The Lottery

The only thing that this story has in common with the famous short story "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson and first published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker is the title.

All individuals in sexual situations in this story are 18 or older.

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The religious denomination known as "The Sanctification of the Brethren and Sistren" in semi-rural Batesville, Nebraska (population 8,595 according to the latest census) was not a cult, although some unenlightened souls in the community undoubtedly thought that it was. The "SBS," as it was colloquially known, did not remove itself from interaction with other members of the community, didn't "worship" an individual leader as the infallible conduit to God, and didn't have sinister beliefs. That being said, the roughly 1,000 universally middle-class adult followers were all geographically limited to Batesville and the surrounding area, wore similar (though not outrageously primitive like some denominations out East) clothing, and did have a strong emotional and spiritual attachment to the female leader of the congregation Reverend Louise Agape [the surname she had selected because in Greek it meant "one who loves God"], those attributes possibly being the cause of some in the community mistaking the SBS for a cult.

Perhaps the two most important tenants of the SBS were marital fidelity and abstinence before marriage. The SBS congregants rejected modern society's fixation on sex, and the adultery and promiscuity that they believed the fixation on sex begot. That made The Lottery proposed by Rev. Louise Agape all the more remarkable.

The Reverend did not come to the proposal for The Lottery without prayer and soul-searching; therefore when she proposed it as a divine revelation, few in the congregation doubted her sincerity for even a second. The Reverend had an apparently completely monogamous relationship with her husband of twenty years, the town postmaster John Tilden, and was the most spiritual person anyone in the congregation had ever encountered.

The Reverend Louise was simply Mrs. Louise Tilden for roughly the first four years that she was married to John, but upon her religious conversion sometime between her third and fifth years of marriage she changed her surname to Agape, and started the SBS. Upon her conversion she found that she was a truly charismatic speaker, and SBS grew quickly and had moved into a substantial tabernacle a mere eight years after Louise originated it.

It was the direst of circumstances that led to the proposal of The Lottery by Rev. Agape. SBS's house of worship had been hit by lightning during a tremendous storm and only then did the Reverend and the lay leaders of the congregation realize how under-insured that they were. Due to the separation of church and state the only building in town that was large enough to host the group's worship services - the High School auditorium - was off-limits to the SBS, and the pace of fund-raising for a new tabernacle from the middle-class congregation was so slow that it would be more than a decade before all members of the SBS could worship together, as was their practice on Sundays. After two months of intolerable split services in the Reverend's home, or unpleasant gatherings of all in the working rural barn owned by one of the congregants, something drastic had to be done.

The stir that The Lottery caused in the Batesville community was epic. It was denounced by many, including in an anonymous editorial in the local newspaper and by those inclined to consider SBS a cult, but The Lottery was found to be oddly attractive to a large contingent of non-SBS members not only in Batesville, but in the entire county and two adjacent ones where word of The Lottery had spread first by word of mouth and then by social media and a website.

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In the third unpleasant gathering of essentially all 1,000 adult members of SBS at a parishioner's barn Rev. Louise was blunt as she addressed the gathering using a megaphone borrowed from a college cheerleader who was a member of SBS.

"Dear brothers and sisters of the Sanctification; as you know our faith has been harshly tested by the lightning bolt that begot the tragedy that struck us April 30th of this year. While our faith does not reside in a building but is within us all, in order to be able to most effectively practice our faith and do the outreach that the Lord has commanded us to do, we need a suitable house of worship. At the present rate of fundraising the lack of an appropriate tabernacle may well spell the demise of the communal attachment that we hold so dear, and preclude us from doing the community outreach that is our purpose."

Apart from The Reverend's voice there was not a single sound that could be heard except for the mooing of the bovines and the neighing of the equines temporarily relegated to the exterior of the building.

"This is not a plea for blood from a stone. I know for a fact that most of you have already contributed or pledged all that could be expected. However, to achieve our goals our parishioners will have to dig deeper, and we must incentivize the community outside our faith to contribute. In my desperate pleas to God I have been given a vision."

Louise took a sip of holy water and a deep breath before she continued. A member of the lay board held the megaphone for her as she raised her hands toward the sky.

"The vision that I have received is so contrary to our basic beliefs that at first I was sure that it had been planted by Satan, and not the Lord. However, after intense prayer over the last week I have been convinced that in fact it is the Lord who is the source, and not some sinister force. As I have come to know the Lord's vision, I have also come to know how it supports our faith. It is with the ultimate in sacrifice by one of us for the good of the many and the community at large that we can achieve both our earthly and spiritual goals."

It appeared to those in the front rows that despite the resoluteness of Reverend Louise's remarks that she blushed fiercely as she delivered the revelation that she had received from the Lord.

"All adult members of the congregation, male and female, married couples or unmarried members, will donate $500 each to enter a lottery. The lottery will be opened up to others in the community in Batesville, our entire county, and the two adjacent counties only. All those not members of the SBS will be required to donate $1,000 per person to enter. One winner will be fairly and randomly selected. Only I will know the name of the winner unless he or she decides to identify himself or herself. The winner will be entitled to three sexual encounters with any adult member of our congregation that the winner chooses, whether the winner be a member of SBS or an outsider."

