Luck of the Draw

The luck of the draw, or rather a flip of the coin. That’s all it took. For the day to go from the best day possible to the worst one.

“Congratulations to our lucky winners!” the announcer cheered. “And what might your name be, miss?”

“Uh-uh, Meredith. Meredith Frost,” I responded with a stammer.

“And you, sir?” the announcer asked the man standing next to me

“Anthony. Anthony Dawson,” he responded to the announcer.

“Wonderful, once again, congratulations!” the announcer exclaimed. “We have randomly selected you two for a chance to win our grand prize of thirty-thousand dollars! How does that make you feel?”

“Well, I’m excited and I know that I have nothing to lose,” Anthony responded blatantly. “So I figured why not?”

“It didn’t cost me anything to enter, and if I’m lucky enough to win this prize,” I began explaining. “The money could help with some unforeseen circumstances.”

“Well, I’m Destiny Alvarez, and I’m going to be your judge and contest leader,” the announcer introduced herself. “And might I say, I wish you both the best of luck. Now, there are going to be three challenges that you will have to go through. Once you have finished the challenge at hand, ring the buzzer and that will let us know who has won the challenge. First up, is something super easy, but also incredibly challenging. ”

“What’s the challenge?” Anthony questioned.

“Well, for this first challenge, we are asking you to finish just a simple puzzle,” Destiny answered. “On this table right here, we have set out a Sudoku puzzle. Now, as simple as these puzzles are, we also know that they are a tad challenging, so we’ve set a time limit of ten minutes.”

Anthony and I made our way to the table and sat down in the chairs. “Now, of course, just as anywhere else, we ask that you not cheat, as we will be keeping an eye on you.” Destiny began.

“Of course!” I agreed immediately.

“Alrighty then, pencils up!” Destiny continued. “On my mark, you may begin your puzzles. Get ready, get set, and… go!”

Not even a second later, our pencils were moving and tapping on the table. Sudoku puzzles happened to be my favorite puzzles to do, and I was quickly making good work on the puzzle. From the sound of Anthony’s pencil, it sounded like he was making good work on his own. I wasn’t worried about what would happen, and I finished the puzzle in record time. Hitting the buzzer, the alarm went off, and Destiny started clapping.

“Meredith has won our first challenge!” Destiny exclaimed. “Let’s check her answers and see if they’re all correct.”

Destiny took the paper from my outstretched hands and quickly started scanning over my answers. “All correct! Might I say great job, Meredith! You have won our first challenge and are now one step closer to winning the grand prize.”

“Nice job,” Anthony spoke with respect.

“Thank you,” I responded, feeling bashful.

“Now, onto the second challenge,” Destiny continued. “In this challenge, we will be switching it up a bit and focusing on more of a gorging challenge. After taking a quick survey of about two hundred people, we’ve decided that you are participating in a sausage-eating contest!”

My heart dropped to my already full stomach. This was a challenge. One, I definitely didn’t see myself winning.

“We’ve prepared for each of you thirty-two sausages, as that is the contest record,” Destiny explained. “Just like the challenge before, whoever finishes the challenge first needs to ring the buzzer. Now, the results can go either way right now. If Meredith wins the sausage-eating contest, she wins the entire challenge. However, if Anthony wins this challenge, they both go on to the last challenge for a tie-breaker. Now, are you both ready to begin this challenge?”

“I’m ready,” Anthony responded confidently.

“I’m ready,” I spoke nervously.

“Alright then!” Destiny exclaimed. “Someone seems a bit nervous and someone seems to be confident… Things seem to be heating up in here! Well, let’s begin! On your marks! Get set! And… Eat those sausages!”

Immediately, we both began digging into the sausages. I began eating those sausages slowly. I knew I wasn’t going to win this challenge, but I was for damn sure going to try my hardest.

“We seem to be starting off slow on Meredith’s side, but quickly finding a steady pace,” Destiny called out. “While Anthony over here, started off steady and hasn’t changed his pace in any way! Things are getting juicy over here, just like those sausages!”

Even with the half-chewed food in my mouth, her corny jokes made me chuckle a bit. Almost causing me to choke on the sausages, slowing my chewing, I took a moment a moment to gather myself. As I took my next bite, I heard the buzzer go off, letting me know that Anthony had won this challenge. With a dignified sigh, I took my napkin and wiped my mouth off.

“Anthony is the winner of the second challenge!” Destiny exclaimed, holding his arm in a victory pose. “Congratulations, Anthony! Might I ask how you seemed to fit all those sausages into your stomach?”

“Lots- *belch* of practice,” he responded with a deep chuckle.

“Well, as you are the winner of the second challenge,” Destiny began. “Both you and Meredith are now tied for the grand prize. Would you care to give us some feedback?”

“Of course,” Anthony responded. “I am excited to have made it this far and am plenty anxious to learn what the next challenge might be.”

“And you, Meredith?” Destiny asked, turning towards me.

“I’m a bit nervous, I’ll admit,” I answered, my voice a bit shaky. “After winning the first challenge, my confidence went up. Losing the second challenge took a hit to that confidence boost. However, I know what I signed up for, and congrats, by the way, Anthony. I definitely did not have the stomach to finish that plate of sausages.”

