One Billion Dollars
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Collette liked the look of the day. While the sun was out, it had a peculiar shine to it, something a little out of the ordinary. And as clouds seemed to sail in on the horizon, she had hopes of it being a good day. It was relatively warm out, and had smelled like Atlanta for days.
While preparing for the day, she heard OLeif laughing hysterically over – “Mystery Science Theater: Catalina Caper”, including the fellow with dark brown hair who had played Ernst in “Swiss Family Robinson”. Thoughts of pirates and treasure islands once again filled her mind.
Her thoughts flashed back to the previous night when she wondered if anyone had ever won the “play for one billion dollars” Pepsi sweepstakes. OLeif thought not, and she imagined he was right. After taxes, who knew what the winner could have possibly done with half a billion dollars. She had thought this over at several times in the past. The incredible ridiculousness of being handed one billion dollars for no reason whatsoever.
She saw a recipe card she had left on the dining room table with a colorful photo on the front, labeled “trick or treat”. Those look good, she thought to herself. A chocolate dough wrapped around a peanut butter cup, baked, frosted with heavy chocolate icing, and with orange in crosshatches (like the stamp in a peanut butter cookie). Collette could use a treat such as that, or perhaps she couldn’t, really.
The previous night she had come across a website in her psychology text where one’s life-span could be predicted after answering a multiple-choice test, such as, (How often do you drink tea?), (Has anyone in your family lived past the age of 94?), (Do you floss daily?), etc… Her predicted death would be at 91.4, while OLeif’s stood at 85. She almost wondered how accurate it might be in the end. Only time would tell such a thing.
And the world went on spinning. But by then at three o’clock, all was beginning to gray and the sky had the peculiar shade of butter cream and The Smokies (lavender). The bean pods danced in the warm winds, waiting for the snow to come before long. Another week of choir had come and then there would be work the following day and three exams over the weekend. Always full, always full… She smiled a bit to herself. Whenever times became busy she thought each step out to herself, and saw that there was little harm or nerves necessary to make the whole operation pass smoothly. While not everything turned out perfectly in the end, she realized that if she only waited for each week to pass with a small sigh of relief at each end, that there was little to be enjoying about life.