A GOOD LUCK CHARM
She bounded back into the living room, her curls bouncing along the way. “Okay, so. This is one of my personal treasures. I don’t talk about this much, but I think you’ll understand why when you see it.”
She was cradling something swaddled in a blue blanket patterned with silver stars as if it were fragile or alive, then gently unwrapped it on the coffee table. Inside was a mason jar filled with effulgent fluid; a whirling mess of carminous and pearlescent bands rapidly shifting in girth. The contents whorled against the glass at violent velocities, all the while emitting low, droning sounds like a boiler room. It flickered with bursts of lightning as frequently as any midsummer storm.
“My dad was in the Secret Space Program, a non-terrestrial officer of the Air Force back in the oughts. I didn’t get to see him very often, as most of his missions were done at relativistic speeds. He remembered me being five when he left, but I was fifteen by the time he brought this back to me. For him, only a few months had passed. Anyway. There's about a liter of Jupiter's Great Red Spot in there.” She was absolutely beaming. “Go ahead, touch it! It's cool!”
I put my hand on the jar, and found myself startled at its warmth. It was vibrating like a nervous rabbit. “How is this even possible?”
“I’m not sure of all the details. They were surveilling the dynamics of astrology during space travel, specifically whether or not the influence of planets increases or decreases depending on how close you are to them. According to Dad, the closer you get to Jupiter, the luckier you get due to its power over personal fortune. They played a lot of poker up there. He said the planets are not the gods themselves exactly, but something more like vital organs to them. The sheer gravity serves as a type of anchoring weight that binds them to their duties in our material realm.”
I was taken aback at hearing all of this, and more than a bit concerned about what kind of eyes were on me now for knowing her story. “I’d be a bit paranoid if I were in possession of a stolen chunk of a god, personally.”
She widened her eyes, laughed, and nodded knowingly. “I hadn’t thought about that part until I was older, but it hasn’t seemed to cause me any trouble just yet. I like to think it appreciates being kept safe, and hearing stories about my life. Sometimes I hold it against my heart as I fall asleep, and tell it about work, or dates I've been on. It's become a type of prayer, for me. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I dropped it.” She gave the jar a little kiss just below the lid. "Don't worry, little cloud. I won't let that happen to you."