The Lottery Winners_A Free Introduction

  The Lottery Winners Introduction

  By Elizabeth Lennox

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  Copyright 2018

  ISBN13: 9781944078744

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any duplication of this material, either electronic or any other format, either currently in use or a future invention, is strictly prohibited, unless you have the direct consent of the author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Excerpt from “Tempted” – Coming April 20, 2018

  Excerpt from “Rescued” – Coming May 18, 2018

  Excerpt from “Caught”, Coming June 15, 2018

  Chapter 1

  “More coffee?” Daisy asked, surreptitiously wiping the grease from her hand onto her apron. Working at a truck stop diner, grease and greasy food was just a part of life.

  “Love some, honey,” the big, friendly trucker replied, pushing his ceramic cup closer.

  Daisy poured the coffee into the man’s cup and smiled. “Where you off to today, Tom?” she asked, leaning a hip against the edge of the counter.

  “Hauling tires out to Utah,” he replied. “When are you gonna give up this waitressing life and come share my glamorous life on the road?”

  Daisy laughed, shaking her head while smoothing back a wisp of strawberry blond curls that had slipped out of her hair band. “First of all, I could never leave here because I’ve found my calling! Slinging hash is what I live for. It’s what makes me whole.” She added a sassy wink so Tom understood her sarcasm. “And secondly, you and I both know that Nancy would skin you alive if you snuck me out of this little sliver of heaven.”

  Tom chuckled, a big, belly laugh that sounded nice amidst the constant noise of the lunch time rush of the diner. “Too true,” he replied, lifting his coffee cup to his mouth even as he admired Daisy’s swimsuit model figure in the lackluster gold waitressing uniform.

  A moment later, Tom’s wife, Nancy, came out of the bathroom, wiping her own hands along the sides of her jean-clad thighs, an irritated scowl on her features. She slid into the seat next to her husband, smacking his shoulder for his flirting while shaking her head in disgust. “As if a beauty like Daisy would even look at an old man like you twice.” She harrumphed when her husband only laughed and kissed her weathered cheek with genuine love. “And when’s that annoying woman gonna get some paper towels in that bathroom?” she grumbled, referring to Janice, the owner of the diner. “Every time I come through here, the paper towel dispenser is empty.” She grumbled and wrapped her hands around the ceramic cup Daisy had just refilled. “If it weren’t for Tony’s amazing food, we’d drive on by, wouldn’t we, honey?” she asked of Tom.

  “Best food on both sides of the Mississippi,” Tom confirmed, lifting his coffee cup up in a salute.

  Daisy sighed and patted Nancy on the shoulder. “Maybe when Janice grows a heart,” she muttered under her breath, slipping the check onto the chipped countertop.

  Nancy laughed, shaking her head. “You mean we’re never getting paper towels.”

  “Daisy!” the woman in question bellowed. “You got customers waiting at table eleven.”

  Nancy gave Daisy an empathetic look and tossed down several dollars to cover her meal as well as her husband’s and a bit extra for a tip. “Good luck, honey.”

  Daisy smiled, ignoring Janice’s snarling bellow. “I’ll need it,” she agreed and moved off. As she made her way towards table eleven, she paused at the kitchen window and grabbed four plates piled high with food, smiled at Tony, the cook who winked in return, snagged a fresh coffee pot with her fingers and made her way over the slippery linoleum floor.

  “Here you go,” she said to the truckers sitting at a table by the window, putting the coffee pot down before placing their orders in front of each one. “I hope you’re hungry,” she said quietly. “Looks like Tony added a bit more fries to your plates than normal.”

  Jeff, a big, gruff trucker who came through at least once a week on his way back and forth across the country, smiled as he looked down at the plate. “Damn, Daisy. The day Janice hired Tony was the smartest day of her life. His food is the only reason to come into this dump.”

  Daisy laughed, but she silently agreed. The truck stop diner located on Highway 64 just west of Louisville, Kentucky wasn’t much to look at. The interior hadn’t been updated since the 70s, everyone still eating off the same chipped tables, sat on torn vinyl covered chairs, food served off battered dishes and eaten with bent, tin utensils. But Tony’s food was truly amazing! How the man could transform a bag of cheap, frozen fries into something exciting, she’d never understand. The guy was a magician in the kitchen! He added spices, changed the way things were cooked, and basically performed magic on everything that came out of his kitchen.

  “Daisy!” Janice bellowed, a constant reminder of one’s ongoing servitude.

  Turning towards the customers and away from Janice’s too-knowing eyes, she grimaced at the latest holler. “Ah, the lilting call of our native songbird,” she mocked, smiling as the big, gruff men laughed. Turning around, Daisy headed towards table eleven where a family of four was sitting. The parents looked a bit wary as they surveyed the options on the menu.

  “Hi there! What can I get you?” she asked, pulling her order pad out of her apron. Daisy noticed a smeared ketchup stain on the menu and cringed. Disgusting, she thought, but pasted a smile on her face anyway. Obviously, Janice hadn’t wanted to pay Marilee last night to properly close down the diner. Not a surprise since Janice was literally the cheapest woman this side of the Mississippi, Daisy thought with frustration.

