In 2001 my parents visited Turkey and came back with an “Evil Eye” pendant in the shape of a giant blue eyeball. My father hung it from the rearview mirror of the family car, where it was so huge it blocked half the view and slowed down the car by at least 15 km/h.
One winter night I borrowed the car to run an errand. On the way there, a vehicle in front of me braked suddenly; I managed to do the same but ended up gently bumping into its read fender.
No damage happened to the car in front of me, and none should’ve happened to mine either.
Except for the giant Evil Eye which, upon the braking, was flung forward by the force of inertia and smashed into the windshield, cracking it all the way down the middle.
“If it weren’t for the Evil Eye,” I told my father that night, “nothing would’ve happened to the windshield.”
If it weren’t for the Evil Eye,” my father replied, “God knows how much worse the accident could’ve been.”