Five Lucky Medallions
A young woman gets the chance to change the lives of five people,
including her own. But does she?
including her own. But does she?
Written by Peter Spout
2019 All rights reserved. For personal reading and enjoyment only
Part of the World of Entopia Short Story Series
Rita was a 24-year-old woman who just graduated from college with a business degree. She was a pretty girl, with long, wavy blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and few imperfections on her face. Most days, she didn’t even need to wear makeup. Only on the occasional “late-night, early-morning” turnaround did she need to cover up a few bags under her eyes.
Rita didn’t need to work out, because her body always stayed at the right weight and trim. She could eat anything, anytime, and never gain any weight.
Her boyfriend, Lou, was a handsome, six-foot four-man with blond hair that made every woman take note. He lifted weights, ran, and was in top shape. He also graduated from college but was planning on attending graduate school to become a lawyer.
Rita and Lou had many friends and were always invited to the “popular” parties. In high school, she was the prom queen, and he was their king. They were the “in couple”.
They started dating in 10th grade and planned on marrying once Lou passed his bar exam.
Both were raised in families that had money, and both were spoiled. They both received a fancy new car for their high school graduation, even though they already owned their own nice cars.
Rita and Lou spent little time talking with others that didn’t have much and always looked down on other kids that wore clothes that were bought from Wal-Mart or other discount stores. They treated them like they were third-class citizens.
On a Sunday morning at home, Rita was reading the newspaper with her dad in the study, when she came across an ad for a non-profit organization called, To Change a Life. She had never heard of it before and started reading it.
“Now you can have the power to change a person’s life. Simply give someone who’s life is in dire straits a lucky medallion and tell them to wear it around their neck. Within days, their life will start to change.”
Rita thought to herself, “Sounds interesting, but why would I want to change someone’s life?” she mumbled to herself.
She went on to read the rest of the newspaper and didn’t think much about it again for that day.
A week later, she was driving to her new job as a new junior executive at her dad’s business. She was looking forward to having her own office, overlooking a beautiful lake.
She was listening to music in the car, when a commercial started playing, advertising the To Change a Life Organization. “You can make a difference in someone’s life. Do it today and be a hero. Simply call…”
Again, Rita brushed it off and changed the station to listen to something else.
She enjoyed her first week at work and felt confident and proud of herself. When she got home after work, there was an envelope addressed to her, with no return address on it.
“Normally, I throw this junk mail away. But just in case,” she said to herself.
She opened the letter, and it was addressed right to her. She started reading it, “
Dear Rita,
Life is good to you and yours, and you should be happy and content. But did you know there are others in this very community, maybe even people you know, who are struggling financially or may have needs that are being neglected?
You can have the opportunity to change five lives, by simply giving them a lucky medallion necklace to wear.
That’s it! That’s all you have to do.
Please call us and find out how to get started.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
You can Change a Life Organization.”
Rita was clever and decided to do a search online for the organization. “Holy cow, there it is. Look, it has five stars and all these positive reviews,” she said out loud.
It had the same phone number and information. But the instructions on the website said to call and set up an interview to receive the five medallions.
“I could have them meet me at my office. That would be safe and harmless, I guess,” she thought to herself. I’ve always wanted to help others but didn’t really want to do much work. Maybe this is the solution.”
She decided to sleep on it and think more about it.
Monday morning, she was heading to work, and again the commercial played on the radio. This time, she listened to it all the way through.
When she was walking from her car to the office building entrance, she approached an older man sitting in the corner of the garage. He had his head lowered and was staring at the ground. His clothes looked worn and dirty, and he appeared to have let his personal hygiene go for weeks.
She stopped walking toward the entrance and decided to walk over to him.
“Are you OK?” she asked him.
He looked up at her and said, “I lost my job two months ago. I no longer have a place to live.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Can you go to a homeless shelter?”
“I could, but I’m embarrassed to go there and feel great shame.”
