Your Number’s Up!

The rain lashes down on the school children at the bus stop. They huddle in damp bunches, under umbrellas battered by the October gales, with their hair sticking to their foreheads and faces, wicking water under their collars. Their usual frenzied chatter subdued in their sodden misery. Betty smiles at them so brightly as she passes them in her car that one of the cheekier ones sticks out his tongue at her. Betty laughs out loud whilst she changes gear and slows down at the next set of traffic lights.

Her wipers slosh the rain from the windscreen and she turns on the demister to prevent the condensation building on the inside of the car. She is bursting with joy today and can not wait to get home to share her good news with her husband. She left work early, as soon as she found out herself. She knew it would happen sooner or later and is ecstatic.

They have only been married for six months and had started trying for this the very same Saturday night that they had gotten married. They tried religiously every Saturday night, week in, week out. Danny had warned her not to get her hopes up. He had tried to prepare her, saying it might never happen, but inside Betty was quietly confident. This is what she has been waiting for all her life. This is what she has been planning for practically all of her life. At least since she had been mature enough to understand what it was all about and what it would mean to her life. This was going to have such an impact on their lives, she muses. They would both have to change their lifestyles and she hopes that it won’t prove too stressful. Of course it won’t be too stressful; she thinks happily, it is a miracle really. And she mentally hugs herself as she pulls into the driveway.

She is surprised to see her best friend Anna’s car in the drive way. Anna has two kids herself and is always complaining that she can’t get out much. Betty decides that that will not happen to her. She will simply hire a nanny! But why is Anna here at this time of the day. Betty is puzzled. Anna’s little ones are probably at the child minders but usually Anna has to work at this time. She would know that Betty wouldn’t usually be home now because they work the same shifts, otherwise Betty would help look after the children. Betty is besotted by them and often looks after them for Anna at the weekends. Danny is always at football on a Saturday and she is usually all alone in the house. She enjoys the company. Anna is a single mum and she says she needs a bit of “Anna time”. Betty knows that things have been tough for her since the children’s Dad left and tries to ease her oldest friends’ burden as best she can. Anna does seem to need a lot of “Anna time” these days. Betty has even started to take them on a Friday night. Ever since Danny had started playing for a darts team down at the local pub he was often away out on a Friday. Betty hates the smoky atmosphere in the local so it suits her sit for Anna’s kids while Anna goes out with her friends from work. Anna rarely organises anything with Betty these days. Maybe that will all change now once Anna finds out Betty’s news. Betty grins again having reminded herself of her great joy.

Betty parks the car out on the street so that Anna could get her car out with out Betty having to move. Danny’s car is in the garage and the door was still up so Betty decides to go into the house through the garage so she can take off her now wet coat and shoes and avoid messing up the front hall. Betty is glad Danny was home. If there is some crisis with Anna then at least he is there to help her. The weather hasn’t dampened Betty’s inner joy any. She really wants to tell Danny by himself but first she needs to see what is up with Anna.

She walks into the kitchen and feels mildly deflated when she realises there is no one there. Then she hears a noise from the room above. Her bedroom! It sounds like Anna laughing. A chill settles over her. She hears Anna laugh again and then hears the deeper sound of her husband laughing to. Something about the sound is too intimate. Inside her head a warning bell shrills. She quietly walks out to the hall, her joy forgotten. Slowly, careful not to make a sound she gently makes her way up the stairs, hardly breathing. Hardly breathing, not because she wants to catch them but hardly breathing because the growing pain in her chest prevents her. In her head the pieces of the puzzle start to drop into place. Anna’s outings and Danny’s new sporting activities suddenly develop into a full colour Polaroid picture.

At her bedroom door Betty can’t decide to knock or just walk on in. She opts for the element of surprise and swings the door open to reveal two very surprised faces atop of two naked entwined bodies almost as if they are a twisted, many elbowed and kneed, two headed creature.

Betty feels as if the room has suddenly expanded and she has shrunk by comparison until she is this tiny figure staring in horror at her husband and her best friend untangling themselves on her bed. They try to speak but the sounds mutate before they reach her ears. Revulsion trickles over her and nausea rises in her gorge forcing her to tear herself from the doorway and race for the bathroom.

When the vomiting finishes, tears streaming down her face, Betty makes a decision. Now is not the time to share her once joyful news with her soon to be ex husband. The news will keep until a time when she feels that he can be told. If he can ever be told. If she goes very far away and bides her time he may never come to know of the result today; the story the little pink lines told her earlier. No, it will be her secret. The realisation that she is on her own now and that he will not have a share in this momentous turn of her life suddenly elates her.

She leaves the house with purpose. Without even speaking to the pair of adulterers or stopping to pack a bag. She won’t need those clothes anymore anyway. She will be getting a whole new wardrobe now.

She starts the car but before she drives off she needs to see the pink ink again. With a smug glint in her eyes she takes out her purse and unfolds the precious piece of paper that is her winning lottery ticket.