RICHARD
"Why? Dammit! Why?" I suddenly cried aloud, in a sudden burst of frustration as slammed my fists repeatedly on the steering wheel.A horn blared, and I turned to see a driver on the other lane give me a curious look. I stared at the road ahead, my hands gripping the steering wheel tightly as I drove home. My mind was in a whirl. I glanced at the passenger seat on which were two sheets of paper. The first sheet of was the result of the X-ray I had just done at the hospital. It showed the cancer was spreading really fast. I needed chemotherapy as a matter of urgency. But the cost...I shook my head. At the bottom of the second sheet of paper, the cost of the chemotherapy was written in bold font. It was a sum I could never afford, certainly not with the job I had. My wife refused to support me in footing the bill in any way. I was at a dead end, and would be a dead man if I could figure a way out.Finally, I got home. I walked into the cool, air conditioned comfort of the house and mopped my sweaty brow. I was heading to the kitchen to get something that would calm my aching head when two items on the other sofa caught my attention- a handbag I recognized as Amelia's, and a man's jacket lying close to it. Did we have a visitor?I headed to our bedroom, stopped short when I heard... odd sounds coming from behind the closed door. I pushed open the door, stood stock still with my mouth agape. There, on our matrimonial bed was Amelia, completely naked, with her lips glued to that of an equally naked man."AMELIA!" I bellowed.They sprang apart immediately. Her big, blue eyes opened wide. When she saw who it was, her shocked expression became one of contempt."What are you doing back here so early?" she sneered.I was paralyzed with shock. I couldn't speak, just shook my head. Surely, this had to be some bad dream. This couldn't be happening. With a muttered oath, the man hurried over to the side of the bed, pulled on his trousers."Can't someone get a little privacy around here?" he growled, zipping up his fly. “Who is that?”She gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, James. That’s my wretched husband, Richard, that I was telling you about. I wasn't expecting him back so early.""You're sorry?" I shouted, finally breaking free of my paralysis. "Amelia! I caught you screwing another man, and you're apologizing to him? Have you no shame? Have you no-""Oh shut up!" Amelia languidly reached for a robe hanging on the headboard and slipped out."You're the one who should be ashamed," she shot back. "Are you even a man? You don't have a decent job and you can't take care of me. You can't foot a measly quarter of my bills. Hell! You can't even afford to treat your sick self-"I balled my fists. "Shut up and tell this bastard to get out of my house."Amelia and James exchanged a look and laughed."Your house?" Amelia wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "I think the cancer has knocked a few screws loose from that thing you call a brain. Need I remind you that this is my parent's house? You haven't even been able to afford a decent apartment since you married me. And as for James-" She gave her lover a salacious grin. "-He is twice the man you'll ever be-""That's right." James stood up, drew himself up to all six feet of his height. "A man like you who cannot provide for his woman, has no absolute rights over her body. Now, beat it, buster."I had never been a violent man, but at this point, I would gladly have torn James apart with my bare hands. With a snarl of rage, I ran at him and lunged, striking out with my fists. I gave a savage cry of triumph when my fist connected with his jaw. He gave me several jabs to my ribs, but I kept hitting him relentlessly.Suddenly, something hit the back of my head and I went down as if I had been poleaxed. I lay there, stunned, staring up at James and Amelia."You hit me," I croaked.She waved the heavy reading lamp she had used to hit me threateningly. "And I'll do it again."James pressed his phone to his ear, moved away and spoke rapidly into it. In a couple of minutes, two security guards burst into the room just as I was trying to get to my feet."Take this piece of trash and throw him out of the house," James barked."And if I see him in this house ever again, you'll both loose your jobs," Amelia added.The security guards nodded, swooped down and grabbed me roughly by the arms."Let go of me," I yelled, struggling in their grip. "Get your hands off me. You can't do this.""Just did." Amelia smirked.Before the guards dragged me out of the room, James slid an arm around Amelia's waist and began to lead her to the bed. My strength was no match for the guards. They dumped me on my ass outside the mansion and shut the gates in my face. Beside myself with anger, I pounded, and kept pounding on the gates."You'll pay for this, Amelia," I raved. "I swear it. You won't get away with cheating on me. Somehow, someway, I'll get back at you for this."I stopped when my hands were sore with pounding and my throat was sore with screaming. I turned to leave when I suddenly heard a loud buzzing. I gasped, looked around for the source of the sound. It took me a few seconds to realize that the sound was coming from inside my head. It grew louder with each passing second, and I felt as if my skull was about to burst open. I clapped my hands to my ear and sank onto my knees."Make it stop! Make it stop!" I screamed.Underneath the buzzing, were sounds of several clicks and beeps.“New User Detected. System Activated.” I heard just before I passed out on the ground.RICHARDThe first thing I was conscious of was the intense white light that still shone even behind my closed eyelids. Then there was silence, total silence, the kind that seemed heavy and oppressive.I gradually opened my eyes and immediately shielded it from the glare of the blinding fluorescent light above. Disoriented, I quickly sat up. The room spun a little and I closed my eyes briefly to fight off the dizzy spell. My heart beat fast as I took in my surroundings.I was in a room that looked like a hospital room, except that this room had grey, gleaming steel walls, even a formidable looking still door.The room was illuminated by blinding lights placed above the bed on which I had lain. There were no curtains, no windows. I swallowed and fought off an attack of claustrophobia.Where the hell was I? Had I died and gone to... wherever people went when they left the world. I clearly remembered feeling weird outside the gates of Amelia's house just before I passed out. As I swung my
