THE INTERRUPTED ROUTINE

She was tired. A deep-down tired where everything hurt, and yet she could not tell exactly what hurt and why it hurt. Every morning was the same. Up at 5 a.m., eat, drink her coffee, shower, get dressed, gather her stuff for work, catch the 6:20 a.m. train to go downtown. She would get to work at 7:30 a.m., gather herself and her thoughts, start work at 8 a.m., work until 5 p.m., catch the train home, eat dinner, watch tv, go to bed.

Today, it was different. She overslept, rushed through her routine, missed the train, and on top of that, it started to rain. She decided to take shelter inside the small train station and wait 40 minutes for the next train. As she entered, she noticed that she was the only one there. At least finding somewhere to sit will not be a problem, she thought.

As she walked over to the row of seats by the window, she noticed the little black book on the floor, slightly pushed behind the leg of a chair. She bent down and picked it up and examined the book. It was about the size of an address book, with no discernable writing on the cover. She opened the book and the only thing written inside was six numbers with a notation next to them. Six numbers written from smallest to largest and next to them said, "play these tonight." She wondered, are these magic lottery numbers. "What do I have to lose", she thought. She tucked the book away in her shoulder bag and decided when she got to work; she would look to see which lottery game was playing tonight.

The 7 a.m. train pulled into the station, and she got on the train and headed downtown. She knew about three things that were a sure thing: 1 - She would be late for work. 2 - Her dictator-like boss would comment on it. 3 - She was going to have to work late to make up the time. With these three things now occupying her thoughts, the little black book was forgotten.

She arrived at work at 8:10 a.m., and her boss was watching from his doorway. True to his hateful self, he pointed to his watch and said, "It must be nice to be able to saunter in 10 minutes late," and the next thing he said, "looks like someone will have to work late tonight." She rolled her eyes, internally, of course, and walked to her desk. She promptly got to work, diligently typing away and answering phone calls and answering emails.

Around lunchtime, she went to grab her shoulder bag and the little black book fell out. She looked at it and smirked, "Oh yeah, my winning numbers." She took her lunch out and sat at her desk, eating and browsing the internet. She looked at the book sitting on her desk and thought, "Why not." She looked up which lottery game was being played tonight. She jotted down the game on a post-it note and attached the note to the little black book.

5:30 p.m. rolled around, and she finished up her work, put her stuff away in her shoulder bag, grabbed her coat and the little black book with the note still attached, and walked out the door. She walked out the door of her workplace to the corner store and waited her turn at the register. When it was her turn, she politely asked the cashier for a ticket for the lottery game tonight with the six numbers on it, paid the amount the cashier said, told the cashier, "Thank you and have a good night," and walked to the train for the ride home.

Her whole routine was off because of oversleeping. She sat down in front of the tv with the frozen dinner she had heated up. She started to eat and watch her show. At 9 p.m., she started to get ready for bed and remembered that the lottery numbers were drawn every evening at 9:15 p.m. She delayed her bedtime routine for a few moments, pulled the ticket out and watched as the lottery came on. The lottery host went through his intro monologue, and then it was time for the drawing. The host pulled one by one the numbers, six numbers, her six numbers. She looked at the tv, then back to her ticket, back to the tv, and then back to her ticket. She slowly let out her breath, and she won. She never won anything. She won a lot, a lot of money. 45,000,000 million dollars to be exact. She pinched herself. She was dreaming, she thought.

It was 10 p.m., her routine now completely out the window. She had shut the tv off and stared at the ticket. The first thing she did was get online and see what the first steps she should take were. Once she found the information she needed, she printed it out and went to sleep.

She woke up at 7 a.m., called and sent an email to her dictator boss, letting him know that she would not be at work. She double-checked her ticket against the winning numbers to make sure that she did not dream it all. Once she was sure that she won, she double-checked to make sure that she was the only winner. She was. "Holy cow! I am rich!" She started laughing. Laughing the laugh where it leaves you breathless and lightheaded. She was no longer tired, she no longer hurt, she no longer wanted to work at her job or for her dictator boss. That day she followed the instructions she found online, she set up her financial plan before collecting her money. The best part of her day was going to her job and telling her boss she quit. She cleaned out her desk, walked out of the building with her stuff, and for the first time in a long time, she noticed how lovely everything was. So lovely in fact, she started to hum a little song while she walked towards the train, she walked a walk with a bit of a bounce in her step. As she walked, she thought, "I wonder what else I can find if I change my routine?" And she changed her routine starting that moment and never looked back.