Read Online Some Luck by Jane Smiley - Free Book Online Page B

completely out. Corks were fun. All the corks, nine of them, were lying in a circle in the middle of the table, and each cork had a string. In addition to the kids, Granny Mary and Opa and Papa were playing. Papa set the green dice on the table. Frank sometimes played with the dice, too, counting the dots and adding the two numbers together. Papa thought it was good practice for him. Joe could not even count the dots. Rightin front of him, Frank also had a little pile of beans—ten beans. Papa had asked him to count them when he put them in front of him. Nothing hard about that, but all the faces smiled. Frank understood easy as you please that these beans were his money, and he wanted more.
    Papa showed them what to do—he rolled the dice one, two, three times, and on the third time, he put the pot lid down on the table over the corks. The lid came down fast and made a startling noise, and then Papa picked it up again. Frankie’s cork was still there, so he had to give Papa a bean. Martin’s cork was not there, so Papa gave Martin a bean. Henrietta gave Papa a bean, and Opa gave Papa a bean, and so on around the table. Frank now had nine beans.
    Frank did not like giving up beans, but at first he could not see how to avoid it. Each person rolled the dice, and everyone sitting around the table read the dice without saying a word, and while Frank was in the middle of understanding the numbers, the lid came down or didn’t. The bad thing was when he pulled his cork just to be safe. He had to give up three beans that way. Frank felt himself getting mad. But Martin was laughing, Tom was laughing, and even Henrietta was laughing, though she had given away lots of beans. Frank knew that if he cried or yelled or had a tantrum, he would be carried up to bed, so he pressed his lips together and stared at the dice. The lid came down. The lid went up. He had to pay a bean to Granny Mary. It was then that Martin whispered in his ear, “It’s always seven, Frankie. Just watch for seven.”
    Seven, as Frank well knew, was six and one, or five and two, or three and four. The next time he saw a seven, he pulled his string, and his cork fell into his lap. He looked up. Papa gave him a bean. He had had three beans. Now he had four beans. He laughed. A moment later, the dice and the lid came to him. Papa said, “Can you drop the lid, Frankie? I can do it for you.”
    Frank put his hand out for the lid. Then he knelt up on his chair and leaned over the table. All the corks were in the middle, in a circle, with their strings sticking out of them. Frank gripped the dice in his hand and dropped them on the table. They were wide apart from one another. Six and two. Not seven. He picked up the dice. This time he opened his hand a little, the way Martin had done, and let thedice roll back and forth on his palm. Then he dropped them again. One bounced. Four and three. He brought the lid down on the corks. There was a loud clang.
    “Not so hard, Frankie,” said Papa. Frank lifted the lid. There were five corks under the lid. Five people gave him beans. He gave three beans away. He did this without being told what to do.
    “Ja, ja,” said Opa, “he’s a natural, this boy. Someday, we will tell him about Uncle Hans.”
    “There is no Uncle Hans,” said Granny Mary. “It took me years to figure that out.”
    “Who is Uncle Hans?” said Papa, who was standing behind Frank.
    “Uncle Hans was the lucky one,” said Opa.
    “There is no Uncle Hans,” said Granny Mary.
    “True enough,” said Opa, and they all laughed.
    There was a Hans, though; Opa had told Frank the story.
    One day, Hans left the village and walked toward the dark mountains. As he was walking along, a hedgehog came out of the forest and said to Hans, “Would you like to come with me into the forest? I will give you an enormous fir tree to live in, all your own.” But Hans said no. He walked along. A little while later, a fox came out of the ground and said to Hans,