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This is a short story entitled Eight hours. I will frequently be changing points of view to add a nice effect.
Subchapter One: The winning ticket...
I love driving, and always have. It's a nice release of emotion because when you're driving, you really don't have to think about anything except the road before you and your destination. You never have to look back, and that is exactly what I needed now. I really didn't want to think about it, and that's why I started to drive. I looked down at the clock, 5:46 already. It has been over an hour since it happened, and will probably be another hour till I return. I couldn't get those thoughts out of my head. It all started at 4:30, right after I came home from work. My wife was in the kitchen, and didn't look happy at all.
"What's the matter," I said to her.
"Why don't you tell me," she said as she turned around with a small piece of paper in hand. "Lose this," she asked angrily.
I noticed that what she was holding was a lottery ticket I had bought last night.
"Come on, don't be so harsh," I said to her trying to save myself some trouble. "I swear that is the last one," I assured her."
"yeah, last one," she said sarcastically as her voice raised, "What about last time, and the time before that, weren't those the last ones too," she asked rhetoricaly.
"Yeah, but this one's different, I have a good feeling about this one," I tried to assure her again.
"Sure, or else you wouldn't have bought it right," she said, "Maybe that's it, or maybe you have an addiction that has brought this family more debt than anything," she pointed out. "Last week, $90 gambled away; the week before, $153 gambled away, and what do you have to show for it, nothing," she yelled angrily.
"Will you just see my side of it for one minute," I asked her. "What if we do win, we could buy a new house, a new car, anything within reason."
"What if we don't are you willing to risk our welfare for a chance to hit it big," She asked.
"I'm just trying to look out for you," I said to her.
"Just trying to look out for me," she repeated. "If you didn't notice, we have a family; It's not me I'm worried about, it's them, all three of them," she said as she pointed into the living room where our three children were watching T.V.. "If you can't even think about their welfare, then I don't know if this marriage can work."
That made me more angry than anything else could have. Before she could say another sentence, I grabbed my keys and rushed out the door. Since then, I have just been driving.
The lottery numbers were announced every week at 6:00 p.m., and I knew I couldn't go home till then.
I noticed a car speed past me and I was already going 10 miles over the speed limit.
I looked down at my clock, 5:58. I turned on my radio so that I could hear the numbers. Then I saw another car drive past me at an even faster speed than the one before.
"They're going to get into a wreck," I thought to myself.
The lottery numbers started to be announced. I reached into my pocket to get out my ticket. I didn't feel it, I looked at the passenger's seat and it was sitting there. I grabbed it, and looked at the numbers.
4... the radio announced.
27... the radio continued.
I turned around a curve in the road and right there was a wreck, a truck and a minivan blocking the road.
6.... I squealed my breaks.
21... I hit the pile up going 50 mph, the hood of my car was crushed. The impact was hard, it shattered my windshield I felt something impale me in the stomach. I felt the blood rush out of my wound.
3... I felt the life getting sucked out of me with every beat of my heart. As I sat there dying, I saw my ticket.
"I'm sorry, for putting my family in debt," I said in remorse.
In my dying breaths, I thought one thing, " I hope they find it." And with that I died.
4, 27, 6, 21, 3. Those were my fortune, my luck, and my death.
 haruki_jitsunin · Sun Oct 16, 2005 @ 08:22am · 0 Comments |
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