Lucky

We didn't get off to the best of starts... "I'm lucky", he said. "That's nice - ", we replied, thinking that he was telling us how pleased he was to have met us, "but what's your name?" "I'm lucky." "Well, that's very good to know", we countered, "but we need to know what you're called..." "I'm Lucky", he tried again. This time, however, he managed to make it sound as if there was really was an upper case L in place - and so we finally cottoned on. In fact, once we found someone who could translate his words into English - beyond the two of them that he'd managed to learn for introducing himself to tourists/tricks - it turned out that he really wasn't a very lucky boy at all. He claimed that he'd lost his family (although we soon began to suspect that they might have deliberately mislaid him)... He had nowhere to live... He had nothing but the clothes on his back (but, working for us, he soon enough wouldn't even have those)... He had no money... If you'd heard Lucky's tale of woe - even via an interpreter - it would have brought tears to your eyes. Truly, he was just about the unluckiest boy in the world. Though, once he got out of those clothes for our camera, we realised that we were very lucky indeed to have found him.