Lucky Numbers by Elliott Dahle

Author:Elliott Dahle [Dahle, Elliott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come off like I didn’t care about getting the money now. I guess I just wanted that moment to last forever, you know? I felt so . . . close to you back there.” said Sam after several quiet minutes in the car.

“Sam . . .” began Nadine, in a sorrowful tone that seemed to be more parts exhaustion than heartbreak. She wanted to tell him she couldn’t go on like this anymore, but as she glanced at him, she saw a kindness and sincerity in his face that, along with his words, completely caught her off guard. She felt a wrench in her stomach, as seeing his face tugged at something inside her, that inner thread she had so closely within her grasp back at the hotel room earlier that evening. The swelling love, the warm comfort, the relief from knowing the connection with Sam could be enough, and that she had it, here and now, if she could only grab that thread tightly this time and never let go. Just as she began to feel that comfort again however, a dark wind passed through her at the thought that the other end of that thread was tied to a bundle of money, and if she couldn’t really be happy with Sam without it, then what was the point?

Her eyes teared up as the warring emotions inside her began to crawl their way up her throat.

“Sam . . . I-I . . . ” she said, her voice shaking. She began to feel woozy, as if the car was spinning in circles.

“Whoa, do you see that?” said Sam, pointing toward Vern’s Vittles as they were driving past it. “Look at all those people outside the diner! They look like they’re . . . fighting each other to get to one of the windows. Like they’re trying to lick it or something. There must be twenty of them!”

Nadine let out a flat, emotionless chuckle as something popped inside her mind, like a fuse blowing in a breaker panel. The noise of the conflicting thoughts in her mind had reached a crescendo and then . . . it was gone. There was something else though. Her bandaged hand felt wet, and sticky, and she saw blood had been running down her forearm in dark, scarlet streams.

Her head began to feel hot and light at the same time, like it was full of carbonated soda; half-formed thoughts bubbling and fizzing as they intermingled.

No more. I can’t.

She chuckled again for no reason other than just to do it. And that felt good—not thinking, not allowing any thought to be processed, regressing to just . . . being.

“I’m done,” she said softly.

“Nadine?” said Sam.

She looked at the diner in the rearview mirror, then back at her bandaged hand on the steering wheel. “Oh . . . the window, I broke it,” she said in an oddly tranquil tone.

“What? Oh . . . well, don’t you worry! We’ll have enough money now to fix up the whole damn place!” said Sam, followed by an awkward chuckle.

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