Page 4 of A Little Discovery

SPENCER

August

Packing up my equipment is a bittersweet feeling. I spent the last four weeks traipsing across the Australian outback, capturing wildlife and landscape shots I would have only dreamed of before. The professor over here taught us all how to use weather forecasts and the natural timing of the day to create visuals I previously believed were only available through photoshop. It’s been a completely surreal experience.

“You ready to get back to your tiny ass city?” my roommate for the trip, Stan, asks me while zipping up his own suitcase. “You are always welcome to join me and my brothers in Atlanta if you get sick of the cold.”

He shivers a bit while glancing outside. I laugh as my head turns the same direction. It’s crazy to think that I’m seeing snow in August, but that is what happens when you’re in a different hemisphere. As much as I have fallen in love with this place, I can’t imagine not wearing ugly sweaters on Christmas.

Even with my folks gone, I continue the tradition. The guys back home help me remember them…

I shake my head to dislodge the morose thoughts before I start gathering up the last of my stuff. We travel by road to Sydney in the morning and will catch our flights back to our home areas.Stan and I will part ways at LAX. He will fly off to The Big A while I head to Pittsburgh.

I’m not looking forward to the cost for a rideshare home from the airport, but I want to surprise the guys. It’s been a long month away from my found family at Kink Manor, and I know they feel my absence as much as I feel theirs… I know it because of the emails I’ve been receiving from our beloved self-appointed HBIC, head brat in charge. Eric has kept me updated on everything, whether I want to know it or not.

One thing I wish I could have an update on is the job I did for Sabrina Carlisle. She seemed way too happy about the pictures I delivered to her. All they showed that her husband doing was nothing more than pigging out on pizza and junk food while watching cartoons. I don’t think the guy is even capable of an affair, unless the person was covered in mozzarella and pepperoni, because the only thing he was interested in was the food and the television.

I provided a comprehensive report and filed the case with the agency I had my investigations license through. That way, if called, I could testify in court. Considering the process for divorce from filing to the hearing usually takes at least three months or longer, there shouldn’t be any way for her to screw the guy over at this point. Her joy just left a bad taste in my mouth that I haven’t been able to get rid of.

“Lights out!” the program director’s voice calls out, and I reach for the switch. Soon, I will be in my own bed again…

LUCKY

On the bright side, at least I’m divorced now. Leaving the shrew in the rear view is yet another reason that I am driving awayfrom the city proper right now.

It took a little under a year for Sabrina to completely blow through my inheritance. After that, once it was clear my family wasn’t giving me any more money, she found a way to frame me for adultery. I didn’t make that too difficult for her since I was regularly showing up at the same motel over and over again. But any investigator with a third-grade education would see that I was there alone every time.

As much as I love the whole pizza man porno trope, acne prone teenagers are not my type. The pizza delivery was no-contact every single time, if I even ordered delivery at all. Most of the time, I did carryout and brought it with me.

Even with testimony from Chris, the guy at the desk for the motel, saying that I was alone, she still managed to convince a judge that I was unfaithful because of the photographs provided by the investigator. The guy was subpoenaed but was a no-show to the hearing. The judge ruled in my ex-wife’s favor, and she took it all. That was a week ago.

Obviously, my father-in-law fired me. Thank the heavens… And thanks to Sabrina telling anyone and everyone in my family that I cheated and that’s how she won the divorce, the whole city thinks I’m a lying, cheating, asshole. Then there’s my mother. Apparently, I am just like her father and have no sense of familial loyalty.

My father won’t hire me with my mother in full on hate mode against me. Just once, I would like to see the man whose house I grew up in stand up to the woman who gave birth to me. But, no. He would rather publicly disown me and make it impossible for me to getanyjob worth having in the city.

Now, I’m down to the last two hundred dollars that I haveavailable from my liquidated stash. I only had about ten thousand of the two hundred liquidated so far. When I got the divorce papers, I figured I would have more time. I thought that the discovery process would take longer and that my bank account was still secret. I was wrong on both parts. The pre-nuptial agreement made things very cut and dry. As for the account, Sabrina apparently knew about it from the beginning.

Two hundred dollars is a far cry from the twenty million I had. Technically, whatever is left in the accounts should be getting split fifty-fifty, but my ex-wife’s lawyer argued that since I was the one who was unfaithful, the pre-nup was unjustly weighted in my favor and that the same rules applied to her should apply to me. The judge hasn’t made a ruling on that part just yet, so he’s frozen the accounts until he does. Unfortunately for me, that just means I’m stuck without a place to sleep, or anything but the few clothes and personal belongings I managed to fit into the car I acquired.

I was hoping that I could get a cheap car to replace the one Sabrina took in the divorce and then use the rest of the ten grand to pay for the next semester of school, but that was a pipe dream. The car ended up costing me almost seven grand when the taxes and title fees got added in. The three grand that was left wouldn’t pay for tuition and room and board for school. Hell, it doesn’t even pay for full time tuition for a semester. I can only afford two courses and have nowhere to live.

There was a chance I could stay with Gramps outside of the city, but Mother apparently made her feelings clear to the entire family. I’ve already heard it from the aunts, uncles, and cousins on Father’s side. Last I heard, Mother had just came back from visiting with Gramps, so I’m sure he knows now. I don’t think I could handle him being disappointed in me, even though I did nothing wrong other than marrying a girl just to shut her up. I already feel enough shame over it. I don’t need to add being adisappointment to the only person who I ever wanted to make proud.

At least it’s the end of summer. With the tent I managed to find on clearance, I should be able to find some woods somewhere that no one will report me… at least until I can find a job that will pay enough for a room to rent.

As I drive past what used to be the grocery store Gramps took me to when I was little, my car starts shaking and making a horrible knocking noise.This can’t be happening…

I can somewhat make out a sign glowing in the darkness up ahead and start the prayers that I can make it. Maybe this McKinley’s Tavern will be good luck for me?

The snort of laughter turns into a choked sob as my engine dies two hundred feet or so away from the parking lot. I drift my car to the shoulder of the highway and lay my head down onto the wheel. Letting the pain of the last sixteen months take over, I scream and sob in my broken down junker car, cursing the universe and everyone and everything in my life.

Lucas Anthony Holloway, heir to the Holloway fortune, is a nothing but a loser. Maybe if no one knows who I am, I might have a chance to be happy for once in my life.

“Lucky, my boy, you have a bright future ahead of you.”

Sure thing, Gramps. He may have given me the nickname of Lucky, but it hasn’t helped me at all in this life. Lucas Holloway is the unluckiest boy who ever lived. Lucky Hollow might have better luck.

I sit back upright and pull a hanky out of the pocket of my backpack to wipe my face as best I can. I never did get my favoriteone back from Sabrina, but that’s alright. Lucky doesn’t need reminders of Lucas’s life.

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