They looked at my book and admired it, maybe even wished for it, and didn’t touch like they were supposed to (how to avoid passing along the Evil Eye, sort of like how you won’t sneeze into your hands and then shake hands).  So of course they cursed it, accidentally or no, and what worse could happen to a user of a little black book except to lose it?

No such thing as the Evil Eye, you say.  Okay, maybe not.

But maybe.  I have stories.  Anecdotal proof, like when I admired my Aunt Zelda’s necklace and then, minutes later, it fell off her neck and flushed itself down the toilet.  Or my Grandmother’s mother admiring a plate on the wall, and then watching it suddenly fall.

You didn’t know I was suspicious?  Me, neither.