Irimia Codruța-Elena

L112

THE LOTTERY

-rewriter-
Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It
had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy
pencil in the coal company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up and there was a stir in the
crowd.
They all knew he had to get his hands on the stones now and throw them at Mrs.
Tessie. But to everyone's surprise, Mr. Old Man Warner came out of the crowd and said:
“Stop!! The lottery is a game where our villagers should win money, not lose their
fellows!”
“What's wrong with you, old man?!” said one of the crowd. “Mind your own
business! These are the rules of the game! This is the tradition and we will respect it
properly!”
“Hmm... The tradition you say? Then why not get involved in making a new box?
Don’t you see that it has lost its color? Don't you see that from year to year time is left on it?
Is that how you respect tradition?!” said Mr. Old Man Warner.
Nobody says anything. There was silence and Mr. Old Man Warner resumed with
more ferocity:
“Mr. Adams told me that in the northern village there is talk of giving up the lottery!
We should do the same! It's too sinister a game! Is that what we will teach our children? How
to kill people with stones ?!”
Again, no one said anything. Everyone was listening! Finally, Mr. Summers tells the
villagers:
''Taking into what the old man said, from today we will change the tradition! Instead
of the drawn black spot, we will write a sum of money on the sheet, which will be collected
throughout the year from your donations. Why kill our fellows when we can help them?”
And so Mrs. Tessie was saved and received some money from Mr. Summers, marking
the change in tradition.
Time passed...The following year the villagers had a new, big and beautiful box.
Instead of the stones collected by children, balloons of all colors were placed, and now the
lottery had at stake a sum of money and not a man's life. From year to year, carousels, slides,
and cotton candy were brought, bringing joy to the children's souls! From now on, the day of
the lottery has become the biggest fair in the area, children waiting every year with
impatience for the Lottery.