lottery Soma Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box. Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up." Mrs. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and she said, gasping for breath. "I can't run at all. You'll have to go ahead and I'll catch up with you." The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him. "It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. - By Shirley Jackson June 18, 1948 221011 ... tender_square he stunk of cheap cologne to cloak his habit. had a long beard to make up for the fact that he had lost his hair. his skin was leather tough, the deep tan of labour. he hunched over the counter in his buffalo plaid coat, pushing a season that wasn't due to arrive for several weeks yet. the young waitress poured him a coffee. she moved behind the counter fluttering in a black mini skort and tee, makeupless, a trellis of inked roses climbed her arm. she handed him the scratchers he asked for from the lotto counter. "i didn't win," he shared. "even if you had, it'd be gone by the weekend," she teased, lifting a plate from the kitchen and setting it down in front of him. "i didn't realize we were married," he said. "and we won't ever be at this rate," she shot back. 230911 ... raze "i keep meaning to tell you," he said. "every time i run into you guys, i buy a lottery ticket." "i hope we bring you good_luck one of these days," i said. he said he'd let us know if he won. he didn't say he would share his winnings. then again, most people wouldn't say a thing like that, and if they did it would be a lie. 240307 ... ovenbird I hadn’t bought a single lottery ticket in my entire life until last night. My brother said something about the record Lotto Max jackpot. He bought a ticket. So I did too, succumbing to a need for hope in days almost entirely devoid of that particular quality. I jumped through all the security hoops, set up an account online, let the quick pick work its own magic because I didn’t feel I had any of my own. Now my digital ticket sits in a digital wallet waiting for a digital outcome and a digital disappointment. The hope isn’t digital. That’s as real as anything. A white hot star pulsing in my chest. My odds of freedom are 1 in 33 million. About as close to zero as odds can get, but stranger things have happened. The unexpected happens all the time. I know, because your name was served with the filet mignon and nothing has ever been the same. 261016 ... ancasa.reyn once i almost won i rarely have bought lotto tickets but once while passing by my grocer's customer service area i gave in "six picks for the price of five" the promotional sign said i carefully chose my six sets of six birth dates, ages slight variations from one set to the next in one set i included my age at the time on another i chose my soon-to-be age i tucked the ticket into my wallet a week or so later it occurred to me that i'd not checked my numbers so again i stopped at the grocery store to get a print-out of the winners i tucked it into my wallet another week or so later it occurred to me to compare my ticket with the winning numbers for one of my sets one by one each number matched until i got to the last one instead of 40 my age i had selected 41 my age to be i would not split two million dollars instead, i received twenty-five hundred i almost won 261017 what's it to you? who go blather from