Finding Lucky by Frank Rue

This the story of a leprechaun who lost his luck.

One morning a leprechaun named Patrick got out of bed and put on his green suit, hat, and lucky socks? "Wait a second?" said Patrick. "Where are my socks?"

He raced downstairs to go ask his mom if she knew where they were and she said, "Oh, I threw them into the wash so you wouldn't be walking around in dirty socks all day, why?"

Patrick replied, "How did you wash them?"

"How I wash all the other clothes," his mother replied.

Patrick said, "But those were my lucky socks!"

"Your lucky socks! How many times have I told you, lucky clothes go in the green hamper. They have to be washed a special way or they lose their luck." Then his dad comes by and said, "That happens to me all the time. You need to see Aponi, the fairy in charge of making socks and all things lucky."

Patrick sets off on a mission to fix his lucky socks. He finds Aponi and tells her about what happened and asks how he can fix it. Aponi said, "Luck is different for everyone. You need to find what makes you lucky."

Patrick thinks, "Pennies are lucky" and then goes to Shamrock City to find a lucky penny. A few hours later, he finds a lucky penny. He tries rubbing the penny on his socks. "Ok now to test if they are lucky." He takes a piece of paper from school bag and tries to throw it in the trash can. The piece of paper instead of going into the trash can started to fly on the wind and hit someone in the head. "Sorry," Patrick said. "Guess that didn't work. Maybe I should go ask my friend for some advice."

"Hey, David!" Patrick explained his dilemma. David replied, "How I got my luck was I won my soccer game. My team is playing this afternoon. You can play with me if you like?" Patrick gives it try and wins. To test if he got his luck back, he tried to kick the ball into the goal. It somehow flies out of the field and into the trees in the far, far, distance.

"Oh, come on!" Patrick exclaimed. "Weird, I really thought that would work," said David. "What are you going to do now?" Patrick hadn't a clue. He went to go find the ball. He looked up into the tree and saw a fluffy, white cat, who seemed to be investigating the ball. Patrick grabbed the ball out of tree. As he started to walk away, the cat jumped onto his head. "Hey there little fella." The cat slid off of his head and landed gracefully on the ground.

Patrick sits down at the base of the tree to ponder how he was going to get his luck back. The cat repeatedly brushed up against him and then sat on his lap. The cat tried to steal the ball from him. "You can't have this ball." But then thinking about his socks, Patrick took them off and turned them into a ball.

He rolls the sock ball across the ground. The cat immediately starts playing with his socks. It begins by batting them around. Then it rolls on its back, and tosses the socks into the air.

Watching the cat, Patrick continues to think about how to fix his luck. The cat's silliness made him feel a little bit better. Finished playing, the cat returned the sock ball back to Patrick. Patrick put his socks back on and headed home. When he got to the field, he decided he should return the soccer ball. He drops it to the ground and gives it a kick. The ball flew into the air and landed right into the return bin.

On his way home all the cross-walk lights allowed him to walk on through. When he arrived home his mother asked, "How did it go with getting your luck back?" "I don't know what happened. Everything I tried didn't seem to work, but on the way home my luck suddenly reappeared."

He told his mother all about what had happened that day on the way to his room to get changed. "Wow, it seems you went on quite the adventure." "Come to think of it, I got my luck back after that cat played with my socks. Maybe that's how I got my luck back."

"Well, white cats are known to be lucky but the legend says if they pick you, they'll stick by you," his mother told him. Patrick opened the door to his room and the fluffy white cat was curled up on his bed.

Patrick said, "Well, I guess the legends are true."

Patrick took off his socksand shoes and dropped them on the floor. The white cat sprung to life andgrabbed the socks and jumped with them into the green hamper. Patrick's motherlaughed. "He really is lucky to havefound you."