Short Stories

The Good Life

by Stephen Kimball 
07/29/21
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My name is Abel. No not that Abel, but I do bear the name of Adam’s offspring purposefully. My parents are very religious people and, in search of a meaningful name, they settled on Abel, not because it is so pleasing to the ear but because in the Biblical account, Abel’s sacrifice was pleasing to God. True, my namesake was murdered by his older brother, Cain, in a fit of jealous rage, but either my parents didn’t consider that fact important, or since I was their firstborn, they didn’t see how that part of the story could come back to haunt them. Until recently, I hadn’t subscribed fully to my parents’ faith, but as I am about to share, that has all changed. My eyes have been opened.

As I write this, I am just twenty-four years old and live in the charming little town of Mt. Pleasant, Utah. I’m gainfully employed as a manager at the local grocery store, which is not so coincidentally the family business. It is beautiful here. I love this town. I love my parents. But I may have hit the ceiling as far as opportunity goes. My salary is adequate to drive an eleven-year-old Honda Accord and maintain my own place, but that’s about the extent of it. So, I’ve been on the lookout for a way I might do better for myself. If I lived almost anywhere else, I’d invest in the lottery, but wouldn’t you know it, Utah doesn’t have one.

My parents rolled their eyes at my foray into network marketing. It took about a month for me to realize it wasn’t going to work very well in a small town like this. Then they sat quietly through my purchase of an online dating website, which I picked up at the “bargain basement” price of just $1,500.00. Never mind that after all was said and done my total income from that venture was exactly $165.00. Don’t judge me here, but I love comic books — always have. In a brief moment of insanity, I even considered selling my collection, but luckily, I regained my senses just in the nick of time.

When it seemed to them that I was out of options, they suggested I find contentment in what I had or to go back to school and get my master’s degree. I swore I had taken my last class when I graduated from Utah State, so that is not an option. Truthfully, I have no interest in going anywhere, Mt Pleasant is my home and I plan on keeping it that way.

Anyway, it was maybe six months ago it all happened. I saw the ad, you know, the cheesy kind that can only be found hidden in the back pages of comic books. It was right between “Don’t be half a Man” and “Learn to hypnotize in one day”, which I swear to you I have never mailed away for. I had always assumed they were all just bunk, but this one caught my eye at just the right moment. It read:

SIGN UP FOR A CHANCE TO WIN $10,000 PER WEEK FOR LIFE!!!

I decided to send in my registration, along with the “nominal processing fee” and wasn’t really holding my breath to hear back. Sucker? Maybe. But low and behold, six weeks later I received a text message that my place on the show had been scheduled. Other than the time and the place, details were sketchy and frankly, I was embarrassed to tell my parents what I was up to. So, I told them I needed a couple of days off to go see an old college roomy in Salt Lake City and then drove all night to reach Boise in time for my nine o’clock appointment with fate.

I must admit, even though I was somewhat blinded by the possibility of having ten grand per week, forever, I was still a bit skeptical of what I was getting into.

I should have listened to my instincts.

Upon arrival, they had me sign some sort of release before shuffling me through a maze of hallways to a back room. The room was painted blood red. A sign fixed to the door that led to the set read “ENTER”, and on the interior of the door I had just walked through to get into this little room a sign read “NO EXIT”. I tried the door, it was locked. Shivers went down my spine as I stared up at the screen which had just come alive as the host began his introduction.

“Everyone, welcome our next contestant, all the way from Mt. Pleasant, Utah…Abel Strickland!” There was applause. I shook off my suspicions and readied myself to fatten my bank account.

My host was super enthusiastic and overly dramatic, especially in light of the fact that there was no real studio audience present. It had been a soundtrack, but it was just show biz, I reasoned. He reminded me of Jim Carrey blathering one of his bizarre rantings.

“Able from Mt. Pleasant, the next few minutes will change you forever. You are about to taste —The Good Life!”

We stood in front of the giant wheel.

“What we do here is make dreams come true, Abel…

What would you say to an all-expense paid trip around the world?”

Three “TRIP” spaces light up on the wheel to thunderous applause from the audience of no one.

Gesturing grandly with his entire body, “Or, perhaps you would like to have $10,000 per week for the rest of your life!”

Bells began to ring, sirens wailed and the imaginary audience went wild as several other spots lit up with dollar signs on them. My head was swimming. Eventually, the wheel lit up with other prizes, all too good to be true.

"Spin it and win it,” he said, “but just one catch. Don’t land on these black spaces or that’ll be the end of the road for you.”

Skull and crossbones appear on the final two spots of the wheel.

The non-crowd began to chant loudly. I didn’t like his snarky tone but I reached up and spun the wheel anyway, as hard as I could. Odds were way in my favor after all.

Tic,tic,tic,tic,tic -  around it went. A black spot slowly approached the slot that would hold my prize. As it landed there, evil laughter began to spill out of the host’s mouth. I watched in horror as he began to metamorphosize into a beast before me.  

“YOU LOSE”, he growled.

I wanted to run, but I was frozen in place, staring up at this hellish form that now towered above me. Just then, like a cannonball out of nowhere, something slams into the beast-host from the side at warp speed, sending them both tumbling to the ground. The cannonball stands and unsheathes his sword – glowing, lighting up the darkened studio.

“This one is mine”, he declares.

I covered my ears as a scream, like the roar of a thousand lions, erupted from the beast-host.

Sweat soaked, heart beating out of my chest — I awoke. As my pulse eventually slowed and I was able to recover my senses, I knew I would never be the same. The skeptic would just pass it off as a nightmare. Not me. That was a clear message, a warning. They say God works in mysterious ways…I’m a believer.