“Thank you,” Anthony responded with a smile. “Though you weren’t that far behind me, so I was worried a bit that you were going to beat me in this challenge as well.”

“Well, looks like our two contestants are getting along even with the knowledge that only one of them can win the thirty-thousand dollars,” Destiny said. “Are you two ready to move on to the last challenge?”

“I am,” I said with a smile. “Good luck, Anthony.”

“Good luck to you as well, Meredith,” he responded. “I’m ready, Destiny.”

“Alright, once again we are switching it up a bit,” Destiny began. “We had a bit of trouble deciding between two distinct challenges. So we thought it would be best to let the two of you decide for yourselves. For the first challenge, we thought of a typing contest, using a typewriter. The second challenge would be a test of your endurance to who would be able to hold a set of weights up the longest.”

“I’d go with the typing challenge,” I chimed in excitedly.

“I’d prefer the endurance challenge,” Anthony quickly added.

“Now that is a dilemma,” Destiny said. “We cannot do both challenges and can only pick one of them to go through. But I have an idea. To decide which challenge to perform, we will decide using a simple method known by everyone.”

“What method?” I questioned, running through all the methods I could think of in my mind.

“We will be flipping a coin to decide!” Destiny chirped.

“A coin?” Anthony questioned momentarily. “Simple enough, I suppose.”

“Simple enough indeed,” Destiny responded with a laugh. “Does someone here have a quarter we can use?”

A person from the surrounding crowd held out a quarter. “Why thank you, and I’ll have this back to you in just a moment. Heads for the endurance challenge, and tails for the typing contest. Does that sound fair to you guys?”

“That sounds fair,” I chimed in.

“I’m okay with that,” Anthony added.

Destiny positioned the quarter in her hand to give her the best leverage to flip the coin. The moments before she flipped the coin had been some of the slowest, and launching the coin into the air did not make time go by any faster. All eyes seemed to be on the quarter, watching it spin in the air. The nerves I was feeling only increased as I watched the quarter land in Destiny’s outstretched hand.

“Here comes the moment of truth,” she said, a mischievous grin on her face. Lifting her hand, she revealed what side the quarter was on. Unfortunately for me, it landed on heads. The next challenge was the endurance challenge, and I was not ready for it, not at all. I was decently strong, but I didn’t know how long I would hold those weights up.

“Alright then!” Destiny exclaimed with excitement. “Whose ready to see how long they can hold up these weights?!”

Taking a deep breath, I knew that whatever would happen would be what was supposed to happen. “Let’s do this.”

“Oh, I’m ready,” Anthony exclaimed, a bit hyped up now.

Destiny called for someone to bring the weights over, and they brought over two fifteen-pound weights. Setting a weight in front of each of us, Destiny thanked them and sent them on their way.

“Alright, we will set a timer and you both will pick up the weights in whatever way you want to,” Destiny began explaining. “As soon as you are both ready, we will begin the timer and start the challenge to see who can hold up their weight the longest.”

My nerves were going wild. Taking a deep breath, I tried shaking the nerves from my body. I tested the weight before picking it up, trying to see what position would be the best for me. To not waste anyone’s time, I finally settled on a position.

“I’m ready,” I stated.

“I am too, " Anthony added.

“Alright, we are going to be setting a timer for four minutes,” Destiny began. “Prepare yourselves, as soon as you’ve got yourselves settled, we’ll start the timer.”

Anthony and I both situated ourselves and gave Destiny a nod, to let her know that we were ready.

“Get ready, get set, and…” Destiny spoke. “And hold that weight!”

She started the timer, and we lifted the weights. At first, it was easier to hold the weight. However, it quickly began to feel heavier and heavier as the seconds ticked by.

“A minute has passed and you both are doing amazing,” Destiny exclaimed.

Only a minute? I asked myself. Only a minute has passed and I was already feeling the weight take its toll. In all actuality, I didn’t see myself winning this but I was definitely going to try. A boost of confidence went through me, and I gained more strength. Repositioning my grip on the weight, I began to concentrate knowing that I was stronger than I had originally thought I was.

“We’re down to the last stretch!” Destiny exclaimed. “It’s been three minutes now, and both of our contestants have been hanging in there in an incredible way.”

Three minutes had now passed, and I was barely holding on.

“Only twenty seconds left now!”

My grip was slipping and the sweat on my hands was starting to make the weight slip from my hand. A loud crash sounded right before the timer went off.

“And it looks like we have a winner!” Destiny exclaimed. “Mr. Anthony Dawson is the winner of the grand prize!”

“Congrats, Anthony,” I told him, keeping my composure.

“Thank you, Meredith,” Anthony spoke. “You have been a good opponent in this competition.”

“You have as well,” I told him.

“Well, look at the good sportsmanship between our two contestants,” Destiny awed.

I nodded with a sad smile on my face.

“Alright, Anthony,” Destiny began. “If you wouldn’t mind following me, will take care of getting you the prize you won! Meredith, thank you for playing, I hope you have a good day, and we wish you all the best.”

I took that as my cue to go, shaking Anthony’s hand. I went on my way, my mind filled with so many thoughts.

If the coin had landed on tails, I would be in a different position right now. My life took an unlucky turn, due to the flip of a coin.