The Wheel of Fortune and the Capricious Fortuna

Fate is like a whistle in the wind. You sense it, but you cannot see it, you cannot grasp it, and you cannot repeat it.

Today was not going well for Luke. The power in his apartment went off during the night so his alarm clock did not ring with its high-decibel buzzer. So he got up late for his third day on the job at the Bank. Rushing to make up time, he broke a shoestring. The dog, when allowed to run free in the back yard and deposit his “calling card” wouldn’t come back into the house no matter how much pleading and cajoling Luke offered.

It was one of those days and there were still 14 hours before he could call it a day and hit the sheets. The god of Ill-Fate seemed to be jumping with joy with Luke’s trials and tribulations already this morning.

As Luke approached the intersection, he saw the bus pull into the stop to let the people off and then on. Luke knew that to make this bus he would have to run the rest of the distance. Shortly after the 100 yard sprint began, a woman came out from a doorway right in front of Luke and dropped her purse as Luke swept by. Luke, realizing he was at fault, stopped his sprinting, turned around, picked up the purse and knew that he would have to wait 15 minutes for the next bus.

While waiting for the next bus he anxiously paced back and forth, and tried to remember the movie he had seen the previous Saturday about the Wheel of Fortune and the goddess Fortuna in Medieval times. At the time he watched the movie he thought it was a bit “way out” for his taste, but after ruminating on the misfortunes of this morning, he was beginning to have second thoughts about its relevance.

Finally, the next bus came by and was only ten minutes later than the schedule said it would be. Luke saw only one empty seat about three-quarters of the way back, so he focused his attention on it and hoped that no one else would grab it before he got there.

That seemed to be the first fortunate event so far this morning as he slid into the seat. But as his hand went down to the seat, he felt something like leather. He looked at it and saw that it was a small black notebook about 3 inches by 5 inches. He opened it and saw that the first page seemed to give enumerated instructions on how to process a person buying a car and putting the title in the name of a second person.

Luke then turned the page and found that each page had the name, address, and confidential financial information of a person, and then, lower down on the page, the name and address of another person. As Luke thumbed through the notebook, he noticed that there were about 15 pages filled out and interestingly, the first name on each page was of a man, and the second name on each page was of a woman. None of the women’s names matched the man’s name.

Luke then re-read the page of instructions and gradually realized that these instructions were for a man to buy a car for a woman who would take possession and title of the car without going through any financial institutions. These were to be “free gifts” under the table.

Luke realized that this notebook, although of no use to him, would probably be very valuable to its owner. After reading the various pages again, he realized that each page included the make and model of the car being given and noticed that each car was a BMW. Since there was only one BMW dealership in town, Luke guessed that the owner would be one of the salesmen at this dealership.

He figured that since he was late for work already, and the BMW dealership was only four blocks beyond the bank, he would stay on the bus and see if he could find the owner at the dealership. The more Luke thought about it on that bus ride, the more he became confident that this notebook had the names of several sugar-daddies who had bought BMW’s for their paramours.

As Luke descended from the bus, he realized that he couldn’t just go up to anyone and ask them as he was certain the owner would want to keep this as confidential. So he went into the lobby of the dealership and instead of talking to a salesperson, he stood by the coffee machine, took out the notebook, and started thumbing through it hoping the owner would recognize it and come over himself. Which almost happened except the person who came over to inquire about the notebook was a woman, not a man as Luke had imagined.

The woman, with a name tag of “Sandra” didn’t say anything. She just approached Luke, tapped the notebook with her index finger, then held up her finger to her lips indicating that Luke was not to say anything, and then she turned around expecting Luke to follow her.

As Sandra entered her office she motioned to a chair for Luke to sit in and then she shut the door and went around to her side of the office desk and held out her hand for the notebook. By this time, Luke realized that he was in the bargaining position and surprised himself by boldly saying, “What is this notebook worth to you?”

Sandra still said nothing, but retrieved her purse, took out her personal checkbook and started writing leaving the “Pay to:” field blank. After she finished, she took the check and handed it to Luke and again put her finger in front of her lips indicating that the entire transaction was to be done without a word being said.

