The morning sun peeked through the white lace curtains at Frankie's window. She yawned, stretched, sat up and swiveled to the edge of the bed to slide her feet into the fuzzy pink slippers on the floor -- something she did a thousand times before. For Frankie, today began like any other day.
She yawned again and made a nasty face at her reflection in the mirror over the dresser. What a mess, she thought, as she brushed the tangled auburn hair. She finally decided on a ponytail to hold the crazy curls.
While she attached the little gold pin to her Brownie uniform, her mother called to her, "Frances? Frances Sharon! Don't forget to wear your Brownie uniform. You have Scouts after school today."
She hated when her mother called her that. Frances was such a horrible name. She didn’t care that she was named after her great-great-grandmother. Maybe it was a fine name back then. To a modern girl, Frances sounded like something a farmer might name a horse wearing a straw hat with holes for its ears.
There was no sense arguing with her mother. Frankie frowned. What was done, was done. She finished tying her sneakers and shouted her answer, "Okay, Mom. I'm wearing my uniform."
Frankie thought about her two best friends, Sarah and Allie, as she ate her breakfast,. They both called her Frankie. They gave her the nickname -- she couldn't remember how long ago it was anymore. Allie let it slip out one day, and it stuck, and that was fine with Frankie. She sighed. She wished her parents would call her 'Frankie' instead of 'Frances'.
Frankie put her breakfast dishes in the sink. After gathering her books, homework, and lunch bag, she kissed her mom in the doorway and left to meet the school bus at the corner.
“Frances, don't take the bus home, honey. I’ll pick you up for Brownies. Oh, and don't forget, Sarah and Allie will be riding with us.” Her mother reminded her on the way out the door.
Frankie nodded and ran down the front steps like she did every day. Today when she got to the bottom, she saw a small, pink 3-inch square of paper on the sidewalk. She bent down and picked it up, admiring the curly design across the top. Thinking she’d like to draw it, she tucked the little paper in the pocket of her Brownie uniform.
The morning was way too long. Frankie felt like she was going through each class in a fog. She remembered turning in her homework, and copying the new homework from the blackboard, but that was it. Frances Sharon, also known as Frankie, felt different today. It was a good feeling, like something big was going to happen, although what it was, she had no clue.
When the lunch bell rang, Frankie hurried to meet her friends in the cafeteria. Sarah was waiting at their regular table across from the lunch line. She had big blue eyes, wild curly red hair and a wild and crazy sense of humor to match her hair. Frankie laughed. She was also covered with freckles nearly the same color as her hair. Sarah could always make Frankie laugh. They had known each other since kindergarten and best friends ever since.
Beside Sarah, was Allie, and both of them were giggling. Allie had been a new girl in school. Frankie and Sarah met her the first day of school last year, while they were waiting for the bell to ring and the doors to open. Most kids thought Allie was stuck-up, but Sarah and Frankie knew she was only shy.
Allie was a pretty girl, very short with big brown eyes and hair the same color. She always looked so healthy, thought Frankie. Her skin was the color of a peach and her cheeks were always rosy.
"Hey, Frankie!" Sarah yelled, waving both hands in the air. "I have PB and J today. Wanna trade?"
"Shhh, you’re gonna get us in trouble!” Frankie teased. “Sorry, Sarah. Mom packed me a turkey sandwich, my favorite."
"I have chocolate pudding, too," Sarah teased back.
Frankie suddenly thought about the small pink square of paper with the curly design she found on her way to school. She hated to part with it, but she decided she could probably remember how the design looked. Besides, she really loved chocolate pudding. "Sarah, I found this cute little paper on the sidewalk this morning. You want to trade it for your pudding?"
Sarah studied the small pink square Frankie handed to her. She also thought it might be fun to draw the funny little design across the top. "Sure, Frankie. I'm too full for pudding anyway." She tucked the small pink square into the front of her book for later.
Sarah went back to class, just as Wanda, the nerdy girl who sat in front of her, walked in with a fist full of new pencils. Sarah's pencil had shrunk to nearly half its size from sharpening, and the eraser was completely gone. Sarah thought about the small pink square of paper she traded her pudding for. She hated to part with it, but she needed a better pencil. Sarah offered to trade the small pink square for one of Wanda's new pencils.
