A Felony of Birds by Harris Tobias	The Greer Agency by Harris Tobias	Assisted by Harris Tobias	Hold The Anchovies by Harris Tobias
Alien Fruit by Harris Tobias	Peaceful Intent--Stories of human/Alien Interaction by Harris Tobias	CHRONON--Time Travel by Harris Tobias	The Stang by Harris Tobias

The Evil Thing

by Harris Tobias

The Evil Thing

    
Once a man was walking in the woods when he found an evil thing. “This is an evil thing,” he said. “I will hide it so that it can never be found.” So the man picked up the evil thing and carried it to his house and buried it deep in his garden. “There,” he said, “no one will ever find it.”

Spring came and the man planted his garden the same as he had always done, but there was too much rain and too little sun and nothing grew very well. Then grasshoppers came and ate what little there was. It must be the evil thing, the man thought. So he dug the evil thing up and this time buried it in the flower bed.

Summer came. It was the driest, hottest summer in a hundred years. There was no rain for months. Every flowering plant withered and died. The man wondered if the evil thing was responsible, so he dug it up again and this time buried it in his basement where the floor was dirt.

Autumn came. The children got sick. The man’s wife had problems with her pregnancy and he got laid off from his job. Naturally he blamed his misfortune on the evil thing. So he dug it out of the basement and stuffed it away in a closet.

Winter came. It was the darkest, coldest winter anyone could remember. The wife died in childbirth and the children were sent to live with relatives because he had nothing to feed them. The man found the evil thing in his closet and put it in his pocket. He took it to the Rabbi and showed it to him. “This is the cause of all my ill fortune,” he told the Rabbi. “I want to get rid of this evil thing but I don’t know how.”

The Rabbi examined the object and said, “There are no evil things. This is just a thing, why invest it with so much power? Whatever your misfortunes in life, this is not their cause. If you want to think of this thing as magical, why don’t you think of it as good or lucky?”

So the man took the thing back to his home. He no longer thought of it as evil. He kept it in his pocket and carried it around with him. Gradually his luck began to change. A rich uncle left him a fortune in gold. He was able to redeem his children and buy a business. His business prospered and he re-married. He moved into a big fine house and soon forgot all about the evil thing. He kept it as a lucky charm in his pocket all the rest of his days.
 

Read more stories by this author

A Felony of Birds by Harris Tobias	The Greer Agency by Harris Tobias	Assisted by Harris Tobias	Hold The Anchovies by Harris Tobias
Alien Fruit by Harris Tobias	Peaceful Intent--Stories of human/Alien Interaction by Harris Tobias	CHRONON--Time Travel by Harris Tobias	The Stang by Harris Tobias

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