Can you win a contest you never entered? I did. I know I never entered the Chance of Immortality Contest because I never heard of the company Possibility Incorporated. But I got a check and a ticket in the mail on a Tuesday afternoon. I thought it was a scam until I cashed the check to test the check at my bank. So then I knew that it was real.
That night, my sister Jill was as confused about this as I was. She is a computer wiz so the first thing she did was to Google the contest and the company. Then she used Whois and other procedures to find out about the company.
"This company was created three weeks ago and it owns one cruise ship and an island. I have pictures," Jill's voice over the phone.
"I don't know whether or not to trust it. I never heard of this company or contest."
"Michael, sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. Maybe someone else put your name in."
"I never win anything Jill. Everything has a cost, a cost in time, money, or blood. I don't know what the cost of this is."
"You think too much Michael, just go and enjoy yourself," and with those wise words my sister hung up the phone.
I took the ticket from the envelop and the shining gold ticket almost glowed in the light. The check for two hundred dollars was meant to get me to the airport, that was way more than I needed. The plane would leave on the Saturday coming up. I put the ticket into my wallet, and prepared for, and went to bed.
I opened my eyes. I swung myself out of bed and began to prepare for the day. Twenty five hundred words would be my target, they always were my daily target. I sat at my computer and typed. I typed my draft of my story until I had roughly ten pages. I beat my goal and looked at the clock, it was noon. The doorbell rang and I answered it to find Yvonne Kent.
I opened the door and smiled at her, and she returned my smile with one of her own and a kiss.
"Hey babe, what is new with you?" Yvonne said as she carried packages with the aroma of Chinese food into my apartment. We sat on the sofa in the living-room and after taking out the food, we began to eat.
"I won a trip on a boat to an island in the pacific. They paid for a cab to the airport and a golden ticket to the island on a cruise ship. Jill got pics of the boat."
"That's fantastic babe, show me the ticket. Never saw a golden ticket before and God almighty knows I loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the original not the remake."
"The remake was much better than the original," I said passing her the ticket I fished out of my wallet.
"Babe, God almighty knows I love you but you don't know what you're talking about. The original actors killed it," she said looking over the ticket.
"Oh, I wish I could go with you," she said as she handed the ticket back to me, "how long will you be gone?"
"I don't know, it didn't say."
"Now that's a bit of an oversight on their part. I would like to know how long am I going to lose you for. I want to know how lonely I'm going to be," she said with a smile before continuing with the chopsticks and having both of us attack the General Tso Chicken and Steamed Dumplings.
I swallowed and said, "I just may stay and forget about the trip if you promise to stop by with lunch everyday."
"Nice try babe, but that ain't happening. God almighty knows I would if I could but I don't have the money. And this is so good," she said drawing out the so good as she dipped her dumpling into the tasty sauce.
"I wonder what kind of food they serve on the island. Heck I wonder what kind of food they serve on the boat. But do I even want to go?"
"Michael, the more you experience the more you can write about. The more you can write, the more money you will make. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn new stuff."
She was right of course, a chance to learn new stuff to write about would be invaluable. It could be my next two dozen paychecks. The more we talked the more my mind was made up.
That night I got a call from my sister, "Michael you are not going to believe who else is going on that cruise with you. There are princes and corporate executive's kids going with you, it's all over the Web."
"Jill, you're more excited about this than I am, and I am getting more excited by the minute. Tell me what you found."
"Possibility Incorporated seems to be targeting people from twenty to thirty, at least that is what I could figure out so far. And get this, the island isn't on any charts. It doesn't exist."
Silence.
"Bro you there?"
"That is a good reason not to show up."
"Well bro, this could be the adventure of a lifetime. You got three days to make up your mind. Tomorrow is Thursday and you leave Saturday. It's up to you but I would jump on it. It could inspire the story of a lifetime. A mysterious island that shouldn't be there. That is exciting stuff."
"It is probably a mistake of some kind…"
"Maybe bro, but Michael, isn't it already starting to be exciting? You're three days out and it's starting out this way, you are in for adventure."
"I guess…"
"Bro, the next three days are going to fly by and you are going to have a lot of fun. Enjoy yourself Michael, you are going to rub elbows with rich people, powerful people. If you play your cards right you could come out of this a changed man."
"Well, have a good night sis. I need to write tomorrow morning."
