Hurley didn\u2019t drink, really, but the liquor store was his favorite place to buy lottery tickets. He\u2019d never heard of anyone celebrating a multi-million-dollar windfall at the gas station where some teenager with a face pierced full of tin randomly generated winning numbers between yawns.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carl behind the counter owned The House of Spirits, but he rarely spoke unless spoken to. What he had against music or a television, nobody knew. He kept the place meditation quiet except for the hum of neon signs and beer coolers.<\/p>\n
Hurley almost felt bad putting a twenty down for tickets. The bill\u2019s quiet rustle against the linoleum counter destroyed the monastic atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver bring leftover chili to work just to hear yourself fart?\u201d Hurley joked.<\/p>\n
Carl pulled a handful of tickets out of the machine without a word.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m only kidding, man. I need you on my side. Right now, this lottery is my retirement plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carl nodded, then slowly leaned forward as if about to share an enormous secret. \u201cPretty funny. Everybody knows you and Marjorie left the reunion together. Her small fortune not enough for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Marjorie was a divorced adult. Three times over, in fact. But Carl\u2019s punch hit faster than Hurley could start explaining that math. Hurley\u2019s nose, upon impact, busted open like a water balloon.<\/p>\n
Carl leaned forward again. \u201cI was husband number two. Apparently, nobody remembers that. Husband number three didn\u2019t waste time chasing after her either. He\u2019s getting his due now, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some loud college guys walked in right then, clearly oblivious to the customs of the place.<\/p>\n
Hurley wadded up his lottery tickets to wipe away the blood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hurley didn\u2019t drink, really, but the liquor store was his favorite place to buy lottery tickets. He\u2019d never heard of anyone celebrating a multi-million-dollar windfall at the gas station where some teenager with a face pierced full of tin randomly generated winning numbers between yawns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":20187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3466],"class_list":["post-19636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-brianbeattympls","writer-brian-beatty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20188,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions\/20188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}