The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

October.
    Mrs. Seay liked to call people up to the chalkboard to do math problems. Kept her from getting her hands all covered in chalk. Mary was standing in front of the whole class, scratching her head. “My problem was 67 times 43. I got 469,” she said, shuffling her feet. “But I don’t think that’s right.”
    Mrs. Seay shook her head. “Can anyone help Mary?”
    I raised my hand. “You forgot to bring down the zero,” I said, remembering what Emma had told me.
    Mrs. Seay nodded. Chip and Buster laughed at Mary as she sat down, but not me. I had gotten the same problem wrong the night before.
    Mrs. Seay asked Raymond to come to the board next. He was in the middle of his problem when a soft buzzing started. It quickly turned into a loud roar, a roar I couldn’t forget, specially since I’d once mistaken it for a buzzard.
    “It’s a plane!” I said.
    Everyone jumped out of their seats and ran to the window.
    “Students, please!” Mrs. Seay cried. “I know you’ve probably never seen a plane before, but . . .” No one was listening to her, so Mrs. Seay finally gave up and hurried over to the window herself.
    The plane was circling, and with each circle it came closer to the ground. “Is he landing?” asked Raymond.
    I couldn’t wait no longer. I jumped out of the window and raced toward the empty lot where we played baseball. If a pilot were gonna land, that’d be the best place in town.
    Chip, Raymond and Pearl were at my heels. “It’s down there, behind those trees,” Chip called out.
    We pushed through the row of trees and onto the empty lot, but there was nothing there.
    “Did he crash?” asked Pearl. We all stood still, gasping for breath.
    Uncle Wiggens hobbled onto the field. “Jesus, Joseph and General Lee.” He stood huffing for a moment. “Big Foot said the pilot landed in the big field out past the railroad yard.” That was over near the Wilson school. We took off at a run.
    Seemed like forever till we burst out of the forest and found the plane sitting in a cow pasture. The cows were annoyed. They mooed loudly at the big, silver machine that had interrupted their grazing. Most of the town was there too: Doc Haley, Mayor Davidson, Mrs. Pooley, Big Foot, Pa and Mama, Emma’s parents, Dr. Griffith, Emma, Elbert and a bunch of the other kids from the Wilson school. We were all staring at the plane.
    The pilot stood on the ground, leaning against one wing. He was a young man, with sweaty brown hair that stuck to his forehead, and held a helmet under one arm. Mayor Davidson walked over to greet him. “Welcome to Moundville.”
    The pilot took Mayor Davidson’s hand and shook it heartily. “Thank you, sir.” Then he turned to the crowd. “Sorry to cause all this commotion, folks. I’m afraid I ran out of gas.” Everyone laughed. The young man grinned. “Could somebody fetch me a few gallons?”
    Two older boys took off at a run before I could even think about moving. Emma pushed her way through the crowd to me. “Did you see it, Dit?” she cried. “Did you see it land?”
    I shook my head. “I just got here.”
    “It was beautiful!” Emma continued. “Just glided in like an eagle.”
    I glanced over at Chip and Buster and saw them watching me and Emma talking. They started laughing, and even though I was too far away to hear their words, I knew what they were saying.
    Emma saw them too. “Something wrong, Dit?”
    I shook my head again.
    Mrs. Seay eventually arrived to tell us that school had been dismissed for the day. Her hat had blown off her head, and her pale cheeks were rosy with excitement. When the boys came back with the gas, me and Emma pushed our way to the front of the crowd. We stood beside the wings of the plane, stroking the shiny metal.
    I saw Elbert across the way and waved. He waved back till he saw Emma standing next to me. Then he frowned and turned away.
    Before I could decide what to make of that, the pilot jumped onto the wing. He stood up,