The congregation was silent no longer; there was a groundswell of murmurs, exclamations, and gasps. The body language and facial expressions of the congregants were even more dramatic than the vocalizations. Reverend Louise let the hubbub continue for several minutes before yelling into the megaphone for order to be restored.

"I assure you that The Lottery, along with the insufficient insurance payments that we are due, will provide us with the funds that we need in order to afford us with a house of worship that will allow us to do as the Lord commands. Who among you is not willing to make a sacrifice for that noble goal?"

Anyone who expected to do other things for the next two hours was sorely disappointed because the next 128 minutes was consumed with The Reverend passing around papers with the details of The Lottery, and discussions ranging from purely inquisitive to hostile, interspersed with intense sessions of communal and individual prayer. Among the many questions that Reverend Louise was asked was one by Deaconess Martha Smythe: "Will you and husband John be eligible to be chosen with the rest of the adult congregation?"

Although Louise had not considered that issue before, without missing a beat she responded to the entire congregation "Of course the answer to Martha's question is 'yes' - and John and I will each purchase a lottery ticket and pledge our participation just like everyone else."

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Within two weeks any shake-out that would occur had. Surprisingly, only twenty three adult members of the congregation left, mostly elder members. Louise talked one especially good-looking young couple who was inclined to leave to stay by having an individual prayer session with them. The other roughly 980 members all contributed or pledged their $500, and for foregoing his $1,000 contribution a member of the community offered to set up a website and pursue a social media campaign that would announce The Lottery, and all of its conditions, to the general public.

The basics conditions for those outside the SBS were simple and reasonable. For the non-congregants:

-If a married individual bought a $1,000 (tax-deductible unless it was the winning one) lottery ticket their spouse also had to buy one, or sign a waiver. Since the name of the winner would forever be kept secret (unless he or she disclosed it himself or herself), the waiver was just to salve the conscience of Reverend Louise and if signatures were forged, so be it.

-No one could buy more than five $1,000 tickets.

-Each ticket purchaser was required to submit with his or her purchase an STD free certificate and then would be provided with access to a restricted part of the website where head shots and relevant information about the adult members of the SBS congregation were posted.

-Each ticket purchaser had to sign a statement agreeing that he/she would never reveal the identity of the congregant they had sex with if they won.

-The winner would be entitled to two two-hour encounters with the chosen member of the congregation, and one overnight visit.

-The winner could "chicken out" and sell or give his/her position to anyone he or she chose, as long as that person had also purchased a ticket.

For the congregants:

-All the adult members of the congregation would receive a personalized password phrase with their ticket purchase so that if they were selected they would know that the selector was in fact the winner since he/she would be required to give the password phrase.

-If selected they would have to submit an STD-free certificate, and sign a statement that they would not reveal the identity of the winner if they were selected, and pledged to fulfill the carnal obligations of The Lottery if they were chosen by the winner.

Despite some resistance in the community at large, the fundraising was successful beyond all expectation; this was probably due in no small part to the fact that there were several married female members of SBS that were extremely comely, since the majority of the ticket purchasers from the community at large were male. Within the sixty day period that lottery tickets could be purchased enough money was raised not only to build the tabernacle with all of the features that the one that had burned to the ground had, but with additional features that would help fulfill the mission of the SBS. These additional features included a homeless shelter and free meal service attachment to the main structure, and another part of the structure to house abused women and children. These aspects fulfilled a real need in the community since homelessness, poverty, and abuse were not restricted to large cities but also existed, even if not prevalent, in the three counties whose residents were eligible to enter The Lottery.

Construction started even before The Lottery was held, and with expedited permits and bonuses for quick completion of tasks, except for some interior details, the new edifice was finished by the middle of September.

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Alisha Franks had a prominent place in Batesville. Although known to no one except her financial advisor, she was the wealthiest resident of Batesville. For reasons that no one understood she had moved to Batesville two years before The Lottery, and ran (with three part-time employees) a small women's clothing store on Main Street.

Alisha was a comely woman in her early 40s with a body that she rarely displayed in public, although a few High School boys and male residents were lucky enough to see her at the community pool as she exited it after a swim on a hot summer day. Although she wore a relatively conservative one piece suit, there was no hiding her heavenly body, which exhibited large breasts, a round bottom, and supple thighs. Her assets were quickly covered up by a robe immediately after a swim, but she was seen enough to be the object of masturbation by a number of High School boys who freely admitted it, and by a number of men in the community who did not admit it.

What no one knew was that Alisha Franks had in fact lived in Batesville from birth until she was fourteen as "Constance Watson." Anyone who knew her in those days would not recognize her now for a myriad of reasons. The first was that she was extremely shy in those days, in part because she was significantly overweight, but also because of an overbearing and verbally abusive father.

The second was that she had had plastic surgery on her face when in her early twenties and any unpleasant features had been removed, and flattering features enhanced.

The third was that she lacked motivation when she had lived in poverty in Batesville, but in subsequent years had acquired all of the habits, intestinal fortitude, schooling, culture, and financial means necessary to insure that she could properly take care of herself in every way including economically, intellectually, culturally, and by pursuing a course of exercise that kept her body toned and young-looking.

