Superstition

I had worked in the 7th Precinct for a few years, so when I got partnered up with Denny, I knew what it meant. Denny wore a rabbit’s foot and a four leaf clover on his keychain. He checked his gun three times before every beat. He wore the same underwear every Friday, for luck.

Denny and I didn’t get the glamorous assignments. If there was any chance for action, the chief made sure Denny was far away from it, and that meant I was stuck on the sidelines with him. So when the entire force got called in for a big drug bust, I was left babysitting my partner in the evidence locker.

“Did you see this money?” Denny was going through the recent acquisitions. There was a large stack of bills, and he was meticulously counting it. “There’s exactly thirteen thousand dollars here. That’s gotta be unlucky.”

“Denny, for the last time, there’s no such thing as bad luck. You don’t have to worry about walking under ladders, and you don’t have to watch out for a gypsy curse.”

“Whoever had this money got arrested, right? Sounds like bad luck to me.”

I hadn’t thought of it like that, but I wasn’t about to give Denny an inch on this argument. Unfortunately, at that moment, I noticed something in the log. “Did you say thirteen thousand dollars?”

“Yeah, why?”

“According to this, there’s supposed to be twice as much.”

“Well, where’s the rest of it?”

What we uncovered that day, the money being stolen from the evidence locker, eventually put our chief behind bars, and made Denny and I heroes. Ever since then, I’ve worn a rabbit’s foot and a four leaf clover. And every Friday, I wear the same underwear, for luck.