“Why? They can give you help.”
“Because my wife and kids are there. I failed them and cannot show my face. I will be ridiculed by others and feel embarrassment around my family.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I wish I could do something to help you. It was nice talking with you, but I have to go to work.”
“I understand. Thanks for asking. I hope you have a great day.”
Rita walked into the office building and went up in the fancy elevator to her nice office with a view. She sat at her desk and thought about the man for a while.
She pulled the letter she received in the mail from her purse and opened it up to reread it. “Maybe they’re trying to tell me something, or maybe it’s my conscience? But I should call,” she said out loud.
She did call, and a man answered the phone. “Hello, this is Derek. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?”
“Hi, my name is Rita. And I’m calling about your offer to help five people out with lucky medallions. I would like more information, please.”
“Certainly, Rita, I would be happy to come and meet with you wherever you’d like.”
“Can I just get the information over the phone?”
“We prefer to meet in person. This way, you see our face, and we see yours. This is not something that can be done on the phone and have the materials mailed to you.”
“I understand. Can you meet me at my office today?”
“Would love too. Please tell me a time that is most convenient to your busy schedule.”
“How about lunch time, noon?”
“I would be delighted. Please give me your address, and I’ll see you shortly.”
Rita gave Derek the address and hung up. She thought to herself how this could be such a wonderful opportunity, if it’s all true.
At noon, Rita received a phone call from the lobby telling her she had a visitor. She asked them to send him up.
A few minutes, later, she heard a knock at her office door. She looked up to see a man standing there that looked similar to the one she talked to in the garage this morning, except younger, clean shaven and wearing nicer clothes.
“Hello, Rita, I’m Derek. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”
“Same here, Derek. Please, have a seat and tell me how this works.”
“I’d be happy too. It’s a real simple philosophy, ‘If you believe in something really hard, with all your heart, it is likely to happen.’ It’s called the magic placebo effect. You think you’re taking the pill to heal you, but the pill could be pure sugar. The power of the mind. That’s all these medallions are. The power of the mind.
You need to convince them that by wearing the lucky medallion, they can change their lives. The power of the mind.”
“That’s it, huh? No real luck in them?”
“No ma’am, but you have to convince them. That’s the trick.”
“Do I have to buy them from you? I mean, how does this work?”
“Yes and no. There are two options. The first, you pay us $5,000 for the five of them. When you convince five others that you can change their life with these medallions, you will get all your money back. If you don’t, then we keep the $5,000 and use it to help others through many of our other programs.”
“I honestly feel like this could be a scam, and you’ll just take my money and leave me with five pieces of worthless junk.
‘Well, Rita. The idea is to get people to believe they can do something on their own because they have this lucky medallion. If you give people hope and they do something for themselves, that is not worthless.”
“It’s not the money, but I don’t know if I’ll find the time to try and convince five people to wear these. Is there any other option?”
“Yes. The second option is a little trickier. You will get real magic medallions to literally change someone’s life. But if you don’t give out all five within 30-days, then your own luck will start being drained.”
“My luck? What does that mean? I don’t have everything I have because of luck. My dad earned all of this.”
“Yes ma’am, but your dad also benefited from a series of positive steps given to him by others. Nobody is just born rich or well off without the help of others. The successful needed others to believe in them. Whether that be because of their looks, their charm, their personality, whatever. You sell yourself. And people invest in you!”
“Well, I’m not worried about the luck myself, but I do want to help others and not put forth a tremendous amount of effort into it. I think I’ll take the magic medallions and change some lives.”
“Very well. But we are clear that if you do not hand them out to those in need within 30-days, your own life will be impacted?”
“Yes, I got you.”
“Very well. I present you with the magic medallions.”
Derek handed over a medium sized box. She opened it and pulled out the five medallions, wrapped in a silk cloth.
“These are them?”
“Yes. Only give them to those in need. I will see you down the road. Thank you for your help!”
