Why not me
Nellie was coming upon her birthday, a very important
birthday, one that she had dreaded for many years. She could hardly open her mouth to say the
big number. Quickly she whispered; “fffiiifffttty” and gazed off into the
distance. Could it be that she had
reached this midlife pinnacle and still not successful? Could it be that the numbers kept adding up
and her achievements were few?
She was watching Oprah on TV and the group of very
successful (at least they said they were successful) looked so smart and told
the audience smugly that it was easy, just to meditate on their wants and needs
and the universe would hand it to you.
Anyway they called it “the secret” and is was available to everyone. “Why
not me?” Nancy exclaimed loudly into the Television set.
The lottery amount was getting larger and larger, the
numbers would be called on Friday evening. Again, she asked, “Why not me”? She
had gone to the quick market and bought a ticket, not once but twice and she
could make good use of the money, in fact, she needed it more than anyone else
she knew. She had already made a list of the things she would purchase and in
the order in which she would purchase them.
She had the positive attitude that she needed and there was no reason on
earth that she could not win the lottery!
Friday the work day was hard and very stressful but Nellie
could tolerate it only because she was going to win the lottery that night, she
kept fingering the ticket in her pocket all day and even mentally added to her
lists of purchases she would make, when she won. The morning had started on
such a bad note, woke up late, very little time for a cup of coffee and no time
for a breakfast. The hair dryer would
not blow so she had to go to work with wet hair. It was in Nellie’s plans to iron her clothing
before she went to work but since there was no time, she had to wear wrinkled
clothing to work and imagined that everyone was looking at her, thinking that
she had “had a bad night out”. She tried
to smile at everyone but it was a forced smile.
She grabbed some money and went to the vending machine for a cinnamon
roll for breakfast but when she placed her money into the machine, it locked up
and no cinnamon roll rolled out. She was very dejected when she returned to her
desk, luck was on her side because she had a very sad looking apple in her desk
drawer, it was very difficult to bite into and as she did an old dental filling
dropped into her lap. As she thought of
her day so far, she remembered the little book, “Alexander and the no good very
bad day”. In the book Alexander was going to solve the problem by moving to
Australia. Nellie said, under her
breath, “I can go to Australia when I win the lottery.”
At the end of Nellie’s, no good very bad day, she hurried
home to find a bit of food that she could eat with a broken tooth as she
watched them pull the numbers for the lottery. She placed her key in the car;
no sounds came, in her hurry to get to the office she had left her lights on
and now her battery was dead. Instead of saying; “why not me” she said, loudly,
“Why Me”. She felt very tired and
stressed out when she found a friend in the parking lot who would get her
automobile started and she was soon on her way home. No time for supper because she was ready to
watch TV to hear it when her numbers were called, when she won the
lottery. She grabbed a quick sandwich
and sat down very heavily in her recliner to listen for the lottery
numbers. It seemed like hours even
though just minutes before they began to call the number for the winning
lottery ticket. She could hardly breathe as they started rolling out the
numbers 27, 8, 6, 99…. That was as far as she listened, there was no 99 on her
ticket. She felt as if she were a balloon that deflated. “Why oh why not me”,
she said loudly.
She was so tired she immediately dressed for bed and as she
drifted off to sleep; she remembered that she had listened to the people on
Oprah so she could use The Secret and the universe would give her that six
figured check and of course her name was in the publisher’s clearing house…..
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