Short Story Contest entry ...Non-Writer ...[WL2019]

Forgive me, ATS. I originally posted this story in the wrong place.

I just won the lottery! Now my life will change for the better, right? Wrong

It all started on a Wednesday, no it was Tuesday and I just came home from work but on my way home I stopped and got a lottery ticket. There wasn’t anything special or particular about this day. No birds singing, no bees buzzing, it was just the normal crowd of people that I see all of time. From the vagrants who seem to mill about on the streets to the people standing in front of stores waiting for you so they can ask you for money, these people are always around certain places where they know others will have money. I keep my head low so I don’t have to address any of these people. Some days I give money to certain people but not today.

As I wait in line to get my lottery ticket I wonder if karma will strike down my chances of winning since I hadn’t given money to anyone outside of the store…..? I’m too tired to contemplate this possibility so when it’s my turn to purchase my ticket, I give my money and purchase a single entry into tonight’s lottery. Nothing special, just a single ticket as uneventful as the day had been so far. I am so uninspired that I don’t even focus on the Jackpot amount for tonight’s drawing. I only focus on getting my ticket and making it to my car before I have to come up with another excuse for the next familiar stranger who comes up to me for money.

The next day, I check my ticket because I didn’t even watch the drawing from the night before; I just assume that I didn’t win. When my ticket runs through the machine some weird sounds send alerts to my ears that something is happening. To my surprise I won! I Won! The galactic center aligns, the angels peek from behind the clouds, centaurs blow their horns, and flowers bloom! No one has ever given me anything! People only take from me as illustrated by the multiple beggars who confront me daily. No one has ever given me anything, yet I feel as if a lottery entity or being has chosen me to get a gift of this huge sum of money…! Fifty million!!! I’m rich! My uneventful day leads to a most wonderful, yet unexpected outcome. I was living in a fantasy land, a dream. Reality wakes me from that dream, however, like a bucket-splash of cold water on me while I’m still in the bed.

First, were the taxes. I had to pay taxes on my lottery winnings-oh the irony! Second, were all of my past responsibilities that I hadn’t finished paying off: school loans, IRS tax debts, other financial obligations. Then there were family members coming from all directions giving me the same guilt as the strangers who ask for money, only I couldn’t look down and ignore them. I didn’t have to be in a place where people would expect me to have money; everywhere I went I had money, and people could tell. It was almost as if people could smell the money on me. In the end, I won a lot of money but I lost a lot more. All the money did was to bring out the hidden negatives that had followed me around like those people begging for money. The negatives are always around, the money just revealed them to me. Oh, how I miss those uneventful days.
-end

Please Sir, could we have some paragraphs?

P

originally posted by: pheonix358
Please Sir, could we have some paragraphs?

P

fixed!!

a reply to: lostbook

Nice Job Here!!

originally posted by: SyxPak
a reply to: lostbook

Nice Job Here!!

Thanks!!

a reply to: lostbook

Thanks lostbook. That sounded like real life!

Cheers