Rich or Poor, A Lottery Winner's Adventure

Rich or Poor, A Lottery Winner's Adventure - Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Late on Sunday evening, with a slight chill in the air, a light damp drizzle began to form from the sky above. The flow of traffic started to slow down on freeway 65, between Madison and Franklin. The sight in front of them forcing fear into the senses of each and every driver. A red crumpled sports car upside down with some kind of steam drifting upwards and with shattered glass everywhere.

While emergency services sped with urgency, weaving in and out of the vehicles in front of them down freeway 65, heading towards the possibly fatal crash, the DeRosa apartment awaited the return of Alfonso from his K-mart shift…

Marcia opened the door for Alfonso to come inside. “I’ll put the kettle on Alf.” She said while Alfonso sat down on the couch, looking at the carpet and with his soul still full of anger, Alfonso demanded.

“I need a stiff drink! Pour me some bourbon woman, I’ve had one hell of a bad night.” With that said, he slowly moved his head towards the television. “Aaagghh!! He cried out loud, the memory of his bad luck at work still fresh in his mind. Not the damn Poker channel?”

“Sorry, we… we were watching it earlier while I ironed your shirts for next week.” Marcia said, hoping he would just calm down and not be so ‘on edge’ the whole time.

“Pass me that whisky woman, and change the channel will ya? Poker is all luck anyway. The best players never seem to have enough ‘luck’ to win.” Alfonso snapped back, still thinking of his earlier losses at work. After his usual half dozen glasses of, slightly watered down by ice cubes, bourbon, Alfonso did his usual ritual of hand cuffing Ryan’s parents to the radiator so they had zero chance of escaping during the night. Alfonso, now full of alcohol, and with a light and fuzzy feeling inside of him followed Marcia towards their bedroom where he hoped to quickly fall asleep without any chit chat or affection from his wife. She only had a few hours before she would have to get ready for her shift at work!

Her quiet alarm clock emitted its usual bird influenced sounds, the sound waves rushing towards Marcia’s aging ears. She quickly sat up to hit the ‘off’ button, and glanced over towards Alfonso to make sure he was still asleep. Marcia always did her best, behind Alfonso’s back, to make Charlie and Jackie more comfortable. Before she left for her shift, she passed each of them a large chocolate bagel to enjoy before her husband made an appearance. Charlie and Jackie both felt drawn to Marcia. They knew she was on their side in all of this bullshit. “Enjoy!” Marcia whispered with a wink. “You’ll ‘get him back’ soon!!” She turned around and left for her imminent shift. Charlie looked at Jackie, neither one of them understanding whether she meant they would get Alfonso back in some way for his wicked and greedy plan? Or that they would… they would soon be reunited with their only son, and ‘get him back’ to how things were not so long ago? They munched through their bagels, making sure to hide any evidence of their much-needed snack and without too much time passing them by, they gradually relaxed to sleep in uncomfortable positions, still tied to the radiator…

Mild colourful visions began to form in front of my eyes, a mixture of colours all over the place, mainly reds and blues, forcing the vision deeper into my brain. I tried to open my eyes but the thin sharp pain was just too much to handle. My eyes began to look up and in an instant; all I could see was a deep dark black that never seemed to end...

The phone rang in the Tanner apartment. It was getting towards midnight, but as Becky was walking by the phone on her way to her room, extremely tired from the recent party, she picked up. “Hello miss, Is this… Is this Beck’s?” The voice demanded with a dull tone. She didn’t know what to think. It was a strange time for someone official to call. She hesitated with her response.