We were coming up the street, just talking, when he suddenly stopped and smirked at me.

"Watch this," he said.

Before I could do anything, he had stepped straight out onto the road. A car screeched and swerved around him, and a man on a bicycle went up onto the footpath and crashed into a sandwich board.

"See?" said Jimmy, I'm inrinsuble!"

"Don't you mean invincible?"

"Whatever," said Jimmy, "I'm so lucky I can't get hurt!"

"Yeah, but what about the other people?" I said, looking at the man explaining to the shop-keeper about the broken sandwich board.

"That's their bad luck!" said Jimmy, "They should have lucky charms too!"

He laughed and walked about on the road. Traffic skidded and stopped. Two trucks crashed into each other. A motorbike spun round and collided with a post.

"Get back!" I shouted.

But Jimmy was on a high. He did a dance along the white line and pretended to be a ballerina. A police car pulled up and two men got out.

"Its OK!" shouted Jimmy to me, "They won't be able to do anything! I'm too lucky!"

The men grabbed Jimmy by his arms and escorted him off the road.

"What's your name, boy?" said the taller of the men.

"Jimmy Kursten!"

"Hang on," said the policeman gaping in surprise, "I know the Kursten family from way back! Do you know Mavis Winterbottom?"

"She's my mother's sister," said Jimmy.

"Amazing!" said the man, "After all these years! I knew she was still alive! I'll let you go with a warning this time, seeing as you're family . . . but don't do this sort of thing again!"

"OK," said Jimmy coolly.