Since the Incident (Story!)

My eyes hurt. I blinked hard in the back seat of a shitty truck. It was an overly bright summer day, and I was squinting hard while trying to look at the trees off in the distance.

Back at the campground, my brothers and I had been given scratch-off lottery tickets as a diversion from the fact our family was insufferable.

I think my dad had preemptively bought some in case something like this happened, which often did. My mom was mad, probably.

So he whipped them out and gave one to each of us while she pouted alone, and we scratched them off. Surprisingly, we had not one, but two winning tickets. My dad always wanted us to feel like we were lucky, but I think we would have preferred seeing some conflict resolution.

Time to go redeem our earnings! We all piled into the car to go, with one noticeable family member not in attendance.

I slunk quietly into the back seat. The inside of the truck was dead silent, no one saying a word. Not for the entire ride. So the only thing to do was to stare at the lame, flat nature of the Midwest. The nearest town was a bit of a drive, but we made it. The truck settled uncomfortably into its parking spot at the gas station, it’s engine making one final snort like it was its last breath.

I approached the gas station counter, excited. I had never won from a scratch-off. Honestly, I felt like I hadn’t won anything ever.

I handed the lady the ticket and with my little feeble voice I croaked out, “I won!”

The attendant looked down at me absentmindedly, no smile.

“Na’sirree. Ya'gonna have to go across the street. We ain’t redeemed lottery tickets, since the incident”

I tried not to burst out laughing. Was this person just kidding? They didn’t seem like they were kidding. They seemed deadpan and serious. Yet, they still somehow seemed warmer than my family. They were just over it, worn down by years of stating the same line about the incident.

Were they just bored or didn’t like redeeming the tickets for some reason? What was this incident?

We spent the ride back to the campground doing my favorite activity: hypotheticals. The only thing I really remember enjoying with my family was hypotheticals. It was the only time you were allowed to dream, to break out of your role. It was the only time you were allowed to have fun.

“Somebody must’ve faked lottery tickets!”

“No way, that’s ridiculous. They must have been held at gunpoint.”

“I think it must’ve been a mafia deal or something”

For years and years, an event can stick with you. This one stuck with me.

I never found out what the incident was, and perhaps it’s better that way. We took our meager $10 of winnings back to the campground and sat around the fire making smores. All of us. Even mom. We all acted like it never happened. I had won for the first time, but I still felt loss overall.

I’m curious about your stories. Have you ever had a since the incident? Have you ever caused an incident? I’d like to say I haven’t, but let’s be real… I have. 100%. 😂 Half the rules at my high school exist because I did something.

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