Setting: A cozy living room in Tromsø, Norway. Aurora Borealis is faintly visible outside the window. Emma is sipping tea, while Jonas is scrolling through his phone on the couch.
Emma: (excitedly)
Guess what! My boss said I’m the top candidate for that Oslo job. If all goes well, I might be moving next month!
Jonas: (grinning)
Wow, that’s awesome! Congrats, Em! You totally deserve it.
Emma: (suddenly serious)
Wait! (reaches out and knocks on the wooden coffee table three times) Don’t jinx it!
Jonas: (raises an eyebrow)
Really? We’re still doing the knock on wood thing?
Emma: (firmly)
Of course we are. You have to knock when you talk about good things happening in the future. Otherwise, the universe hears you and messes it up.
Jonas:
Emma, the universe doesn’t care about our furniture. It’s not sitting up there thinking, “Hmm, Emma’s confident—time to throw some cosmic sabotage at her!”
Emma: (smirking)
You joke now, but remember when I got that parking spot right in front of the bakery? I said, “What luck!”—and didn’t knock—and boom! Bird poop on my windshield five seconds later.
Jonas:
That’s not fate, that’s just… biology. Birds don’t plan these things based on your level of optimism.
Emma: (playfully defensive)
But it happens too often. Like the time I told Linda her skiing trip would go perfectly—no knocking—and she ended up with a sprained ankle.
Jonas: (laughing)
That’s because she tried to do a backflip after two glasses of mulled wine. Not because you didn’t knock on wood!
Emma:
Still. Can’t hurt, right?
Jonas:
Actually, I think it does hurt—in a small way. Believing in rituals like that gives us the illusion of control. It feels comforting, but it also reinforces magical thinking.
Emma:
But what if that little illusion helps me feel more confident? What’s so bad about that?
Jonas:
Confidence is good—but wouldn’t it be better to base it on facts? Like your actual qualifications, or your experience?
Emma: (thinking)
Maybe. But the knock is like a quick insurance policy. Like crossing your fingers. No harm in covering all the bases.
Jonas: (grinning)
You sound like my grandma. She used to say, “Don’t put shoes on the table or death will follow.” I once put two shoes there just to test it. And I’m still alive!
Emma: (gasps)
You what? Jonas! That’s like asking the universe for trouble.
Jonas:
See? That’s the thing. You remember the few times something bad happened after a jinx, but what about the hundreds of times nothing happened at all? That’s called confirmation bias.
Emma:
Okay, smarty-pants. But science doesn’t explain everything either. What about gut feelings? Or when you think of someone and they suddenly text you?
Jonas:
Those are coincidences—our brains are wired to look for patterns. It’s like seeing shapes in clouds. You don’t think there’s a sheep in the sky because one really exists up there, right?
Emma: (giggles)
Well, maybe a Norse god turned it into a cloud. You never know.
Jonas: (mocking tone)
Ah yes, Thor the Sheep Shaper. Must be in the lesser-known sagas.
(Both laugh)
Emma:
Okay, okay. I get what you’re saying. But let me keep knocking on wood. It doesn’t hurt me, and it gives me peace of mind.
Jonas: (nodding)
Fair. Just promise you won’t knock on my lab table again. You nearly spilled acid last time.
Emma: (teasing)
Hey, I saved you from jinxing your Nobel Prize speech.
Jonas: (smiling)
If I ever win one, you can knock on every wooden surface in the building.
(They both laugh again, and Emma knocks once more—lightly this time.)
Emma:
Just in case.
Jonas: (sighs, then grins)
Fine. But I’m buying you a wooden keychain so you can stop endangering furniture.
[End Scene]
Science Vs Superstition 
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