Derek left her office, and Rita looked at the medallions. “They don’t look like anything special. But who knows? They didn’t cost me $5,000 either.”
Later that day, Rita left the office and headed toward her car. She looked over for the man she talked to this morning, but he was gone. “Boy, Derek sure looked like him,” she mumbled to herself.
She got to the car and put the box in her trunk. As mentioned earlier, Rita was not one to talk much with others she felt were beneath her. And even though she had the power to change five lives, would she?
As the days started going by, Rita worked and spent a decent amount of time with Lou going to events, upscale parties, and living life to its fullest.
Along the way, she met people who were in need, but always felt they didn’t deserve a magic medallion to change their life. “They can do better if they choose too. It’s their choice to do what they're doing,” she would say when she saw someone begging for money or food.
She knew the people who helped clean her parents' house had little to help them to a better life. She even berated a waitress for not bringing out her meal correctly, and would said to Lou, “Maybe she should get her act together or get another job.”
Before she knew it, she had forgotten about the 30-day deadline and still had all five of the medallions in her trunk.
On day 31, Rita remembered the medallions while getting ready for work. “Oh, darn, I forgot all about them.”
She then remembered Derek telling her that her luck would run out if she didn’t give them all away. As she was combing her hair, she looked at the hairbrush and noticed it was full of her beautiful, long, wavy, blonde hair.
“What the heck is this?” she asked herself.
As she walked to her car to go to work, she checked the trunk to get the magic medallions. But they weren’t there. She didn’t know what happened to them.
On day 32, while combing her hair, the same thing happened. But now, she noticed she was also missing a few eyelashes. “I guess I’ll need some makeup today.”
Each day, something new would happen to her looks. She also kept making mistakes at work, and her father started to think she may be taking drugs because of her odd behavior.
She went to see doctors, but nobody could explain what was happening. They thought it might be some type of auto-immune problem or something else. They tried all sorts of medications, but nothing worked.
As time went on, her beauty deteriorated and her friends quit talking to her, Lou broke up with her, and her dad asked her not to come to work anymore, for she was making too many mistakes and was a distraction to the others.
On day 60, she woke and went to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and screamed! She was hideous! She ran out of the bathroom, packed a suitcase, and left home to hide from everyone.
“I won’t let them see me like this. I am a monster.”
She left home and found a corner in a parking garage, where she could stay for a while until she could figure out what to do.
Soon, a young lady came walking by from her car on her way to the office building for work, when she stopped and asked if Rita was OK.
Rita said, “No, I have this disease that is making me hideous, and I can’t stop it. I used to have everything, and now I have nothing.”
The young lady looked at her and said, “I wish I could do something for you. I wish you the best. I need to go to work. Bye.”
As she walked off, Rita thought about the five medallions and what she could have done differently. “I could have given them to so many people. But I always had an excuse not to do it. It would have been so easy. Now, I’ve lost everything because I couldn’t even be bothered to hand something out. I deserve this, more than anyone.”
Rita sat there in the parking garage all day. She was hungry and scared. She already missed her old life and knew if she could, she would do it differently and have more compassion for others, not just the pretty and the rich.
At the end of the workday, the employee’s came out of the building to go to their cars and go home. Then the young women she spoke to early this morning walked up to her and said, “I have been given an opportunity to help you. This is a magic medallion. If you wear it, it will change your life. Please, I would like for you to have one.”
Rita was so excited and took the medallion and put it around her neck. She thanked the young lady and stood up and said, “Now, I will be changed forever!”
Rita did change. She stopped losing her beauty and went to a homeless shelter, where she stayed for one month. She regained all of her hair and most of her beauty. She learned compassion and the need to help others and was given a job as a waitress.
One day while waitressing, she waited on a customer who looked like Derek. “Are you, by any chance, Derek?
“Hi, Rita. It’s nice to see you’re doing better,” Derek responded.
“I want to thank you for helping me,” she said to Derek. Now, I am able to help others.”
