Did you ever possess anything that was just down right bad luck? In the
story; The Fortune Teller's marble.....you'll discover that something simple
could cause major disruptions.....the story is from Tales Unleashed.... it
appears below:
The fortune teller’s marble
The marble was very unique. It had come home to the family farm house inside of
Terry’s metal lunch box in the spring of 1962. As his mother opened the lunch box
to remove the papers left from Terry’s noon time lunch, the small piece of glass rolled
out, hit the counter and bounced to the floor…. scooting another ten feet to strike the
frame of the cellar door which blocked it’s further escape. Reaching down and picking up
the marble, Terry’s mother examined it closely. It was exquisite, and very unique.
She had never seen one like it before. The marble was cloudy, almost milky in color but
had a magnificent turquoise shape that appeared to be ‘floating’ within the cloud.
“Terry” his mom yelled out. “Come to the kitchen please.”
She heard his footsteps descend the twelve steps from his room into the cloak area at the
bottom of the stairs and then into the kitchen. “Yeah Mom, what do you need?”
Holding the marble between thumb and fore finger she replied, “Where did you get this
marble…..does it belong to somebody at school?”
Reaching out and taking the marble quickly, Terry replied with, “Oh there it is… thought I’d
lost if for a minute. I traded my little sailboat I used to put out in the creek for it …with Jimmy
Taylor… you know Jimmy.”
“And he was o.k. with that?” replied his mother. “Seems a little lopsided swap to me..you
worked hard to make that boat.”
“Yeah maybe” Terry said, “But this marble is special….he said it came from a fortune teller
ad in a magazine .. he sent away for it…… it cost 50 cents… but he said it didn’t bring him
any good luck… so he wanted to trade it away.”
His mother, hand on hip, looking a little disgusted, came back with “Well so far it’s not brought
you any good luck…you had time and money in that little boat you built… seems to me you
got the short end of the stick.”
“Oh, it’s o.k. mom….I got a feeling about this marble.” And with that, Terry shoved the marble
in his jeans pocket and disappeared out the back door before his mom could get another
word out.
The next few weeks around the farm house were rather perplexing. Terry’s father fell off
a short ladder in the house while Terry sat nearby rolling the marble against dominos set up
in it’s path. Ten days later, and while taking a hot pan off the stove, Terry’s mom burned
her left hand as Terry sat on the floor behind her, shooting the turquoise gem into a
paper cup laid on it’s side. And three days later, Terry was sent to the office for disrupting his class. Mesmerized by the marble, Terry would sit at his wood top desk and lightly bounce it an inch or two from the desk into his hand… back and forth… back and forth. But the worst was
yet to come.
Six weeks after the marble came home in the lunch box, his grandfather who came for
his mom’s famous pancakes, fell at the house…..breaking his right leg. As his feet came out
from under him, his foot kicked a small piece of glass against the dining room wall… yes
it was the now infamous turquoise marble. Terry had been right when he told his mom he
had a feeling about the marble. The marble was special, but it brought nothing but bad luck
to his family, and Terry knew he had one thing to do to end the bad string of luck which was
hounding his family. On a bright sunny afternoon, Terry took the marble out to the back
porch and with all his strength threw the marble as far as his little arm could muster…
whirling it into oblivion. It was done. Or was it? Did that piece of turquoise glass have
some power not known to Terry… or to anyone who had been around it? The answer would
come a short time later.
Circumstances for Terry’s family continued on a downhill spiral. His father lost his job on
the railroad.. and there was no work nearby, so the family decided to sell the house and head back east
to be close to the rest of the family in Philadelphia. It was an agonizing decision for them but with little
choices left, they decided the move was best for everyone.
The house sat empty for almost two years, while real estate agents worked in earnest to
sell the house which was now starting to show the signs of being empty.
On a chilly day in October of the following year, while readying the house to show later
that day, real estate agent Judy Dwyer climbed the steps of the house to what was once
Terry’s room on the second floor. Her eyes peering into the brightly lit room, she noticed a reflection of
light on the window sill…. and walking over to the window, she reached down
and picked up a wonderful little piece of glass with turquoise floating in a cloud.
At first she thought….this would be a nice little present for her daughter… but then she
reconsidered… and replaced the marble upon the white window frame.
Best leave things as they are, that was the right thing to do.
Terry’s marble had been tossed far far away… but it had found it’s home again. And
now the marble that had been bought thru the mail from a fortune teller ad would soon
have a new family from which to garner some attention.
After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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