The Great Coincidence

The Great Coincidence
Copyright © November 18, 2011 by Cupideros
(1,475 words)


Zeitgeist. Lana (Dirty) Arnell, Ellie (Barbi) Ballerino, Larry (Eightball) Simmons, and Neal (Ace) Lee didn't understand the word. They wouldn't know a Zeitgeist from an ice cream sandwich on a hot, windless summer day. Lana, Ellie, Larry and Neal knew something wasn't right. Ruthless, hard, cold, careless described their lives. If they were magicians, they might conjure up some spirits, or prayed to some higher power and offered a piece of their souls in return for a better bargain. But their youth blocked that path of reality.

Lana (Dirty) Arnell loved Neal (Eightball) Simmons with all her heart. Larry was a cute boy near her age, thirteen. It was a time of recognizing one possibly needed someone else in life; perhaps not for mating, perhaps. That someone else made life's journey easier. Larry, being fourteen, didn't even see pretty Lana yet. He saw Lana hauling coal from the local mine. This off-the-books work, kept Lana alive. The foster home people looked the other way, because times were hard. Every coin mattered and Lana had connections with the wife of the coal-mine owner. This work didn't suit Lana. However, her dusty tone legs and arms began to fade as her budding breasts stole the spotlight. But they didn't call Larry "Eightball" for no reason. Larry's parents died at a young age; his dad when he was three, and his mom one year later. He arrived at the Esssex Foster Home where Lana, Ellie and Larry stayed only because the Maix Foster Home shut down, due to lack of funding and housing regulations. Lana and Larry making a life together seemed impossible. To employ Larry, Neal and Ellie in the mine risked too much exposure. Love and life wasn't fair Lana concluded.

Ellie (Barbi) Ballerino lived and breathed fashion. Hand-me-downs from the older girls came at a cost. Ellie helped or did their homework. Still, Ellie patched up the clothes, thoroughly washed them and pressed them until they might be mistaken for Salvation Army discards of rich girls who travel every year on far away vacations and cruises. Ellie's nickname "Barbi" applied to her personality as well as her looks. Eternally optimistic, she always viewed the Zeitgeist as blowing against her back. "This foster home stuff is a phase," Ellie Ballerino always said.

Neal (Ace) Lee belonged in Las Vegas. His nimble mind counted cards, dice combinations, and he made bets on all kinds of things. Of course, being fourteen was a tad young for the glittering Las Vegas strip out west, but Neal dreamed one day of being rich anyhow.

These were good kids. Kids seeking the slings and arrows of outrageous good fortune. Kids who might have transformed into harden criminals or incorrigible school skippers. Or kids sucked down the drains of drugs, hopeless thinking, hanging out with those who didn't even know what Zeitgeist meant, but felt one hundred percent sure it hated their souls and wanted them defeated in perpetual despair. Lana, Larry, Ellie and Neal did their schoolwork. They looked for better days. Those days didn't seem forth coming though. More people felt like balled up paper tossed in the trash of layoffs and downsizing. Libraries got more and more crowded people looking for work on free Internet computers.

Lana, Ellie, Neal and Larry liked the quiet library. Here the Zeitgeist flowed.
"I think things are improving," Eight ball Larry said.
"Something stirring, something good," said Barbi Ellie.
"My lucky break is around the corner," Ace Neal said.
"It can't stay this way forever," Dirty Lana added softly.

Coincidence happens in fiction stories. And life reminds us not only is the Goddess stranger than fiction, but all of life relies on her every whim.

One day, a new Zeitgeist called upon Larry, Ellie and Neal. The foster counselor, Ms. Essex III, called Larry in and wearing her meaty, always red face and jolly cheeks as she clapped her hands together said, "Larry Essex Foster Home received a huge donation. Larry smiled. He was a good kid. "This man thought he was all alone, without descendants in his will long ago he wanted to make a difference. He stated the number of years before this children's aspect of his last will went into effect. I mentioned to his lawyer how our Essex kids deserved better. Mr. Simmons' from Conrad Simmons Construction donation might change the times for these kids. The lawyer said Conrad mentioned how he once had a daughter, who ran off with a milkman, and the couple had a son, who married, oh it is a long story, Larry, but you are Mr. Conrad Simmons Great Grandson! The Essex Foster Home received an eighty thousand dollar donation--Larry (Eightball) you are now worth over thirty-million dollars!"

Larry fainted. After, he came to, from a face-full of cold water, his good fortune fell into his ears again. He wanted to scream and shout to Lana, Ellie, and Neal. Ms. Essex III led him inside the lounge. Ms. Essex III called in Ellie next. "Well Barbi Ballerino, you always wanted to travel. Turns out your Great Aunt has decided you're not a bastard child after all! You have to suffer traveling around the world helping Ms. Moya run her world chain of four-star hotels. Ellie Barbi didn't faint right away. After, she said, "I knew my time was coming," she fainted. Of course, Ms. Essex III couldn't let Barbi spoil all the fun for Neal. Barbi went in the lounge to talk to Larry.

"Neal," your obvious gambling talents come from your background.
"Yes!"
"You're cousin on your mother's uncle side, from back near France, found out you were in Essex Foster Home. He will not have you languishing here any longer. You are to come right away, soon as all the papers are signed and be trained to run his casinos in Monte Carlo. Neal, a fast young man darted for the door. Ms. Essex caught him by the elbow. First, I must tell Lana next about her life. Ms. Essex opened the lounge door and Neal rushed in they all three jumped up and down, hugging each other exchanging stories.


***

Now right off, Ms. Essex explained all this to the coal-mine owner's wife--who understood how damaging this might be for little Dirty Lana. The wife was so kind as to offer Dirty Lana an easier job as a secretary soon as she turned sixteen.

"Lana, I want to say no matter what happens today, you can still work in the coal mine. You will never be laid off. The coal mine owner's wife, will bring you into the office when you're sixteen and you can work as a secretary."
Lana smiled. "A step in the right direction for a change."
"You should know, Dirty Lana, due to no fault of your own, your best friends, Ellie, Larry and Neal fortunes changed. For the better." Ms. Essex explained Larry, Ellie and Neal's new lives of wealth and prosperity. Lana took it hard, but showed no doubts. Lana walked into the lounge.

Lana said in a scratchy voice, "I am sure all these coincidences happen for a reason and that my coincidence hasn't arrived yet."
Ellie, Larry, Neal all said, "What do you think your coincidence is?"
"Well," Lana said, slowly, "Yesterday, I met a man who didn't work at the mine, but he was a journalist, writing about the mine working conditions. He said, 'I was too pretty a girl and too smart a girl for fate to have crystallized, cruelly treated you to such boring and heartless work. Something must be in store for you--something mighty big. And this man said, he was related to someone who could grant every wish to whomever the man took a requests. This man in fact he is the narrator of this story. He told me I would be suddenly named Queen of all the land and I'd need someone to count all the money in the land--that be Neal Ace. I'd need someone to make all the fashion and social arrangements for meeting people--that be you, Ellie Barbi. Of course, I can't be the Queen of all the land unless I traveled everywhere and--Larry, you're in the perfect position to arrange all the travel. Larry, I will make you King, once I married you; you always secretly loved me anyways, Larry-he said,'" Lana shrugged her shoulders, "'and I always loved you Larry--the narrator said.'"

All three, Larry, Ellie and Neal sat astonished. This omphalos fated coincidence held all their polycentric Zeitgeist coincidence. Larry and Lana lost their nicknames. Lana became Queen of all the land. Lana married Larry. And Lana Arnell continues to have all the best things in life to this day.

--THE END--

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Publication Date: 11-21-2011

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