In time, she moved in with several other people who also were making their way back up in life and gained a tremendous amount of self-respect that she earned. She was now beautiful inside.
Rita never knew there were no real magic medallions.
“The power of the mind. That’s all these medallions are. The power of the mind,” Derek said.
E.
Rita didn’t need to work out, because her body always stayed at the right weight and trim. She could eat anything, anytime, and never gain any weight.
Her boyfriend, Lou, was a handsome, six-foot four-man with blond hair that made every woman take note. He lifted weights, ran, and was in top shape. He also graduated from college but was planning on attending graduate school to become a lawyer.
Rita and Lou had many friends and were always invited to the “popular” parties. In high school, she was the prom queen, and he was their king. They were the “in couple”.
They started dating in 10th grade and planned on marrying once Lou passed his bar exam.
Both were raised in families that had money, and both were spoiled. They both received a fancy new car for their high school graduation, even though they already owned their own nice cars.
Rita and Lou spent little time talking with others that didn’t have much and always looked down on other kids that wore clothes that were bought from Wal-Mart or other discount stores. They treated them like they were third-class citizens.
On a Sunday morning at home, Rita was reading the newspaper with her dad in the study, when she came across an ad for a non-profit organization called, To Change a Life. She had never heard of it before and started reading it.
“Now you can have the power to change a person’s life. Simply give someone who’s life is in dire straits a lucky medallion and tell them to wear it around their neck. Within days, their life will start to change.”
Rita thought to herself, “Sounds interesting, but why would I want to change someone’s life?” she mumbled to herself.
She went on to read the rest of the newspaper and didn’t think much about it again for that day.
A week later, she was driving to her new job as a new junior executive at her dad’s business. She was looking forward to having her own office, overlooking a beautiful lake.
She was listening to music in the car, when a commercial started playing, advertising the To Change a Life Organization. “You can make a difference in someone’s life. Do it today and be a hero. Simply call…”
Again, Rita brushed it off and changed the station to listen to something else.
She enjoyed her first week at work and felt confident and proud of herself. When she got home after work, there was an envelope addressed to her, with no return address on it.
“Normally, I throw this junk mail away. But just in case,” she said to herself.
She opened the letter, and it was addressed right to her. She started reading it, “
Dear Rita,
Life is good to you and yours, and you should be happy and content. But did you know there are others in this very community, maybe even people you know, who are struggling financially or may have needs that are being neglected?
You can have the opportunity to change five lives, by simply giving them a lucky medallion necklace to wear.
That’s it! That’s all you have to do.
Please call us and find out how to get started.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
You can Change a Life Organization.”
Rita was clever and decided to do a search online for the organization. “Holy cow, there it is. Look, it has five stars and all these positive reviews,” she said out loud.
It had the same phone number and information. But the instructions on the website said to call and set up an interview to receive the five medallions.
“I could have them meet me at my office. That would be safe and harmless, I guess,” she thought to herself. I’ve always wanted to help others but didn’t really want to do much work. Maybe this is the solution.”
She decided to sleep on it and think more about it.
Monday morning, she was heading to work, and again the commercial played on the radio. This time, she listened to it all the way through.
When she was walking from her car to the office building entrance, she approached an older man sitting in the corner of the garage. He had his head lowered and was staring at the ground. His clothes looked worn and dirty, and he appeared to have let his personal hygiene go for weeks.
She stopped walking toward the entrance and decided to walk over to him.
“Are you OK?” she asked him.
He looked up at her and said, “I lost my job two months ago. I no longer have a place to live.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Can you go to a homeless shelter?”
“I could, but I’m embarrassed to go there and feel great shame.”
“Why? They can give you help.”
“Because my wife and kids are there. I failed them and cannot show my face. I will be ridiculed by others and feel embarrassment around my family.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I wish I could do something to help you. It was nice talking with you, but I have to go to work.”
“I understand. Thanks for asking. I hope you have a great day.”
