The alarm sounded and Lisa\u2019s hand shot out of bed to\nsilence it. Why, she pondered, did people use the snooze button? An ex had\nargued about this, at some length, in fact more than one ex. The shower was hot\nand acoustically kind. Downstairs she made toast and coffee, black, the\nstronger the better. This was the cause of another disagreement. But, honestly,\nhow was she to know other people didn\u2019t take it that way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She wrote her Morning Pages. There were now over 100\nnotebooks stacked on her shelves, containing streams of consciousness. This\nalso seemed to be a major topic for discussion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Catching the tube she contemplated her day. Accounting was\nan oasis in the maelstrom that social interaction presented. Lisa knew where\nshe was with numbers. They were consistent. They obey rules. They never argued\nwith her. They always made sense and they often challenged her. She very rarely\nmet clients and when she did she knew that her presentation was the epitome of\nnumerical clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As she entered the office she saw The Lottery Winner was\nbeing announced. Ignoring the announcement Lisa switched on her computer and\ngot to work. Speculation was rife about who this week\u2019s winner was. By lunch\nshe had conquered the profit and loss sheet and was ready to write her report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunshine illuminated the office so Lisa decided to walk\noutside. This allowed her to work towards her daily 10,000 steps, breathe fresh\nair, make vitamin D and vary her diet. A very efficient use of her lunch break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As she briskly walked past the shops her eye was caught by\nthe newsreader urging The Lottery Winner to come forward and claim their prize.\nNo one had ever said what that prize was. No one ever seemed to interview\nprevious winners to find out. This had resulted in The Argument<\/em> and, somehow, an office visit by a man named Mr Jones;\nwho told her curiosity killed the cat and to take this advice to heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back at the office she heard her name being announced and\nturned to see a picture of herself with a newsreader asking people to let her\nknow that her ticket had been selected. The office was silent as Lisa went to\nher desk, picked up her case and walked rapidly towards the exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How long did she have? Where could she go? She had lots of\nquestions but no answers and she needed to think. As she crossed the road to\nthe tube station a black SUV cut across her path. Two men stepped out of the\nvehicle and approached her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Lisa Cromwell, we need you to come with us, now.\u2019\n\n\u2018Please, I\u2026\u2019\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The alarm sounded and Lisa\u2019s hand shot out of bed to silence it. Why, she pondered, did people use the snooze button? An ex had argued about this, at some length, in fact more than one ex. The shower was hot and acoustically kind. Downstairs she made toast and coffee, black, the stronger the better. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,55],"tags":[57,67],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","category-august","tag-lottery","tag-winner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-22","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}