Officer Alan Morrison hoped that someone wold finally win the damn drawing tonight.
The Queen of Hearts game, sponsored by the American Legion, had been ongoing–the pot growing exponentially and then astronomically–for the past fifty-two weeks with no one choosing the envelope with the queen of hearts. . . If the person whose raffle ticket was drawn tonight didn’t select the queen, the person whose raffle ticket was drawn next week would win automatically. Then the hysteria and frenzy, the drunken brawls and bad blood, the crying and shrieking would end. And finally, the town would be at peace.
Yeah, right. Alan had only worked as a police officer in Liberty for two months, and there hadn’t been a moment of peace. Perhaps the contagious mania of the drawing was making people do crazy, unlawful acts . . . —Excerpt from “Demolition Derby”
A manic fever grips the small town of Liberty, IL, as the Queen of Hearts jackpot surpasses one million dollars. Liberty, once a thriving coal mining town, has fallen on hard times, and its residents have invested their hopes and dreams in the weekly drawing. When someone eventually wins, hopes shatter and disappointment arrives. The characters in each of the thirteen stories deal with the loss of dreams that are far more important than the drawing, and if they’re lucky, the possibility of new beginnings.
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