Multiracial Adele uses prayers for a Christian god as well as African orishas, a selection of herbs, a Saint Christopher medal, and a collection of lucky objects as part of her daily ritual.
As she walks to work, she encounters a shuttle train that has jumped the tracks because of a wrench left there (an event with a million to one odds), causing horrible carnage, and stops to help.
In a chain of unlikely events, Adele is almost pushed into oncoming traffic on her walk home, but is saved by finding a four-leaf clover, which she plants in her fire escape garden.
[1] Taking place in New York City, often called a "cultural melting pot," Jemisin's story addresses the constant changes of society, and the struggles in trying to resist or adapt to it.
[3] In many respects, New York has returned to a more connected, locally-driven time in this story, although the narrative does not moralize it, using a character study approach of Adele to contemplate - somewhat ambivalently - the drawbacks and benefits of the altered world versus normalcy.
[5] The story examines the cycle of meaning and behavior: belief both creates and reflects reality, and value is assigned to these concepts with the expectation that, if you perform adequately, you are leading a good life.
[11] The story also appeared in the 2012 limited edition collection Systems Fail from Aqueduct Press,[12] and the anthology Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy.