The lottery

The Lottery

Precisely having six sleeping pills from the bottle, James sat on his rickety chair leafing his diary that portrays the memorable moments of his entire life. It was a habit he followed from his adulthood, to picture or scribble down those moments which made him overwhelmed in joy. In most of the pages, he could see those times with her wife who was murdered this morning by a thief and of his son who was serving time in a Malaysian Jail for a crime he hasn’t done. The pain inside him is more than he could manage at this age of 75. He couldn’t resist the tears rolling down to his cheeks and James broke himself into a loud cry. Moments later, James leaned back to his chair with blood spilling from his mouth and closed his eyes forever. His was not a happy death and he prayed to god, not to call anyone like this.

The day dawned with a big surprise and was going smooth till evil started working on his day. As usual, he tuned the Radio to heed the daily lottery results. The mist was clouded outside his house and he was shivering in cold. James adjusted the tuner to a finer frequency and seated himself in his rickety chair putting his spectacles on his eyes. He pulled out the lottery from the drawer and sharpened his eyes and ears to both the radio and ticket.

It was a routine of him since his son Ed, got arrested for a fake financial crime. To bail him out, the family has to pay an amount of ten lakhs to the employer of Ed. It was a case manipulated to get rid of Ed from the illegalities happening within the company, master-minded by his employer itself. James, from the very first day of Ed’s arrest was trying hard to arrange the sum to bail him out and he hasn’t forgotten to give a chance to luck, and that chance was given to the lottery for he was a daily buyer of it.

The voice from the radio started to read out the winning number. Tension followed by hope was clearly visible in his eyes. With sharpened eyes and ears, he followed his gaze to the numbers on his ticket to the number that he hear. But the result was disappointing, the first prize number and the second prize number was far different than his. But he was the third prize winner, the winner for the amount of ten lakhs, the exact amount which was required to bail his son out. He kneed himself and thanked god for the miracle he has done to him. James was astonished and ended in a dance to the music he turned on in his old gramophone and was yelling in joy.

Janet woke up to the merry making of James. She inquired the reason for the noise from upstairs for she stayed in downstairs. She couldn’t not climb up the stairs due to her asthma. Janet, on holding the railings of the stairs looked upstairs to find the reason for her husband’s morning madness. On the other hand, James decided to give her a surprise with making this entire day, a day of happiness by hiding the lottery result from her, for time being.

James slowly came down to her with a big smile on his face. She hasn’t seen him in this much joy for nearly a year. It was when Ed got promoted to a better rank in his work, she saw this cheer on James for the last time. That day, they both burbled a lot on the pride of their son’s success. They shared many memorable times with him, and leafed through the pages of his diary which contains the full life of them as a family. They talked on getting him married soon and they debated and laughed on the qualities that Ed’s girl should have. Ed was their only son and they loved him more than anything in this world.

Downstairs, Janet frowned at him and asked the reason for his happiness at an unlikely time. He pulled her to him and hugged her tight with a gentle kiss on her neck which he used to give in their early days. She tickled on the kiss and held him tight around. They both filled the room with the light of love that they kept intact even at this time of their age. She asked him again on the reason for the happiness for he muttered on her ears “when this day ends, it will bring you a surprise. Till then, prepare yourself to be amazed.”

Janet and James were like in their first months of marriage. They together prepared the breakfast, cleaned last day’s wastes and broomed the floor together. They bathed together like in their old days ignoring the wrinkled and loosened muscles both have, naked. Later, they had breakfast outside with the sun rays touching them through the gap of leaves and thickets with the gentle breeze covering them wholly swaying the fronds in the trees and strands of their hair.

Later that day, they drove together to the swan lake and rowed through the white swans that floats peacefully above the water. He kissed her deep and sang a poem for her for he is an expert to prosify any situation. Janet was waiting so eagerly to uncover the reason for his unusual happiness. At lake she had asked him “have you won the lottery? It seems so!” for he quickly blabbered something to change her focus on the truth. They drove back to their house and fall to an old age love making and a small siesta after that, together, after a very long time.

The day was above to end with so many glees, jollities and delights, but the evil things will start working where happiness stays for long. James asked Janet to get dressed in her old white gown and he went upstairs to get himself dressed in black suit after a small shower which she bought for him from Miami. Downstairs, Janet was arranging the table for dinner when she heard someone knocking the door. She peeped through the door with her left eye and saw a young man with a bouquet standing behind the door. Janet thought of it as a gift from her husband for he love flowers, particularly the red rose that man carries. She opened the door and the next thing she could remember is something being sprayed on her face and she struggling to breathe as she is suffering from asthma. The man then headed upstairs to James dropping the bouquet near Janet.

James was combing his hair heeding the news in the radio. The news says of a thief which targets the old age couples to rob from. Few incidents have been happened downtown these days and the radio has alerted the lonely couples to beware of the unidentified thief. They also alerted not to open the doors for the complete strangers for he might be the one which they mentioned. James ignored the news and pulled out the lottery from his pocket and looked at it. His felicity was high that he believed he could free his innocent son from his hard time. It was then he felt a poke on his back. He turned and felt something sprayed on his face which left him to drowsy, but hadn’t fainted.

When he came conscious, he was on his rickety chair with his both hands tied on it. The ticket was not in his hands and he couldn’t see anyone near him but he could hear some movements on his room nearby. The sound of the shelf open and the violent pull on the drawer he could hear. James remembered about the warning that radio has given and quickly shouted for Janet to protect herself. He heard no answer from downstairs but the thief replied “Granny slept early Grandpa. Don’t wake her up.”

The thief came to him disappointed and cursed him on not having anything valuable in the house. For the sake of stealing, the thief took the radio and started to leave. James begged him to free him, so that he could make sure his wife is alright. The thief being so cruel, untied his left hand and pushed him down the stairs. James hit the floor down hard and heard something crack in him. Meanwhile the thief escaped through the window upstairs and vanished in the dark.

James struggled to get up and realized that his legs have been broken from the fall. He could see Janet stay put on the floor without any movement with eyes wide open. Fear took over him. He started to shiver from tip-toe and crawled towards her. He shook her hard but there was no response from her or a blink in her eyes. He yelled at her, but every effort of him was fruitless. James crawled to seek help from outside the house. He crawled through his garden and informed Mr. Albert, his neighbor about the incidents happened to him and his wife. Albert called the ambulance and informed the police. Within no time, the neighborhood got crowded with people, police and medical team. They carried Janet in a stretcher to the hospital and later confirmed the death due to breathing struggle.
James suddenly became alone in the whole world. He has lost the love of his life and his son. He was admitted in the hospital for the broken bone and the house was sealed by the police for the further investigation. Within two days, the funeral of Janet was done and James got discharged from hospital. The hospital authority dropped him home.

For James, the house started to haunt him with the last day memories of his wife. He searched the entire home holding his crutches to find the ticket he has won, but he couldn’t find any trace of it. Hope, that left in his life has been taken away by god. He cursed himself and sobbed on the tragedies following him. He had lost the meaning of his life and decided to quit from the struggles clenched with hope.

He lay dead on his favorite rickety chair with his diary in front of him. At the last page of the diary, he has penned the last memorable moments with the Janet on the day of her death and he gave up himself to the sleeping pills he used to sleep after his son got arrested.

Ed, unaware of being an orphan waited for his father to bail him out. He waited every day for the visit of his father with the happy news he is waiting to hear. Again, hope was making him live unaware of his hope being a fools hope.

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