Chance... and pure Luck (5 Years Later)

I feel like I won the lottery. Again.

I heard from Kaila a couple years later, right about the time I was sending her pictures of Danny's Third birthday party. She had some interesting news. Apparently she'd checked herself into a psych hospital for some of her issues. It was long, it was complicated, and for the first time ever she didn't want me to fix it. She just wanted me to know she was getting better, and asked if she could see Danny. Didn't want anything more than that.

I was a little suspicious, I have to admit. The lottery prize was... well, I never expected it. I don't play it, but Nikki does. In fact she was the one who insisted that just once, I had to try. I never win anything in these contests, so I said hell with it, and randomly guessed six numbers.

Two hundred and Ninety Two Million. That's the odds against me doing what I did. Calculated. No way in hell what happened could have happened. No way a random guy on a random street would just walk in to a quickie mart, drop a buck, buy ONE ticket, and win.

But that's exactly what happened. Twice. The other gal was apparently some cocktail waitress in Nevada. Way too much money. More than I could ever spend.

Of course every woman in my life had immediate ideas on what to do with it. I admit that I splurged on one car. Just ONE. Cost way too much, and I had to pay the gas guzzler import tax. And get it reconditioned. But... dammit, If I'm going to have a midlife crisis, I'm going to have my Maserati Ghibli, thank you very much. Course, I half expect one of my children to one day pull a Ferris Bueller's Day off on it, but that is the risk you take when you have kids.

I picked her up at the Medford airport. We'd ended up buying a very nice piece of land near Klamath, and putting the biggest house we could afford on it. I had insisted on two things from the architect. Every woman gets a bedroom, and every woman gets a bathroom. What he had come up with was something right out of an antebellum farm, and I loved it. The main hall had the classical pillars and columns that I adored, but what was really cunning to me was the wings. Each wing led off from the main structure, six of them, almost like spokes of a wheel.

Kaila asked me about the ring on my finger, and noted that it was a bit unusual. When I showed it to her I explained that it was a puzzle ring, and showed her how it opened up into the linked rings, and back into one connected line of rings.

It was a long drive to the house from the airport, and naturally things began to turn to old times.

"So how's uh... how's uh, everybody" Kaila asked me, enjoying the feeling of the breeze as the narrow highway passed us by.

"Well... uh... pregnant. Again." I confessed, looking over at Kaila with a smile. "I mean, we weren't planning on it, but..."

"No, I know you, Brent. You totally wanted to have more kids." Kaila smiled. "It's ok... I just didn't realize what I had when I had it."

"I'm sorry it didn't work, you know." I said sadly. "I wanted it to work."

"And so did I. I just wasn't able to make it work, Brent. " Kaila said softly. Her eyes drifted over the sight of a bundle of oaks as we zoomed past. "I uh... met a guy a few weeks ago. Went on a date"

"Yeah, How'd it go?" I asked her happily. "Really, glad to hear you're doing good."

"Not so good. He's... He doesn't want kids." Kaila sighed. "I miss... I miss you, Brent."

"You didn't call much." I said flatly. "Carla said your folks were worried."

"I'm done with them. One of the things I had to work out. Carla... well, it's up to her if she forgives me. That's not on me any more." Kaila explained with a shrug.

"I... you know I'm only legally married to Maria. I won't abandon the mother of my kids." I amplified the point, turning onto the soft concrete path that led towards our gate. It was wooden, and I had to hop out of the car and drag the protesting timbers across their well worn groove in the concrete along their tiny metal wheel.

"You never got an opener, huh?" Kaila noted after I had exited the car a second time and pulled the door closed.

"Did we ever end up looking that up?" I asked her as I turned the car onto the slight incline that led to the tall spoked building at the far end of a large waving field of grain.

"I don't think... we ever did." Kaila said. "Next time, I guess..."