Alisha had another secret. When she lived in Batesville as Constance she had a crush, bordering on mania, on a boy her age named John Tilden. John was perhaps the best looking boy in Batesville, however it was not for that reason alone that Constance was enamored with him. He was one of very few people - and the only young male - who was kind to Constance and made her feel worthwhile. He not only didn't complain when in sixth grade she was assigned his partner for square dancing, but seemed to actually enjoy her company. Losing contact with John when she was required to depart Batesville was her only regret associated with moving; and now that she was a wealthy and comely widow, she had hoped that if he hadn't changed too dramatically to interest John in her.

Her investigation of John's situation before she moved back to Batesville had unfortunately been too perfunctory. Probably in part due to the fact that his wife's surname was different than his, Alisha had not even known that John was married when she returned to Batesville. She was especially disconcerted that he had married the former Louise Branson, a girl in the class ahead of theirs who while not blatantly mean to Constance had never shown any kindness toward her either. She was pleased, however, that John was just as handsome in a mature way as he had been in a boyish way when she knew him as Constance, and just as kind and charming.

When Alisha found out that John was married, she still gave herself three years to seduce him, and have him divorce his wife and marry her. If she was unsuccessful within that time period, she would move on - but she felt that she owed it to Constance to at least make an effort.

While Alisha interacted with John every opportunity that she could, including cultural and charitable events that she hosted that she knew that John would be interested in, except at the Post Office she rarely was able to interact with him without Reverend Louise Agape hovering around. Not surprisingly, John also was very moral - even though in the few frank discussions that she had had with him she found him far less religious than his wife - so that the possibility of seducing him away from Louise did not appear to be great. In fact, Alisha had almost given up hope and decided to move back to Chicago - where she had lived with her first husband when he was alive - before the announcement of The Lottery.

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The Monday of the lottery drawing was one of the least productive in Batesville history. Everyone who had purchased a ticket was waiting with bated breath for the winning phone call, and even though selection of the congregant who would be "sacrificing" for SBS would not necessarily be made for some time, many in the congregation were nervous both about who would be selected the winner, and if they would be selected to perform if they didn't win.

Alisha was particularly anxious. She was realistic enough to not expect that she would win outright (despite her purchase of the maximum number of tickets allowed) especially since the scuttlebutt was that several thousand tickets had been purchased; however she was hopeful that she could identify the winner and purchase the right to replace him or her as the winner. At least in the latter instance she was lucky.

The winner turned out to be one Brandon O'Connor, a married man in his fifties who had purchased just one ticket but apparently had the luck of the Irish. His luck evaporated, however, when his wife Bernice found out that he was the winner. Although Bernice had signed a waiver she now maintained that it was done without taking him seriously, and knowing the penchant that Brandon had for one of the young comely married parishioners gave him an ultimatum - sell the right, or get a divorce.

Alisha had no problem finding out about the discontent Brandon expressed at the local watering hole to anyone who would listen. While he got several offers of $2,000 - $3,000 from his drinking buddies, before he accepted any Alisha got to him. Alisha finagled a meeting with him and Bernice the Wednesday night after the drawing.

Alisha came to the meeting with two contracts prepared for her by her Chicago attorney, and wasted no time in laying it on the line.

"Bernice and Brandon, this is what I propose. I will pay Brandon $2,000 for the right to replace him as the winner of the lottery, and we will sign this first contract. I can't advise you on whether or not you will have to pay tax on the $1,000 profit.

I will give you two a gift of $25,000. However, since I want my gift to remain confidential, you two will have to sign this second contract agreeing - on penalty of having to return the $25,000 - never to reveal my gift to you. Since it is a gift you will not have to pay tax on it, and I will file the necessary gift tax papers with the IRS. Deal?"

Since $25,000 would essentially double the O'Connor's retirement savings, Bernice almost ripped the second contract when she quickly grabbed it and signed her name to it. While not quite as anxious, Brandon had a big smile on his face when he signed both contracts. Both O'Connor's gave Alisha a hug goodbye when she left after giving them a $2,000 check made out to Brandon and a $25,000 check made out to both of them.

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Brandon called Reverend Louise to advise her that he had transferred his right as winner to Alisha. Louise had a somewhat queasy feeling when she called Alisha to ask if she had identified the congregant that she would have share her bed. The reason for Louise's unease was that Alisha was the best-looking woman over thirty in Batesville and the surrounding areas, and had always seemed flirtatious around John.

After identifying herself over the phone to Alisha Louise continued: "I...uh...understand that you have...uh... purchased the winner's position from Mr. O'Connor, Alisha."

"Yes, in fact I have - I'm quite excited since I haven't had any sexual encounters in quite some time," Alisha chirped in reply. In actuality, in order to serve her carnal needs while avoiding any serious relationship - unless one with John was no longer a possibility - Alisha had flown herself on her private plane to Chicago once every three months or so that she lived in Batesville in order to be serviced by a male prostitute; but that fact was unknown to anyone except herself.