Luke looked at the check and almost choked. It was for $20,000. He barely made $24,000 the previous year and thought that his fortune had changed when he got this new bank job where he would be earning $28,000 for the entire year. After recognizing the bulge in Luke’s eyes upon seeing the check, Sandra again held out her hand for the notebook. Luke looked at the check and realized that all he would have to do is fill in his name and he would be able to deposit it in his new account with the bank where he worked. Immediately, Luke took the small notebook and placed it in Sandra’s palm. Sandra then got up, went to the office door and opened it thus ushering Luke out just a she had ushered him in. However, this time, as Luke reached to door and took one step into the lobby area, Sandra said her first words, “How fortunate that you came in today. I hope you have a great day.”

Luke left the BMW dealership feeling lighter than he could ever remember. Putting the check in his shirt pocket, he started walking the four blocks back to his bank trying to phrase his excuse for being late. Luke also thought that he shouldn’t deposit the check in his account the same day that he was late for work so he decided to wait and possibly even deposit it in another bank by opening up another account where no one knew him.

Lucky Luke now remembered the movie he had seen how there would always be a rise in one’s fortune following a deep descent into misfortune.

Calamity is like a blow to the solar plexus. It bends you over, it knocks the wind out of you, and you hope it never repeats.

That evening, after leaving his job at the bank, Luke pulled out the check from his shirt pocket to make sure that he hadn’t been dreaming. After seeing that the name was still blank, he took out a pen and printed his name as the payee lest someone else have a chance to cash it. To celebrate, Luke stopped at a steak house and throughout his solitary meal, he tried to focus his attention on how he would spend the $20,000. He was thinking of buying a car, even though when one lives in the city, a car is more of a bother than help. He thought of taking a vacation, but he didn’t like to travel alone. He thought about buying new furniture but realized that wouldn’t cost more than $5,000 to completely furnish his small unit. He wondered if other people would have so much of a problem trying to decide how to spend $20,000.

After paying his tab, and leaving a more generous tip than normal, Lucky Luke left the restaurant and headed home. There he got comfortable by removing his shirt, pants, and shoes and, dressed only in his boxer shorts, settled in the comfortable recliner to watch another streaming movie on the TV.

All of a sudden, Luke awoke with a start as he realized he had fallen asleep and there was chaos and commotion all around his apartment. He saw the flashing red lights through his window, and heard many people yelling and even a few women screaming. Then, as if this wasn’t enough overload for his senses, he was jolted by the acrid smell of smoke. Then he realized that his eyes were smarting and stinging as he raced for the door. Opening the door, he was enveloped by a large billow of brown-gray smoke and to the right he saw the yellow and orange flames of a fire.

Thankfully the fire was to his right but the stairs to go downstairs and out of the building were to his left. He immediately joined the yelling throng of others in the apartment complex and ran for the stairs.

Safely outside, Luke stood behind one of the three fire trucks as he watched the helmeted fire squadrons attempt to contain the roaring fire. Luke noticed that it looked like the fire had started in the apartment next to his on the second floor and remembered how that it always smelled like cigarette smoke every time he walked by.

Luke was thankful for the Salvation Army personnel who were passing out coffee and doughnuts and making notes of everyone who was standing around who lived in the building. As one volunteer came to Luke to ask about him, he gave Luke a piece of paper with an address and phone number on it for the Salvation Army thrift store. The volunteer told Luke that he should contact this place in case Luke should need some personal items that might get lost in the fire.

It was then that Luke realized that he was standing outside the building in nothing but his paisley boxer shorts and became self-conscious. However, this feeling was short-lived when Luke suddenly realized that the check he had received earlier in the day was still in his shirt pocket which was hanging on the doorknob of his bedroom. Luke suddenly became a madman and tried to race toward the building where the flames were now coming out of the windows of his own apartment as well as his next-door neighbor’s. It took three firemen to keep Luke from running into the burning building.

Four hours later, Luke was in the Salvation Army thrift store and a young woman was there to help him find clothes that were his size. The young woman was telling Luke how fortunate he was that he was able to escape the burning building.

Luke just nodded in agreement and wondered what would happen in the next Wheel of Fortune cycle and what Fortuna had in store for him tomorrow.