣服，就会被捏。”

“这是真的！”我的妹妹英蒂说。

我非常生气被掐，有一丁点值得高兴的是，这提醒了我今天是圣帕特里克节。

我惊慌失措：“怎么办，我没有时间换了，一整天我都会被人捏。”

“好吧，”泰克斯从他的头上拿下他那个绿色的旧棒球后，说，“你可以借我的幸运帽。”

“但，那是你最喜欢的。”我说。

“我知道，”泰克斯说，“只要你发誓放学后还给我。”

“没问题，”我说，出门前我照了照镜子：“戴着这个，我看上去像个小丑。”

“一个幸运的小丑！”泰格说。

“唔，”我背上书包，“谢谢！我想！”

说到这里，你应该知道我不是一个极度迷信的人。我不认为13是个倒霉的数字，或者打碎了镜子会带来7年的坏运气。

我也绝对不会因为一只黑猫从我前面的路上穿过而被震住。更不相信什么四片叶子的幸运三叶草，以及幸运便士。

不管怎样，当我正拼命追赶校车时，我看到一美元躺在路边，我朝四周看了看，是否有人在找它，但是人们都踩着这个可怜的东西过去了。我决定营救它。我以前发现过便士和镍币，从没有一美元。

而且，我没有错过校车，因为校车甚至比我还晚——这是从未发生过的！

我的运气并未就此打住。卡洛斯和杰克逊刚好坐在我后面，正彼此测验着拼写单词。我转过头去说：“你们知道明天才测验，对吗？”

“已经改到今天早上了。”杰克逊说。“记得吗？明天有个集会。”

“我忘得一干二净。”我说，“坐在你们前面是多么幸运啊，如果不是，当我发现这个就晚了。”

我拿出拼写来，一路学习。最终通过了测试。

一到家，我给了泰克斯一个大大的拥抱。

“这是世界上最幸运的帽子。”我说，“我永远不取下来了。”

“但你答应要还给我的。”泰克斯说。

“我知道，但是。。。”我假装试图把帽子取下，“我想它粘住了。”

“没有！”泰格说。

“求求你，多借我用一天。”我请求道。“明天我要试听学校的表演，我需要获得一点帮助。”

“好吧！”泰克斯泰格说，“再借一天，但是，你要对我好点。”

“我会的，”我表示同意，“事实是，你可以得到我这里的幸运美元。”

泰克斯一声欢呼，一边跳起舞，一边在空中挥舞着他的礼物。

第二天运气更好，我的试演好极了。

“哇，亚利桑娜！”我的朋友玛瑞娅说，“你刚刚太让人惊奇了，我简直不敢相信，你在这次表演中太出色了。”

“谢谢，你也做得很好！”我回答道，“不过，老实说，我做得好的一个原因是因为我有一顶幸运帽。”

“什么幸运帽？”玛瑞娅问。

“这个，”我说着从书包里找寻，我想我把泰克斯的帽子放在书包里了，因为我不能戴着它表演。但，帽子不在书包里！“哦，不！”我喊道，“它不见了，我怎么跟泰克斯说？”

玛瑞娅也帮我找，幸运的是，我们在储物柜找到了它。同样幸运的是，我发现戴不戴那顶让我看起来滑稽可笑的帽子，我都能有好运。

“所以，并不是因为帽子，”玛瑞娅说，“那只是一个无聊的猜想，也许是你过去近一个月全力以赴练习的结果。”

“唔，”我说，“可能是！”

你看，亲爱的寻觅者,我想你可以说幸运是一个组合，包括做好准备，相信自己……也许有那么一点魔法。总之，运气正向你走来，但在它降临时，你要做好准备。

再见

亚利桑娜

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