The Numbers

This book is about a young man named John who seems to always be down on his luck struggling to make ends meet, a young woman named Beth who wants to be a model, and her husband, Tom, who seems overqualified for any job he applies for.But on a rainy day in Los Angeles, John stops to help a young lady named Beth who was not familiar with the traffic woes in Los Angeles to reach her destination. Beth's husband, Tom, was picking up a few things at the grocery store near their apartment. While he was paying for his groceries, he heard a reporter on the television at the market reporting on the lottery drawing that evening. The cashier asked him if he wanted to try his luck. Tom thought about it and then replied, "Yes, I think I'll give it a try." Tom walked out of the store feeling lucky and decided to have a beer at Hurley's Bar and Grille. The television there was on full blast, and the reporter was calling out the numbers.Tom looked at his numbers in disbelief and yelled out, "I think I have the winning numbers!" Incredibly happy that he had somehow just won millions of dollars, he began running down the sidewalk and sprinted across the street to his old black classic Pontiac Trans Am. He looked again at his lottery ticket and called his wife. He listened to the phone as it began to ring. "Come on, Beth, answer your phone right now, honey." Tom listened to her phone message, and at the sound of the beep, he spoke. "Beth, call me immediately when you hear this message!" Tom put his cell phone down and started up his Trans Am.A couple of minutes later, as Tom drove through the middle of the intersection with a green light, suddenly without any warning, there was a flash of light as his Trans Am was broadsided by a speeding car running through a red light at an incredibly high rate of speed, colliding with the Trans Am, trapping Tom inside and unconscious.

-- T. Bill McKnight