Rita walked into the office building and went up in the fancy elevator to her nice office with a view. She sat at her desk and thought about the man for a while.
She pulled the letter she received in the mail from her purse and opened it up to reread it. “Maybe they’re trying to tell me something, or maybe it’s my conscience? But I should call,” she said out loud.
She did call, and a man answered the phone. “Hello, this is Derek. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?”
“Hi, my name is Rita. And I’m calling about your offer to help five people out with lucky medallions. I would like more information, please.”
“Certainly, Rita, I would be happy to come and meet with you wherever you’d like.”
“Can I just get the information over the phone?”
“We prefer to meet in person. This way, you see our face, and we see yours. This is not something that can be done on the phone and have the materials mailed to you.”
“I understand. Can you meet me at my office today?”
“Would love too. Please tell me a time that is most convenient to your busy schedule.”
“How about lunch time, noon?”
“I would be delighted. Please give me your address, and I’ll see you shortly.”
Rita gave Derek the address and hung up. She thought to herself how this could be such a wonderful opportunity, if it’s all true.
At noon, Rita received a phone call from the lobby telling her she had a visitor. She asked them to send him up.
A few minutes, later, she heard a knock at her office door. She looked up to see a man standing there that looked similar to the one she talked to in the garage this morning, except younger, clean shaven and wearing nicer clothes.
“Hello, Rita, I’m Derek. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”
“Same here, Derek. Please, have a seat and tell me how this works.”
“I’d be happy too. It’s a real simple philosophy, ‘If you believe in something really hard, with all your heart, it is likely to happen.’ It’s called the magic placebo effect. You think you’re taking the pill to heal you, but the pill could be pure sugar. The power of the mind. That’s all these medallions are. The power of the mind.
You need to convince them that by wearing the lucky medallion, they can change their lives. The power of the mind.”
“That’s it, huh? No real luck in them?”
“No ma’am, but you have to convince them. That’s the trick.”
“Do I have to buy them from you? I mean, how does this work?”
“Yes and no. There are two options. The first, you pay us $5,000 for the five of them. When you convince five others that you can change their life with these medallions, you will get all your money back. If you don’t, then we keep the $5,000 and use it to help others through many of our other programs.”
“I honestly feel like this could be a scam, and you’ll just take my money and leave me with five pieces of worthless junk.
‘Well, Rita. The idea is to get people to believe they can do something on their own because they have this lucky medallion. If you give people hope and they do something for themselves, that is not worthless.”
“It’s not the money, but I don’t know if I’ll find the time to try and convince five people to wear these. Is there any other option?”
“Yes. The second option is a little trickier. You will get real magic medallions to literally change someone’s life. But if you don’t give out all five within 30-days, then your own luck will start being drained.”
“My luck? What does that mean? I don’t have everything I have because of luck. My dad earned all of this.”
“Yes ma’am, but your dad also benefited from a series of positive steps given to him by others. Nobody is just born rich or well off without the help of others. The successful needed others to believe in them. Whether that be because of their looks, their charm, their personality, whatever. You sell yourself. And people invest in you!”
“Well, I’m not worried about the luck myself, but I do want to help others and not put forth a tremendous amount of effort into it. I think I’ll take the magic medallions and change some lives.”
“Very well. But we are clear that if you do not hand them out to those in need within 30-days, your own life will be impacted?”
“Yes, I got you.”
“Very well. I present you with the magic medallions.”
Derek handed over a medium sized box. She opened it and pulled out the five medallions, wrapped in a silk cloth.
“These are them?”
“Yes. Only give them to those in need. I will see you down the road. Thank you for your help!”
Derek left her office, and Rita looked at the medallions. “They don’t look like anything special. But who knows? They didn’t cost me $5,000 either.”
Later that day, Rita left the office and headed toward her car. She looked over for the man she talked to this morning, but he was gone. “Boy, Derek sure looked like him,” she mumbled to herself.
