Coffee with Rachel: Part 1 [FICTION] It had been exactly..

Coffee with Rachel: Part 1 [FICTION] It had been exactly 61 days since I last saw Rachel. With her gone and mostly out of my mind, the time had gone rather quickly. But with her two beautiful children staying with us while her and her husband were gone, she was honestly really never out of my mind. The truth is, I’ve never known anyone who’s won the Lord’s Lottery, and I’ve certainly never talked with anyone who’s had actual first-hand knowledge of the experience. Then came the news about Rachel. It literally rocked our entire peaceful little bedroom community to its foundation. Her and her husband Theo naturally became instant celebrities. The local news even did a nice little profile on Theo that emphasized what a model citizen he is, while lauding the amazing devotion he has for both his beautiful wife and our beautiful country. I recorded almost every spot that the local affiliated did on the two. For some reason, I just couldn’t get enough of the story. Now granted, I’ve seen numerous talk shows with prior winners, and I certainly don’t live under a rock. But finally getting an opportunity to have coffee with one of my closest friends who’s actually lived through the entire experience with her husband… it’s honestly difficult to describe the excitement I was feeling as I anxiously awaited the arrival of her car in the driveway. And while I couldn’t exactly explain why it was happening, my panties were definitely moistening in anticipation of her entrance. The Lord’s Lottery has a number of interesting facets to it – one obviously being the financial windfall. To think, Rachel and Theo will likely never really have to work again for the rest of their lives. The stipend that they should start to receive in a month or two is nearly quadruple what the two of them were bringing home when they both were working. And with Theo likely to return to work eventually, the two of them were almost certain to be on the verge of living on an entirely different rung of the socio-economic ladder. Was I jealous about that? Maybe a little – I am only human, after all - but it was my curiosity that was definitely getting the better of me. Flat-out, I just needed to know if the reality is anything even remotely like the portrayal. But winning definitely has other consequences, as well. For instance, the winning female and her husband are given exactly one week to set their affairs in order before being completely uprooted from the rest of their family, their jobs and their community to live in complete isolation for two full months with the Lord. And this particular lottery isn’t even one that can be played voluntarily. There’s no “entering.” Winners are chosen purely on the basis of genetic profile information that gets collected at b!rth. No one, other than the Lord and his staff, is even privy to the criteria for selection. As ordinary citizens, we have no choice but to simply have faith that the lottery winners are the ones most suited to furthering the Lord’s “Master Plan.”