"Okay bro, but this can be the best thing that ever happened to you. Talk to you later."
I hung up the phone and stood to go to my bedroom to sleep when my back left pocket, the pocket with my wallet felt warm. I reached and pulled out my wallet and saw a light. My golden ticket was glowing and warm.
I took the ticket out and it felt warm to the touch as it was indeed glowing. My heart began to quicken and I tried to put the ticket down but it would not leave my hand. What was going on? What was happening to me? Am I dreaming?
The ticket began to glow brighter. I must be losing my mind because the glow seemed to move from the ticket to me. I began to glow brighter and brighter until as suddenly as it began, everything was back to normal.
I dropped the ticket and stepped back, staring at it. I looked at myself. I didn't glow anymore. Was I dreaming? Did it happen at all? I picked up the ticket, shook my head, and went to bed.
I opened my eyes. The alarm was going off. I swung myself into a sitting position, turned off my alarm and began my morning rituals. Upon completion I found myself in front of my computer and I began to play the video of my story that was in my mind. I typed.
I wrote like I hadn't written in months if not years. I added pieces from my real life, opportunity, conflict, everything but that golden ticket, that muse. The story formed and it was good. My imagination seemed to explode with details that appeared on the paper. Before I knew it my alarm was telling me it was time for lunch.
I don't cook. I never did. There is a cheap diner down the road from me. I headed there.
"Hi Michael, be right with you," said Maggie the waitress. I sat down in the far end red benched booth and waited. Maggie brought me a coffee asking, "your usual?"
"Yes please."
They were having a heated discussion at the booth next to mine.
A guy was saying, "… that would be the fifth prince from Saudi Arabia. They are only picking the rich and powerful for this …"
A girl cut him off with, "I don't know. What if there are a bunch of poor people who just didn't advertise they are going onto the cruise? I think …"
"...There is no way an average Joe like you or me would get to go on that cruise. It is for powerful people. Even the name of the company, Possibility Incorporated, that is a name for people with power, for the best of us. You are not going to find a …"
My food arrived with a, "here you are Michael." She served my food.
"How is the life of a big time writer going?"
Laughing, I reply, "My last book is getting a movie deal, my next story, one that I am working on now, is going well, thank you."
"Who knows, maybe our very own Michael Tanner will get one of those golden tickets to that island cruise everyone is talking about. I wish I were special," said Maggie.
"You're special Maggie!"
"Not like a prince, or the daughter of a rich family. Only they could get those tickets. Well, someone like you maybe."
I laugh, "where did that come from?"
"They seem to be picking people who are not only rich, but are either entrepreneurs or people who are good at something. All the people they choose are good at something, even the princes are good at something. I bet they would send you a ticket."
"Ah, but would you go," said Sam the cook.
"Are you insane, of course you'd go," said the guy previously talking to the girl.
"Definitely I would go," said the girl.
"To an island that just appeared a few weeks ago? I got an old buddy in the navy, he is a pilot. He says he been over that area thousands of times and ain't never seen land there, then up and boom, an island in the middle of nowhere," said Sam.
"A magic island, in this day and age, I would love to go there," said Maggie.
"Good way to get killed, running into the unknown like that," said Sam.
"I take it you wouldn't go huh Sam," I asked.
"And you'd take it right Michael, there would have to be gold on that island to get me there."
"If there were gold on that island?"
"Then I'd get me a gun."
I finished my meal as they finished the conversation.
I payed the bill and left the diner to go home. On my way home was an alley, and on the wrong day at the wrong time, I passed the alley. He was a black man, darker skin than mine. He wore torn jeans and a dirty t-shirt. He wore a frown and a shaking gun that pointed at me.
"G g get in here or I I swear I I'll k kill you," he said with a shaky voice.
"Relax, you got the gun and you got the power here. Relax, I don't waant to get shot by mistake," I said as I entered the alley.
"Gimme your wallet!" He said with a little more authority. I did so.
"Turn around," he said and I did. I heard feet running. I walked out of the alley and sighed, trembled. It was not the first time I'd been robbed, but I lost the ticket. I needed to get home and report this. I canceled my credit cards and notified the bank of the robbery as well as the police.
That night I lay down and closed my eyes to go to sleep and thought, "this sucks, I don't even have the option of going to the island now. Oh well," as I drifted off to sleep, the phone rang. I grunted as I turned and reached for the phone.