She got to the car and put the box in her trunk. As mentioned earlier, Rita was not one to talk much with others she felt were beneath her. And even though she had the power to change five lives, would she?
As the days started going by, Rita worked and spent a decent amount of time with Lou going to events, upscale parties, and living life to its fullest.
Along the way, she met people who were in need, but always felt they didn’t deserve a magic medallion to change their life. “They can do better if they choose too. It’s their choice to do what they're doing,” she would say when she saw someone begging for money or food.
She knew the people who helped clean her parents' house had little to help them to a better life. She even berated a waitress for not bringing out her meal correctly, and would said to Lou, “Maybe she should get her act together or get another job.”
Before she knew it, she had forgotten about the 30-day deadline and still had all five of the medallions in her trunk.
On day 31, Rita remembered the medallions while getting ready for work. “Oh, darn, I forgot all about them.”
She then remembered Derek telling her that her luck would run out if she didn’t give them all away. As she was combing her hair, she looked at the hairbrush and noticed it was full of her beautiful, long, wavy, blonde hair.
“What the heck is this?” she asked herself.
As she walked to her car to go to work, she checked the trunk to get the magic medallions. But they weren’t there. She didn’t know what happened to them.
On day 32, while combing her hair, the same thing happened. But now, she noticed she was also missing a few eyelashes. “I guess I’ll need some makeup today.”
Each day, something new would happen to her looks. She also kept making mistakes at work, and her father started to think she may be taking drugs because of her odd behavior.
She went to see doctors, but nobody could explain what was happening. They thought it might be some type of auto-immune problem or something else. They tried all sorts of medications, but nothing worked.
As time went on, her beauty deteriorated and her friends quit talking to her, Lou broke up with her, and her dad asked her not to come to work anymore, for she was making too many mistakes and was a distraction to the others.
On day 60, she woke and went to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and screamed! She was hideous! She ran out of the bathroom, packed a suitcase, and left home to hide from everyone.
“I won’t let them see me like this. I am a monster.”
She left home and found a corner in a parking garage, where she could stay for a while until she could figure out what to do.
Soon, a young lady came walking by from her car on her way to the office building for work, when she stopped and asked if Rita was OK.
Rita said, “No, I have this disease that is making me hideous, and I can’t stop it. I used to have everything, and now I have nothing.”
The young lady looked at her and said, “I wish I could do something for you. I wish you the best. I need to go to work. Bye.”
As she walked off, Rita thought about the five medallions and what she could have done differently. “I could have given them to so many people. But I always had an excuse not to do it. It would have been so easy. Now, I’ve lost everything because I couldn’t even be bothered to hand something out. I deserve this, more than anyone.”
Rita sat there in the parking garage all day. She was hungry and scared. She already missed her old life and knew if she could, she would do it differently and have more compassion for others, not just the pretty and the rich.
At the end of the workday, the employee’s came out of the building to go to their cars and go home. Then the young women she spoke to early this morning walked up to her and said, “I have been given an opportunity to help you. This is a magic medallion. If you wear it, it will change your life. Please, I would like for you to have one.”
Rita was so excited and took the medallion and put it around her neck. She thanked the young lady and stood up and said, “Now, I will be changed forever!”
Rita did change. She stopped losing her beauty and went to a homeless shelter, where she stayed for one month. She regained all of her hair and most of her beauty. She learned compassion and the need to help others and was given a job as a waitress.
One day while waitressing, she waited on a customer who looked like Derek. “Are you, by any chance, Derek?
“Hi, Rita. It’s nice to see you’re doing better,” Derek responded.
“I want to thank you for helping me,” she said to Derek. Now, I am able to help others.”
In time, she moved in with several other people who also were making their way back up in life and gained a tremendous amount of self-respect that she earned. She was now beautiful inside.
Rita never knew there were no real magic medallions.
“The power of the mind. That’s all these medallions are. The power of the mind,” Derek said.
E.