Following my ongoing theme, this is dark, twisty, and about getting what you want. The idea being, you might get it, but maybe (probably), not the way you expected. It’s inspired by someone I know who was trying to get an old tenant out and get a contractor, and ended up getting what he wanted when the tenant’s new roommate vandalized both units of his duplex. And of course, those tv shows that I will not name, where I have seen more than one average person running it land really badly, and made me wonder if anyone ever got hurt doing it.
The show had sounded harmless enough. It was just an obstacle course, and she really needed the money. The kooky story they made her rehearse was fine. Sure it made her sound like a little bit of an idiot, but she could live with that for a chance at that much money.
It was only one week, and they would pay 5000 just to be on the show. There would be 10000 to get to the semi finals, 15000 if she made the finals, and the grand prize, the part that everyone knew about was 250000 dollars and she needed the money.
It ended up that she needed a lot more than that. She hadn’t thought much of the medical waiver she had to sign, it had been glossed over as standard, boiler plate, indemnity from pre-existing conditions, but as she lay in the hospital with a broken back, and the possibility of never walking again, she wished she had read it more carefully
Or really, had her lawyer read it. The problem was she was young, and she had been healthy, and really nothing her lawyer could have told her would have talked her out of going on the show.
She had a mountain of student debt, medical bills from her late mother, and this was supposed to be the thing to help get her out of it. Instead, she lay here dreading what would come out of this.
It seemed she wouldn’t have to wonder long, a lawyer from the show came once they had a better idea of her prognosis. It seemed that despite not making it past the first obstacle, her injury would win her the grand prize and a lot more, plus up to two years of treatment for medical coverage. All she had to do was sign the confidentiality clause, never telling anyone how this had happened.
She was smarter, she got a lawyer this time, but given what she had signed prior to going on the show, this was the best she would ever get. So she took it, and it wiped out her debt. It set her up with the things she needed for her new life, and it kept her up at night.
She knew there was that old proverb “be careful what you wish for”, and now she knew why people called it a curse. She got everything she wanted, her loans gone, her mother’s bills paid, finally enrolled in law school, and with enough cash to see her through the first two years. In the end, all it cost her was her legs…And her ability to sleep at night.
She lay staring at the ceiling, wondering, if she had known back then, what she knew now, would she have still gone through with it? And could she live with herself, knowing that by signing that agreement, getting everything she wanted, she had forfeited the right to warn people that it could happen to them too. Well, it was too late now, all she could do was use this to help others, she thought, as she signed up for a seminar focusing on becoming a personal injury lawyer.
Anne McSommers' Writing Nook 