Free Write - Luck

 

For my husband's and my Free Write today, we decided to use a first person sentence from a novel, our first co-Free Write in the first person. Sometimes we take a similar tack but we've never had an almost identical second sentence before.

The sentence prompt: I like to think that basically I'm a lucky person.

Rick's Free Write

I like to think that basically I'm a lucky person. Not million-dollar winner lottery lucky, but lucky in sense that considering two or more outcomes to a given situation the better of two has fallen in my favor.

Like the time I was 11, riding my bike across town to the baseball field, because I was a hot shot "All Star" and could do it on my own without having my parents drive me.

I may have been fooling around a bit as I went over a huge hole in the road that crossed the railroad tracks in the center of town. Maybe. But I definitely hit a pothole or a crack in the expansion joint, and I went sprawling off the bike onto the road. That was unlucky.

What was lucky for me was that there were no cars were coming in either direction or I would have been as some would express it "schmuckled."

I was lucky the time when I was eight and our car got broadsided by a car that my mother didn't see besides a turning truck, sending us into a ditch. Unlucky to the car. Lucky neither of us were hurt.

I did cry a little. That's what kids are supposed to do when traumatized, right?

Most of all I've been lucky with the family I was born into, the friends I have met through the years, the successes I've had in my career (part hard work, part luck), and generally good health.

I don't ride bicycles any more.

D-L's Free Write

I like to think that basically I'm a lucky person not in the win the megalottery type of luck, but maybe win a card or two at bingo type.

When I went for a job, I usually got it. I don't think I'm exceptional, but interviewers liked me.

I've a son and daughter, just like I wanted, when I wanted. They are now adults and doing well.

And I had the home Jim and I bought and fixed just like we like it.

That's why I was surprized when Jim announced he was leaving me for another woman.

I now understand bad luck. Of course, I'd listened to my friends' woes.

For a year I was in a funk until the papers were signed.

With my half for the house sale I bought a flat. I wasn't sure I would like living in four rooms, but I love it. So much less work.

Living alone? It's sometimes lonely, but I do what I want when I want.

I don't regret my earlier life. It was good, but it's over. 

I've booked myself on a cruise.

The grapevine said Jim's new woman left him.

I wasn't surprized when he showed up at my door.

"No," I said. "I don't want to get back together."

After he left, I looked around my flat. I liked everything in it. My neighbors were lovely. I've taken up golf.

It's as I said, I'm basically lucky.

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Note: D-L Nelson's web site: www.dlnelsonwriter.com lists her 17 published books.

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist. His website: https://aviationvoices.com/