The Good and the Bad… for a Mother
Lucky got Brigitte as her Guardian when she was eight years old. The reason was that Lucille, Lucky’s mother, went outside one morning after a big rainstorm, and she touched some power lines that had blown down in the storm. She touched them with her foot.
In her mind, Lucky worked on a list of good traits and bad traits in mothers.
GOOD
- Keep totally alert for dangers, especially ones caused by storms.
- Remember your child needs you to take care of her, at least until she is older, about twenty-five.
- Pick a husband who will be a solid father for your child and can be counted on to take over if anything bad happens.
- Tell husband all the wonderful good points about the child and make him love her, in case anything bad happens.
BAD
- Going out in the morning after a storm in the desert, no matter how beautiful it is, especially barefoot.
- Smelling the brand-new clean air and looking up at the blue sky to see what it will do next, without paying attention to dangerous stuff on the ground.
- Marrying a husband who does not like children.
- Divorcing the husband.
Some aspects of life are strange or even terrible, but later something okay or even good happens that would never have happened without the bad/strange thing. An example was how long, long ago, a man who later became Lucky’s father went to France and got married to a French woman. Then they got divorced because he did not want to have children. Later that same man came back to America (he was still not Lucky’s father yet) and met an artist named Lucille, who had silky-feeling shoulders. This was a thing he probably liked a lot – where you could put your cheek against the top of her arm and your cheek loved the comfortable feeling. Her fingers smelled like paint thinner, a very good smell and Lucky’s favourite smell, along with air-conditioned air. Lucille used to hum little tunes for different situations that made you think of certain ads on TV and laugh. So they fell in love and got married.
Extract from the book The Higher Power of Lucky
By Susan Patron
All Rights Reserved.
New York, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006
Call Number: J English ROC
Extract submitted by Norlizah Mohd Juffri
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Well, Lucky has shared with you what she thinks are good & bad traits in mothers. What about your own list?
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Good: she cooks & cleans for me; she lurves me unconditionally; she cares alot
Bad: she cares too much
June 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I always wondered if a parent can ever be perfect. Even if they got it right in some areas, there will be other problems. Sometimes I tell myself that if I ever become a parent, I won’t make the same mistakes but then I realised I might make other mistakes and in return, my kids will say they don’t want to be like me. So how?