Supernatural Aid

On Sunday, while waiting to go to the rehearsal for my best friend's wedding, my daughter and I goofed around outside. It's October in Massachusetts (just like most other places right now) and there was clover everywhere. So I explained to my daughter about the four-leaf variety and she wanted to look for one.

Aha, I thought to myself, the true purpose of the superstition -- it gave people something do while waiting before they'd invented the Nintendo DS.

After a few seconds of searching the hillside, I'd had about enough, and I told my daughter what we needed was a shamrock sensor. "You could sweep it around like this," I said, making beeping noises. She thought that was a great idea and began sweeping and beeping right along with me.

We laughed for a bit. Then I sighed and stopped and wondered how much more time we had to kill. She was still sweeping and beeping when I looked down and saw, looking right back up at me, a clover with four leaves.

I counted them again. Then I knelt down for a closer look and counted a third time. We picked it and rushed inside to find something to store it in. My daughter said, "Can we go look for another?"

I said, "Um, I think it's time to go."

In other news, I finished the first draft of my book today. It's a story about a young man growing up and learning what it means to be a hero in a world that doesn't always make sense. I need to take at least one more pass at it to clean it up, but it sure was fun writing it.

Here's hoping Sunday's event and today's event are somehow related.