Superstition
Superstition: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation b an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition
I always believed in the upside of superstition: fortune and good luck. My sister, Piper, on the other hand, believed in the bad side. You know, black cats, ladders, opening umbrellas indoors. You know the type. But when I was eight years old, some kid in my class almost made me believe in one superstition. He was so convincing, I became scared. It was a particular one involving pictures.
This kid, Ryan, I think that was his name, told me when three people get their picture taken, the one in the middle will be the first to die. Of course I didn't believe him. I mean I was eight, not stupid. Not until he started showing me proof. He found an old faculty picture of three teachers taken three years ago.
"Do you see who's in the middle?" He asked me. I took the picture from him and looked at it. My mouth dropped. "That's Mrs. Newberry. Now do you believe me?"
Mrs. Newberry was our science teacher. She had a heart attack and died last month.
When I got home that day, I rushed around the house and found every picture I could find. I flipped through them, my fear increasing every minute. All the pictures taken of my sisters and me, I was always in the middle. I was growing frantic as I tossed one picture after the other.
"Phoebe, what are you doing? You're making a mess." I looked up and saw my oldest sister Prue coming towards me. I grabbed a handful of pictures and shoved them towards her.
"Look!" Prue looked confused as she thumbed through the photos.
"What am I supposed to be looking for?" She handed the pictures back to me.
"I'm in the middle in all of them!" More confusion. "I'm going to die first!" I threw the pictures to the ground and sat on the couch. Prue sat down next to me. It took a while before she said anything. I think she was trying to find the words.
"What?" Her voice was confused as ever.
"Ryan told me when a picture of three people is taken, the one in the middle will be the first to die." She burst out laughing. "It's not funny, Prue."
"Yeah it is. Phoebe, that's just a superstition. It's not true."
"Tell that to Mrs. Newberry." I sulked. I couldn't believe Prue wasn't taking this seriously. I was going to die and she thought it was funny.
"Phoebe, Mrs. Newberry died from a heart attack."
"Yeah, after her picture was taken with two other people, and she was in the middle!"
"That's just a coincidence. She was old, Phoebe. She's had heart problems before. A silly superstition didn't kill her."
"Whatever. I knew you wouldn't believe me. You don't care if I die first!" I stood up to leave, but Prue pulled me back and forced me to look at her.
"Listen, you're not going to die. Not anytime soon. It was just a superstition. That Ryan kid was just trying to scare you. I won't let anything bad happen to you, okay?" She looked me in the eye. I always believed her when she looked me in the eye.
"Promise?"
"Cross my heart, hope to die…"
"Prue!"
"Just kidding." I smiled. "Now clean this up."
0.w.0.w.0.w.0.w.0
I stared at the picture of Prue, Piper, and I that was taken in front of the manor. In some ways, that superstition was true. Prue was in the middle of this one. She did keep her promise though.