The Lottery - Perception

It's that time of year again June 27. Its my favorite day of the year. I like lottery day even better then my birthday In my town it's the most important day of the year All year we play lottery in school but it only happens once a year. There is just one winner. Maybe one day it will be me I jump out of bed and run down to Mama. She seems awfully busy with cleaning the house and doing the dishes, I think those can wait for later, but Mama thinks they are so important and she is doing them now, so I don't bother her.

I rush out of the house and go meet up with all the boys from school. Dixie Delacroix already filled his pockets with rocks. I hope I get just as many as he does. Every year we have contest who can get cooler shaped rocks. He seems to be winning but I'll catch up. All the girls from school keep looking at us like we are strangers, I wonder what is wrong with them, maybe they have cooties. Little by little all of the adults come to the town square . I don't know why but they are not excited as we are they are quieter but they smile.All the kids cannot

hardly wait for the lottery to begin. Mr. Summers comes into the town square, now I know that its almost time to start the drawing .In my opinion Mr. Summers is the most important man in town, he runs all the community things; the square dance, teen-age club, the Halloween program and most importantly the lottery. When I grow up I want to be just like Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers brings the black box with him, I wonder why we don't have a gold box for such an important day? This one seems beat up, why doesn't any one take better care of it? Once I heard Old Man warner say there used to be wood chips to match the box when it was new. When I am in charge I am going to make it fancy again just like it used to be.

Right before Mr. Summers is about to start Mama comes running up. She almost forgets the most important day of the year She never forgets my birthday, how could she forget lottery day? I think im going to tell Mama that this year for my birthday I want a pumpkin cake, I guess she will make it later. Mr. Summers asks Mama where she was. I think he is worried that she would be missing something so important. Mama tells him that she had to do her dishes, it's a family tradition not to leave dishes in the sink He understands, he said "sometimes even if we don't have time for tradition we have to do it anyway."

Old Man Warner is making a racket in the back of the crowd. He is always yelling about something, he scares me. This time he is yelling at people who are talking about the town quitting the lottery. He says it has something to do with the corn, but nobody knows what he is talking about. Mr Summers looks around, he sees that everyone is here, and asks the crowd to be quiet. All of a sudden there is no noise and I feel Mama grip my hand tightly. I know how much she loves me, she is