The Luckiest Man Alive

Fate seemed to always tilt in my favor. Some called it talent, how I got to retire at such a young age, others called it luck when a distant relative passed away and left me her house and fortune, and I don’t know what I thought it was. It changed, though, from fortunate to unfortunate with one stupid decision. I don’t know if destiny had it in for me when I decided to do the first reckless thing in my lucky life, or if it had been the luck of the draw, not in my favor. Regardless, the result was the same, no matter what higher powers were involved.

Fate knocked on my door in the middle of summer, when the trees were at their greenest, and the grass growing for miles around my property seemed to be an ocean, my house an island in the middle of nowhere. She came in the form of a young woman; petite with the thickest head of auburn hair I’d ever seen. She looked distressed, her hair strewn about her face and shoulders in a disorderly manor, her skin glowing red from perspiration and stress.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” she apologized right off the bat. “But you’re the only place for miles, you know that?”

It was true, and I liked it that way. My nearest neighbors were thirty miles down the road, people I didn’t know and didn’t care to. The peace and quiet, the solitude of this house was something that during the years I’d worked on the police **** I’d only dreamed of. It’s rare to find such a place in this modern world we’ve created for ourselves, and maybe I was lucky to have found my piece of heaven.

The girl was at least twenty years younger than me, maybe more, but I fell for her like I’d never fallen for anyone else before. Something primal inside me seemed to come to surface, and I felt my heartbeat quicken. Clearing my throat, I avoided looking into her green eyes, afraid she might see that I was attracted to her, and perhaps laugh at me.

“Is there something I can help you with?” I said, my voice an embarrassing mumble.

The girl lifted her hands and pushed her hair out of her face, sighing with exasperation.

“I’m lost, and something happened to my car. I was wondering if I could use your phone, or if you could give me a ride to town or something?”