Page 38 - Unlikely Stories 1

Your Lucky Numbers

quickly followed the routine, she glanced out the living room plate
glass window into the dusk. No activity on the street: had anyone else
gotten the message? She longed to run outside, knock on neighbors’
doors, spread the alarm. But Bernie had specifically warned her not
to do that: it’s like sudden depressurization on an airplane, he said;
you have to put on your own oxygen mask before you try to get one
on your child. Otherwise you may both be lost. And he had promised
that everyone would know about the disaster by the time he got
home, presuming it happened during his working hours.
His job, in the nearby state government office building,
involved auditing and statistical analysis. Ty was not interested in
technical matters, and was little interested in the details of his work;
Bernie, for his part, was content not to burden her with them. Their
lives, like those of most of their friends, revolved around outdoor
activities on weekends and television programs in the evenings. She
had a small catalogue sales business she ran out of her home office. It
supplemented his income, enabled her to work part-time and
provided her enough satisfaction to prevent domestic strife.
She heard the screech of brakes and tires as Bernie pulled
into the driveway. That was not his driving style: now she knew it was
serious. He continued more cautiously into the two-car garage,
parking in his carefully marked spot next to the idling station wagon.
Then he leaped out of his car, eyes wild but focused.
“Ready?”
“Yes, but—”
“In you go,” he said, fairly pushing her into the other vehicle.
He made a quick inspection of the items she’d loaded, checked the
gauges on the dashboard, and nodded with grim satisfaction.
“Perfect, Ty. We’re going to make it.”
“But, Bernie,” she cried, as he pulled out into street and
waited until the garage door had closed behind them. “What
happened? Where are we going?”
“Tell you in a minute.”
She sat silently, hands clasped tightly in her lap as he zipped
through residential streets to the nearest entrance to the interstate

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