RICHARDI left the hospital, hardly knowing whether I was on my head or heels. The astonished doctor, after telling me that he had run the test three times to be sure of the result, had kept on asking me what I had done, to make the cancer simply disappear, and how I had known to come for a confirmatory test. I simply told him that I had just had a hunch.An elderly woman walking into the hospital looked at me oddly and gave me a wide berth as she hobbled into the building. I then realized that I was grinning from ear to ear. I didn't care though. I could not recall ever being this happy. The sky seemed clearer, the colors brighter. I was so elated that I felt like singing.Chuckling, I went down the stairs. My smile faded a little as I thought of the money in my account. I decided to carry out the system's task to see if it was all true. Buying a house from Royal Homes, the real estate company that sold the best and most exclusive condos, was a surefire way to spend a million dollars
RICHARDJames turned and stared at the salesmen, and asked, "Did you hear what this twerp just said?""Yes, sir," Jake and his colleague said in unison.James shook his head sadly."Amelia must have hit you too hard on the head. Sad that you don't have a thick skull. That is the only reason I can think of for your delusions or..." He turned to Jake again. "Do you know if cancer damages the brain when it gets to a certain stage?""No, sir. Not that I know of."I smirked, briefly considered telling him that I was completely cancer free. I imagined triumphantly waving the doctor's report stuffed in my back pocket in his face like a flag. The look on his face would be priceless.But I had to attend to the first things first. I glanced at the large clock on the wall, noted the time. In my mind's eye, I saw the timer at the hospital I had woken up in. It had been roughly three hours since my life had taken a completely different turn. I still had about twenty more hours to complete the syste
RICHARD"The payment went through," Jake said half to himself in a tone of disbelief as he looked around the room.Gasps, and murmurs echoed around the room. Grinning from ear to ear, I reflected that I would gladly have given a million dollars more just to continue seeing the look on James's face as he stared at the screen."What?" he shouted. "How is this possible? Is this some kind of sick joke?" He dragged his gaze from the machine to me, and then to the salesman. I smiled, watched him wrestled with himself as he sought for an explanation to what just happened. "The machine. It is faulty. It has to be. Check, confirm if he actually paid that amount in. In fact, I want to check it myself," he ordered.Jake nodded, turned his computer so that it faced James before he refreshed the page for payment. There, right on top of the other deposits made that day, was my name in bold, right next to the amount I had paid- one million dollars. James stared and stared at the screen. Abruptly, he
RICHARDI read the text message again, scarcely believing my eyes. To tell the truth, at the bottom of my heart, I had had some misgivings about 'throwing' a million dollars away just like that on a fancy apartment, but I had tamped that feeling down because at that moment, seeing the look of consternation on the face of the jerk that had been messing around with my wife had swamped every other consideration. One Ultra point meant that I was again one million dollars richer. Boy, was I on a roll! And it just kept betting and better with no end in sight."...sir."I blinked, raised my head as I realized the manager had been talking to me."Pardon? What was that you said?" I said, scarcely able to conceal my face splitting grin."I was saying sir, that I am very sorry for any annoyance Mr James must have cost you. If I had known that he was being so rude to you, I would have come here and intervened earlier. I just wonder why my staff didn't intervene seeing I was not present." Hayes s
RICHARD"And what's with that stupid smile you have on your face!" Amelia snapped when she didn't get the response she had anticipated."Oh that. I discovered that I've begun smiling a lot lately. Maybe it's because I'm happy.""Happy," she sneered and haughtily tossed her long, black hair over her shoulder. "You have no money, no home to come back to, and don't think for a moment that I'm going to take you back after that stunt you pulled the last time you were here. Even if you beg-""Beg?" I infused the right amount of surprise in my voice. "Whatever gave you the impression that I'm here to beg you to take me in?"She looked completely nonplussed at the idea that I hadn't returned to grovel at her feet. The same look was mirrored on the faces of her family members."Well, isn't that why you're here?" she asked.I shook my head slowly. "No. I just came to take my things. That's all."Amelia sucked in a breath. Her mother slowly rose from her chair."That is the best news I have hear
RICHARDI felt like I was walking on clouds as I shut the door firmly behind me. I could hear the hubbub of conversation from those I had left in there. I was glad James had walked in just before I left. Things could not have walked out better if I had scripted the whole thing. I ordered an Uber. Whistling a tune, I passed the security post, nodded in the direction of the lax security guards who had thrown me out a while ago..I only had to wait outside the gates for a few minutes for my Uber to arrive. Just as the driver hurried out of the car to help me with my luggage, the screen appeared before my eyes and a small smile crept to my face.[FOR YOUR NEXT TASK, YOU ARE TO SPEND 2 MILLION DOLLARS WITHIN 24 HOURS]I whistled under my breath."Two million," I murmured."Sorry?" I looked up to see the driver giving me an enquiring look."Nothing. I er- wasn't referring to you." Just then, I received a notification from the bank that my account had been credited with 2 million dollars. I
RICHARDI ignored Samson's taunts and kept moving. From my experience, I knew he wouldn't stop talking until he had exhausted all he had to say, and judging by how angry and worked up he was, he had quite a lot to say. So I tuned him out and pretended that his voice was just background noise. I headed straight for the exclusive shopping section. Just before I got there, a tall, pretty middle aged receptionist hurried from her desk and stood in my path. She shook her head slightly."Excuse me, Mr...""Richard."She gave me a cool, professional smile which faded a little as she glanced over my shoulder at Samson. He was right behind me, within touching distance and I could feel his breath on my ear. I shifted a little to the right."Mr Richard." The receptionist once more focused on me. "I'm afraid this part of the mall is reserved for exclusive customers only. Are you a premium shopper? I don't think I have seen you in this section of the mall before. But if you are a premium shopper,