Nerdy Wanda studied it the same way she studied a small scab on her arm before picking it. She noticed right under the curly design there was a line of numbers. Of all things, there was her exact birth date -- ten for the month of October, and a thirteen. "Sure," Wanda agreed, "I'll trade." How unusual! A random pink paper with her exact birthday on it -- maybe it's even lucky!
Later in the day, in the middle of math, Wanda found she was out of paper. To someone like Wanda, a snobby nerd who was ALWAYS prepared, that was nothing short of a tragedy! She turned to Mandy in the seat behind her. "Would you trade me some paper for one of my new pencils?”
Mandy was one of the nicest girls in class. She offered to give Wanda some paper, but Wanda said, “No. I would always feel like I owed you something.” Suddenly, Wanda thought of the little pink paper. This has my exact birthday number on it, so it has to be lucky. I would be willing to trade it with you for some paper. Okay?”
The truth was, Mandy loved anything small enough to use for a bookmark. She loved reading and was often reading three or four books at the same time. Mandy looked at the small pink square and thought it would make a perfect bookmark for her book report book. She agreed, and after giving Wanda several pieces of paper, Mandy tucked the pink square into her book. It stuck out between the pages where she stopped reading last night.
Frankie’s afternoon was as strange as her morning had been. She couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something big was going to happen. She pushed the thought away several times during the day, but it kept sneaking back in, uninvited. She didn’t know what it was about but she wanted the school day to be over. Frankie was glad when the dismissal bell finally rang.
Once outside, she spotted Allie and Sara waiting for her at the bottom of the steps. As they walked to her Mom's car for a ride to Brownies, Mandy came running up to them. She told Frankie her mother called the school to say she can’t pick her up. Mandy didn't want to take the bus and walk to the meeting. "Could I ride along with you guys? I'll even give you my lucky bookmark if I can."
As Mandy held out her bookmark to Frankie, Frankie's jaw dropped. She could hardly believe it! Mandy’s bookmark was the same small square of pink paper she found on the sidewalk this morning. It was wrinkled and one of the corners was bent down, but she could still see the curly design she wanted to draw. Frankie smiled and told her, "Sure -- hop in!" Then Frankie tucked the pink square back into the same pocket where it had been that morning.
That evening at home, Frankie still had a goofy feeling about something big happening, while she was getting into her favorite PJs. Suddenly, she heard a loud shout from her father downstairs. He never shouted. Something was wrong. Frankie ran down the stairs, two at a time, and into the living room, where her parents were on the couch in front of the TV.
"Dad, what's wrong?" she asked.
Her mother took a deep breath. Then she said, "Honey, everything's okay. Daddy’s just disappointed. He bought a lottery ticket last night and somehow, he lost it. He's been playing the same numbers every week for years and tonight every one of his numbers were drawn in the lottery. He's just disappointed, honey, we both are."
Her dad said to no one in particular, "I don't understand how I could have lost it. As soon as I bought the ticket, I put it in my shirt pocket, same as always. Then I got in the car and drove home. The only other thing I did was walk to the mailbox to mail some letters, but I came right back to the house for supper. I didn't even know it was gone until just now, when I looked for it in my pocket."
Frankie had the strangest feeling in her tummy. "Daddy, what did the ticket look like?" she asked, thinking about her small square of pink paper with the curly design.
Her mother smiled. "Frances, it looked like, well, like a lottery ticket. It would be small with a lot of numbers. Frances, don't worry about it. It isn't like we lost something we already had. We're no worse off now than we were before."
Frankie turned around and ran back upstairs into her room and pulled the small wrinkled paper from the pocket of her Brownie uniform. She took it downstairs to the two people she loved most. "Dad, did it look like THIS?" she asked.
Her mother and father stared at the little square, then at each other, then back at the small and wrinkled pink square again. Suddenly, in one excited voice, they both screamed together, "Frankie! That's it!"
Frances Sharon Curtis, a girl with blue eyes, unruly auburn hair, with two best friends named Sarah and Allie, smiled a huge smile. Her parents had called her 'Frankie'.
Then she smiled again, thinking about the little pink square of paper and everything it must have been through that day. She finally knew what her funny feelings all day meant:
… today was a VERY lucky day.
Published Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018
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