Cursed

I was just a little gregarious girl wearing a lime green bikini with a tiny red apple appliqued on the top splashing in the plastic kiddie pool covered in cartoon fish Drops of cool water I flung up in the air reflecting the summer sunshine falling over me as if I were being showered in sparkling diamonds I climbed out of the water grabbing my compact mirror in the sky blue case shaped like a seashell a mermaid with blond hair like mine painted on it I had bought at the thrift store with a quarter I’d found in the parking lot I carried it everywhere I went I had sat it on top of my tattered towel I don’t recall what I had planned to do with it It slipped from my grip onto the old cracked pavement of the patio shattering sharp shards of glass shimmering in the sun Seven years bad luck my mother said Seven years that stretched into ten, twenty, thirty close to forty now Can anyone see me? Can someone free me from this curse?