  “Oscar’s running wild,” Ivy whispered in Daisy’s ear as the slender brunette with mischievous eyes passed by with five plates balanced precariously in her hands and on her arms.

  Immediately, Daisy looked to the front section of the diner at that coded warning, wishing she could hurry over, wanting to protect Marilee, the third waitress on duty today, from Janice’s wrath. But the owner of the greasy spoon diner was already heading over to Marilee’s table, evil intent in her eye.

  “You lazy, pathetic excuse!” Janice snapped, grabbing the plates out of Marilee’s hands. “Can’t you get anything right?” she demanded.

  As far as Daisy could tell, Marilee hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d simply been bringing the meals over to the men sitting at the table. But one look at the men sitting there and Daisy understood. Those four were big tippers. Janice was going to steal Marilee’s tips! Again!

  Darn it! Marilee was only twenty-two, but had been working here since she’d graduated high school, four years ago. She was the sweetest, most generous woman Daisy had ever known. Janice, on the other hand, was just…foul!

  “What would you recommend?” the mother asked.

  Daisy’s head swiveled back, looking to the occupants of table eleven - mother, father, and two boys, ages somewhere between six and ten. They looked like a nice family. Normally, truckers were the only ones brave enough to venture into this diner. The families traveling along the highway tended to drive through the parking lot, then move on, not daring to st
ep into such a rough-looking establishment. But whenever a family dared to come in, Daisy’s heart ached, wishing that she might someday find that kind of happiness. A family. People she could travel with, come home to. School, PTAs, dentist appointments, ballet lessons, soccer practice…

  “Daisy!” Janice yelled from all the way across the diner.

  Daisy jerked out of her dream and looked around, then realized that the family was waiting for an answer.

  “Oh! Um…yes. Don’t let the décor fool you. Everything on the menu is delicious,” she told them, pencil poised above her ordering pad.

  The four of them looked skeptical and Daisy didn’t blame them. Entering the diner had been a bad dare forty years ago and nothing had been replaced. Really, the only thing good about this place was the food and the warm, kind-hearted truckers that stopped by for a meal and a break from the monotony of hauling their rigs across the country. There wasn’t much else around this scarred piece of earth. The Appalachian Mountains were to the east and the Rockies to the west. A bit further down this exit, one would find the tiny town of LowPoint, Kentucky. But describing that patch of the state as a town was generous. At one time, the town had been a booming coal mining town. The trains had come through with a stop here for supplies after traveling over the mountains. But the trains had stopped coming a long time ago, re-routed to more forgiving pathways.

  About forty years ago, there was hope that people from Louisville might find LowPoint a nice place to raise their kids since it was only thirty miles north-west of Louisville, but that hadn’t occurred. Instead, commuters shifted into the southern suburbs instead and LowPoint had been left desolated. There were a few businesses still eking out a living, but most of the buildings and store fronts were abandoned now, the weather and time taking a toll on their appearance so that only the most fool-hardy considered opening a new business there. The high school had barely a hundred kids, and that was only because they were bussed in from further out now, other schools having been closed due to the struggling economy in this area.

  The people who lived in LowPoint were stuck. Most couldn’t afford to leave. Nor could they afford to stay. It was a constant struggle for the residents to make ends meet.

  “We’ll just have burgers and fries,” the woman decided, handing back the menus, careful not to touch them too much.

  “No problem,” Daisy said, quickly writing up their order and tucking the menus under her arm.

  She walked over to the kitchen window. “Four burgers,” she called out, sticking the order slip up on Tony’s spinning circle that held all of the diners’ orders.

  “Happy Birthday, big boy,” Ivy said, walking up to the window as well and sticking another order up. “We’re all going out to celebrate tonight, right?” she asked.

  Marilee sighed and stuffed another order into the spinning wheel. “I really hate that woman,” she muttered. “And yes! We’re going out to celebrate!” She glared at the tall, good-looking man through the open window. “Don’t you dare cancel on us, Tony!”

  Tony laughed, but tossed four frozen burgers onto the grill, then tossed a dash of spice to make the burgers taste like something more than frozen slabs of low-quality ground beef.

  “We don’t need to go out,” Tony demurred, reaching for another shaker of spices.

  Three women turned on Tony, glaring at the man. It took Tony several moments to realize what was going on, but when he looked up, he laughed, shaking his head as he took in the glares. “Fine! We’re going out. We’re celebrating!”

  “Celebrating what?” Janice snapped. “Celebrating all four of you getting fired for being lazy idiots?”

  Daisy, Ivy and Marilee immediately turned, dispersing through the restaurant. Not a single one of them answering their boss’ question.

  “What’s going on?” Janice demanded, staring at Tony.

  Tony grabbed the tongs and piled one of the plates high with fries, then set it up on the counter. “Order up!” he called out.

  Janice sneered. “Siding with the bitches again, eh?” she asked. “Fine. Be that way. But know that I don’t like you any more than I like them.”

