Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Challenge 7: The lottery

Mrs Anderson works in other people's homes. Caring for other peoples children. She works long hours with very little time for herself let alone her children. But it has to be done to give her children the education required to get them better lives than she has. Her one luxury is the lottery ticket she buys each week. She never wins, but it helps to have something to hope for. Mr Anderson works long hours too. He fixes pools and always smells of chlorine. Mrs Anderson is aware that he is unfaithful to her with at least one woman at every house he works for, but for her children and the money he earns that is required to keep the family afloat she stays. Mrs Anderson has an Ace up her sleeve too. She is prepared for the day she miraculously has enough money to support her two children without Mr Anderson. She has evidence of Mr Anderson's infidelity and her parents insisted on a pre-nuptual agreement that states that if he is unfaithful to her the marriage can be dissolved quickly and she gets pretty much everything. Mr Anderson didn't read the agreement. He was a silly young boy when he married Mrs Anderson. So was she for that matter but her parents, who thankfully never lived to see their fears about Mr Anderson come true, they were prepared for him. They were not going to loose their daughter over an unsuitable marriage. They were not rich people, but they had a friend who was a lawyer who helped them with the agreement. Mrs Anderson even offered her employer a draft of the agreement when they were getting worried about it. She got a nice bonus out of that, which bought her children their school things for the year as well as her lottery ticket. She gets these bonuses from time to time, mostly due to the fact that her employer's children don't think she speaks English, only Spanish. She does, of course, her Spanish is a bit better than her English but she does speak perfectly good English. Mr Anderson doesn't speak Spanish at all, but their children do. Mrs Anderson's parents insisted on it and Mrs Anderson agreed. Mr Anderson didn't mind, and in the early days of their marriage he even tried to learn himself. It was when he stoped trying to speak Spanish that Mrs Anderson knew she had lost him.

Mrs Anderson takes her usual break to check her lottery ticket at midday. She cannot believe it. She has won! The grand prize of more money than she has ever seen in her life! She calls her employer and lies, telling them she is not feeling well so that she can go home and tell her children. When she arrives home she hears noises that she does not like from her daughter's bedroom. She opens the door to find her 15-year-old daughter in bed with a boy of at least twenty-five. Her daughter, unknown to her mother, has been seeing this boy for over a year now. She thinks they are in love. Her mother is shocked and immediately grabs a broom and chases the boy out of the house. Mrs Anderson faces her angry and upset daughter. “I will not scold you, but even if you do love this boy what you were doing is illegal.” she tells her daughter. “If he loves you, then he will wait.” she adds. “I am sorry I was not here sooner, but that is going to change. I am quitting my job. It is time I started caring for my own family and I am now rich enough to do so.” Her daughter looks at her, confused, “How are you rich enough?” she asks. “I won the lottery.” replies her mother. “I am going to take you and your brother away from here.” she adds. “So you do know about dad then.” replies her daughter. “Yes.” replies her mother. “Will you tell him we are leaving?” she asked her mother. “I am not sure, what do you and your brother think?” asked her mother. “I don't think you should tell him.” says her son from the doorway. “He is less our father than you have been our mother. You were sorry that you couldn't spend time with us. He never cared to.” “Then that is what we will do. The money will be in my account tomorrow. Where would you like to go?” asked their mother. “New York!” says her daughter, “I like that idea!” saus her son. “New York it is then.” replied their mother. “We can go to the bank in the morning to check the money is in my personal account and we will get our tickets and go.” “Just like that?” asked her daughter, “If you want we can wait, but I like the idea of a completely fresh start. Somewhere that I have never been just a housekeeper and you can be whoever you want to be.” Her daughter thought for a bit. “Tomorrow is good for me.” says her brother. “Me too.” replies his sister. “Done.”

Wordcount: 878

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