"Hello, Michael Tanner speaking."
"Hello Mr. Tanner, my name is William Towers, I own Possibility Incororated and I am seeing that you were robbed. I hope you are alright."
Possibility Incorporated. That sounded familiar. Wait, that was the company sponsoring the contest. This was the owner? This guy was rich. Why is he calling me personally? How did he find out I was robbed?
"Hello Mr Towers, I'm fine thank you for asking. I'm confused, are you monitoring our bank accounts? How did you know …"
"No, no my friend. I have access to many things that would surprise you, more on that when you get here."
"I lost my ticket …"
"You lost the ticket so we are special deliverying a new one to you. You are lucky young man, you have twice what everyone else has. You are a writer. Yes yes indeed, you are very lucky young man."
"I don't feel so lucky."
"No no no, I guess you wouldn't now hehe. But you are. Expect the ticket tomorrow evening and know that I am excited about meeting you Mr. Writer."
"Tanner, my last name is Tanner."
"Right yes yes yes," and I heard a click letting me know the strange man hung up. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to embrace me.
I opened my eyes. I swung myself into a sitting position and turned off the alarm and performed my morning rituals. I walked to my computer room and sat down and began to type. So much had happened to me and in one way or another I was typing new experiences derived from what had happened.
Some time while I was typing a thought occurred to me, it was Friday and tomorrow was the contest trip. I would take a cab tomorrow night to the airport and sleep on the plane. If the package came today. My sister called me at lunch and I told her about yesterday's adventure. We spoke for a little bit and then there was silence.
"If you decide to go tomorrow, be careful Michael, you're the only brother I got."
That evening a special delivery letter came for me. I opened the letter when the delivery man was gone; it was the golden ticket. I held the ticket and almost immediately the ticket became warm and began to glow. The glow crept up my hand and arm and encased my entire body.
"What on earth is going on," I said as I realized that this was no dream, it was happening. With trembling hands I put the slowly fading ticket into my wallet and watched as my body's glow began to fade. Mr Towers and I were definitely having a talk. Yet I wanted answers to questions in my mind so I would go on this trip. After performing my nighttime rituals, I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes.
I opened my eyes and swung myself into a sitting position. I completed my morning rituals and began to work at my computer. Today was Friday and tomorrow I would be flying to the cruise ship across the country. I wrote until noon, and I then skipped lunch at the diner and went to the kitchen to make a fast ham sandwich. I ate it with a glass of water.
I then opened up a TextEdit file on my Mac and saved the file as a Python file. This would allow me to program my computer. I then created a program that would email to my sister a description of what happened to me last night: the glow that enveloped me. I took photos of the ticket to send to her, I didn't know if it would help but it wouldn't hurt. I set it to automatically send itself with the pics to her in seven days.
I continued writing till late in the evening before getting my laptop ready for the next day. After performing my nightly rituals, I lay down and closed my eyes.
I opened my eyes. I swung myself into a sitting position on my bed and reached to turn off the alarm and I was excited. I'd been on a plane twice before, but never on a cruise ship. My morning rituals flew by and I couldn't stop wondering who were the exciting people I would meet on the cruise. I picked up my prepared laptop and after locking and securing my apartment, with my desktop on so that it would email my sister if I didn't send a cancellation signal, I left.
The cab was on time, the trip to the airport was uneventful and the plane flights were long. It was in the evening, after making good time, that I found myself on the onramp to the cruise ship. I then saw two men talking, an old man in an expensive suit, and the man who robbed me of my wallet.
Outraged I stormed the ship, "stop that man, he is a thief."
The man sneered at me. When I was next to him, I balled my hand into a fist and let it fly to his face. It didn't connect. He blocked my punch and fired off three blows, two to my torso and one to my face. I saw stars. He laughed.
"Mr. Tanner control yourself," the old man with a familiar sounding voice stepped between us, a hand on my chest.
"But he is the one…"
"I am fully aware of who Mr Derek is, and how he aquired his ticket. You have been compensated."
"Mr. Towers?"
Something then sounded in my mind. It was a blue box with words I both saw and heard.
… Initializing
… Welcome to Defense System Version 0023
… MICHAEL TANNER
… Please Prepare For Multiverse Conversion