  Tony watched as the older woman with freaky red hair, obviously dyed in her bathroom two months ago since her grey roots were already showing, walked away towards one of the customers. The orders remained on the window ledge and Tony wondered if that woman had ever helped any other human being in her life. He doubted it. A more selfish human being, he’d never known.

  “What’s wrong, Burt?” Ivy asked, moving over to one of the men sitting at the end of the countertop. She pulled a ceramic coffee cup out from under the countertop and poured him a cup of coffee.

  “That’s all for today, Ivy,” the man said, referring to the hot cup of coffee.

  Ivy looked at the man who could stand to gain about twenty…or fifty…pounds. He was six feet tall and weighed maybe a hundred and twenty pounds. He was only twenty-five years old, but looked to be closer to forty because of the hard life he’d lived here in LowPoint. There wasn’t much work unless one wanted to drive the thirty minutes into Louisville. Not many of the residents could afford the gas money for that kind of commute. Those that could knew how hard it was to find a job in this economy. The rest of the country might be perking up in the jobs area, but not here in this small patch of the world. It was still hard. Still miserable.

  Ivy was tall and naturally thin as well, with small breasts and long, skinny legs. But Tony made sure that she, Daisy, and Marilee got food several times a day. Working in a diner, none of them went hungry. They might live in ragged, desperate apartments with no air conditioning and only sporadic heat, but they had food in their bellies.

  “You need more than coffee, honey,” she whispered, looking over at Janice. “Couldn’t get work yesterday?”

  Burt sighed, wrapping his fingers around the coffee cup. “I tried, Ivy. I really did. But…well, people just…they don’t need a carpenter. And that’s pretty much all I know.”

  Ivy pulled several dollars of her tip money out of her apron and some change, pushing it towards Burt. “Order a burger,” she instructed, then walked away.

  “Ivy!” Burt called out, but she didn’t stop. She knew that Burt would try and give the money back. Yeah, she needed the money too, but Burt probably hadn’t eaten in a couple of days. His face looked pale and if that man passed out in the diner, Janice would ban him from coming in again. It was one of the only places for some of the townspeople to come in and get warm during the cold winter months.

  Ivy put in the order for a burger as she passed by Tony’s window, marking the ticket with a smiley face.

  “Hey Mona!” she called in greeting to the pretty trucker who stepped into the diner and sank gratefully onto the stool. “I didn’t think you’d be passing through this way again for another week. What are you doing back here so fast?” she asked, pulling another cup out and pouring some coffee from the pot that was still in her hands.

  “I got another load,” she said, taking a long gulp of the scalding hot coffee. No matter how hot it was, truckers could drink coffee like it was water. Ivy never understood, but observed everything. The world was a fascinating place.

  She caught something out of the corner of her eye and slid her phone out of her apron. Taking several pictures, she smiled as her thumb flipped through the images she’d captured. With a sigh of satisfaction, she turned and grabbed two of the plates Tony had just put up.

  “You’re going to run out of memory,” Tony commented.

  Ivy shrugged. “Not really. I just delete the old stuff and add new pictures whenever I can.” With a wink and a smile, she carried the orders out to the customers. “Okay, Joey. Don’t eat all of this in five minutes,” she warned him. “You know it makes you sick.”

  Joey looked up at her with a smile of adoration in his eyes. “Yeah, but then I get you slapping some wet paper towels on my forehead.”

  Ivy laughed, and shook her head as she walked over to the
next table and put the burger with extra vegetables and extra fries in front of Burt, giving him a look that warned him to eat all of it and not argue. The smiley face on the order ticket was a secret message to Tony that the order needed a few “extras” if Janice wasn’t looking. In this case, Tony had put three slices of cheese and extra pickles on top – the only vegetables Janice allowed. Burt took a grateful bite as Ivy moved away.

  “What can I get you, folks?” she asked of the truckers who were still pulling their arms out of their jackets, hanging them and their hats on the hooks nailed into a post right outside of each booth for just that purpose.

  “Hey, darlin’” one of them said, giving her a wink. “Janice hasn’t scared Tony off yet, has she?” he asked.

  Ivy laughed, shaking her head and winking right back at him. “Not yet, honey,” she replied, purposely using an endearment to tell the men that she wasn’t going to put up with any of their patronizing silliness. “But it’s a day to day thing.”

  The four men laughed and she smiled, not really into the joke. Because, unfortunately, it wasn’t a joke. Tony was an amazing cook and he was wasting his talents here at a roadside diner. Janice was a nasty piece of work and tormented everyone on shift. She was a thief who stole the waitress’s tips, docked their pay for ridiculous, trumped up reasons, and forced everyone to work much longer than eight hours without overtime pay.

  Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of jobs in LowPoint, Kentucky. So even if this was a sucky job, it was better than being unemployed. Daisy was the only one that had a car…sometimes. It was a fifty-fifty chance that the old beater would start up on any given morning. So finding a job closer to Louisville wasn’t an option. Yet!

  The four of them - Tony, Ivy, Daisy, and Marilee - talked and dreamed, fantasizing about the day they figured out how to get out of LowPoint. The day they would all tell Janice to go to hell!

  When that point came, and all four of them were determined to make that happen, it was going to be a huge celebration.