Some will say it was her naivety, while others blamed her vanity; regardless, they stole Piper's prize because of her post.
"Describe your family" had been the topic of her 12th-grade English essay.
HUNGRY.
Piper wrote in large, blocked letters, having to write everything by hand since her family didn't qualify for the free computers or reduced/free school lunch.
"Please apply again for government aid," Piper often asked.
"Your father makes too much."
It blew Piper's mind that her father made too much money. Her family mostly ate generic Cheerios with warm goat's milk for breakfast and dinner. Sometimes, they didn't have enough money for Cheerios.
Piper's father drove long-haul trucks for his career with decent wages.
"Where does all the money go?" Piper quizzed her mom.
Her mom always rolled her eyes, and her face tightened before she answered. "He eats well on the road." Piper's mom never gave any other reasons.
When Piper lay in bed at night, her mom would bring her the cordless phone." Your father wants to tell you good night."
"Hey, Daddy," Piper merrily would say into the phone. Her father would smack his lips in the phone and say, "Guess what I am eating?"
Piper didn't like this game. She wanted to avoid hearing about her father's elaborate meals while she had skipped lunch that day. "I am eating Lobster. Oh, so good." He'd loudly chomp his next bite. Piper's stomach would growl with pain.
Eventually, Piper pretended to be asleep to avoid her father's phone calls.
That fall, Piper went to the Harvest Festival with her friends. They wandered from booth to booth, looking over the vendor's wares.
Piper wanted to spend her birthday money in her purse. When she saw the farmer in the faded overalls, she knew she had found the perfect place for her birthday money.
"Step right up and buy your raffle tickets for a freezer full of beef. That is right, people, an upright freezer filled with half-a-cow. Two dollars a ticket. Step right up."
Piper flung the twenty at the farmer.
"Ten tickets, please," she said.
The farmer barely glanced at Piper. "Sorry, miss, you have to be eighteen."
Piper smiled. "I just turned eighteen. Ten tickets, please."
"Each ticket has two parts. Put your phone number on the back of one part, enter it in the basket, and keep the second half just in case we call you," the farmer instructed.
Piper spent the weekend imagining every Cheerio she ate as steak. If she won that raffle, the meat would be a Godsend to her family.
After school, Piper guarded the cordless phone, not allowing anyone to use it. Piper's friend Amy sat with her as they scrolled through Amy's cell phone and waited.
"If only my family had a cell phone," Piper thought.
At eight-forty at night, the cordless phone rang. Piper eagerly said, "Hello."
"Hey, baby," her father's voice said on the other end. "Guess what I am eating?"
"I DON'T CARE!" Piper said and hung up the phone. Her eyes filled with tears. It was too late. She had yet to win the meat. There was no way they would notify the winner this late at night. Amy rubbed Piper's back.
The phone rang again.
"Just leave me alone, dad. I don't care about what you eat while we starve." Piper growled into the phone. There was silence. Was her father going to yell at her?
"Um, I am sorry," an unfamiliar voice said. "This is Pete Jenkin from Jenkin's Meats. We pulled your raffle ticket for the freezer full of meat!"
"Really!" Piper exclaimed.
"If you still have ticket number 348424, bring it to Jenkin's meats tomorrow to claim your prize."
"Hold on," Piper said as she emptied her purse onto the floor. There it was—her winning raffle ticket. "Yes, I got it," she could hardly say. "What time do you close?"
"Six pm."
"I won! I won!" Piper said.
"Holy Crap, let's put this on Instagram and Snap Chat!" Amy said, taking a picture of Piper and her winning raffle ticket.
The following day, Piper could hardly concentrate in school. As soon as school ended, Amy sped Piper to Jenkin's Meats.
"I am sorry, Lil' Darling," the receptionist said to Piper. "The raffle ticket winner already picked up the freezer and meat."
Piper shoved her winning ticket in the lady's face. "I have the winning ticket. You called me."
"I am sorry, Lil' Darling. The winner of the raffle ticket has already picked up the prize. He had the winning ticket." The receptionist turned away.
Piper bowed her head and bawled the whole ride home.
"How do you think the thief knew the winning numbers?" Piper asked Amy.
Amy's face went red. "You posted your ticket all over social media."
Piper hit Amy's dashboard. It had been Amy's idea to post it.
***
"What is the biggest lesson you have learned?" was the topic of the following English essay.
Piper gripped her pen and shook as she wrote. She hadn't eaten that day.
"The biggest thing I have learned is to guard my personal information. In a world of online exhibitionists, we give away everything sacred to us, especially our identity. Although my lesson was painful in so many ways, it may save me in the future from losing way more than a freezer of meat."
Across town, someone was eating steak.
The phone rang. "Guess what I am eating," Piper's father's familiar jab said.
Piper set the phone on the table, entered the kitchen, and poured warm goat's milk over her Cheerio dinner.
Sometimes the lessons of life are hard.
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A Hard Lesson
by Stephanie Daich
