Prompt #1

Well, I am back home. I know that I don't have much money so last night I treated Jo and myself to our one night of luxury a month: shrimp scampi and pie from my uncle's restaurant (both of which I made). Also, I couldn't really eat either because I discovered that I'm not really lactose intolerant; I've just had the stomach flu. Which makes sense as to why I cant really eat anything. Anyway, now I cant spend any more money except on bill and groceries. Good thing I don't eat much in general.

I don't really have much on this side right now (besides the fact that I know I have an interview at 3) so I thought I'd post this first prompt and see what you all think. Mind you, it's the first of 1001, so it's probably not that good because I haven't really practiced short stories in a while. It's also a bit long (I've limited myself between a paragraph and a page and this one is a page) so if you dont read it, I totally understand!

Prompt #1: During her first trip to Las Vegas, a woman experiences the luckiest night of her life.

Beth stared out the window of the bus as it pulled up to the Imperial Palace Casino in Las Vegas. She had been prepping for this trip for months, putting it off after her brother had come out of his coma and her mother had won the lottery. She had nothing against any of them. Of course she had wanted to spend time with her brother after he had awoke and of course she had been thrilled with her mother after winning half a million dollars and, instead of dividing the money for her children in her will, given half of it to a charity dedicated to saving goldfish and spending the other half on the most expensive cruise she could find and, while there, falling in love with the 18th wealthiest man in the world.

They were soon to be married. Of course Beth was happy for them.

But now she needed an adventure to herself. She had turned three her best friends down from coming along and, despite their complaints of her bad luck in large cities, Beth found Vegas to be nice already. The weather was the perfect temperature as she stepped down from the bus, fanny pack secured around her waist so she didn’t have to worry about her purse being stolen. She could see lights flashing from all the other hotels and casinos and thought that if she could get lucky in one, just one, she would never complain about her mother’s half a half-million give away again.

As she started toward the casino, there was a shout of “hey! Stop!” and Beth saw a man running with a woman’s purse, the woman pursuing after him. People just ignored it but, as he came running by Beth, she rammed her shoulder into his, knocking him flat on his back and dazed for a couple of seconds. The woman approached, looking grateful, and thanked Beth for saving her bag. As Beth was about to leave, the woman stopped her, digging in her bag and pulling out a ticket. “I know it will start any minute but I’d like you to come.” Beth looked down at the ticket to see it was a back stage pass to the show Excalibur. Although she had never really read any stories about King Arthur, she couldn’t pass up a dinner show.

She had time before the show to stop into one casino. She played a few rounds of blackjack and, then bored with it, stuck a quarter in a slot machine and… BING BING BING! She suddenly had millions of quarters pouring out of the machine for her. A crowd gathered as she tried to gather the quarters up and a handsome man offered her a bag to put them in. “Lucky girl,” he told her before winking and walking away.

By the time that she had to be at the show, Beth had to race there from standing and allowing someone to count and cash all of her quarters. A million dollars! She flushed just from the thought of it as she ran past casinos to find Excalibur. Once inside, she was seated right in front. Lancelot came to visit her, thanking her for saving Guinevere earlier, which was who the nice woman with the purse turned out to be. After the show, she was taken behind stage to meet the whole cast, introduced to her personally by Guinevere.

Yes, it was the luckiest night of her life. She would never live to forget or regret it.