Unlucky Edna

"Edna," Dani placed her tray on the table and then sit down. "My brother, Rodger, gave me a two week all expenses paid vacation for two to the Blue Moon Casino."

"Isn't that the new casino Royal Flush Inc. constructed under the lunar surface?"

"Yes," Dani remove her plate and coffee from her tray and placed the tray on an unoccupied chair at their table. "The entrance is in the Planck Crater."

"When are you and David leaving?"

"I'm not taking David," Dani sighed.

"Daniel," Edna only used Dani's given name, when she was worried about her. "Are you and David having problems again?"

"Yes," she laughed nervously. "It's his gambling, Edna. If I take him on this vacation it will only make the situation worse, so I thought you might like to go with me."

"I'd love to go, Dani, but are you sure you want to take the unluckiest person on Earth to a casino."

"Edna, it isn't like we're going to Las Vegas or Atlantic City," Dani took a sip of coffee. "We're going to the moon and that's a different planet. Maybe it'll change your luck."

"Yeah," she shook her head. "Maybe the lunar gravity will make it worse."

"Edna, the lunar gravity is less then that of earth, so it can't make your luck worse."

"Then it will probably transfer my bad luck to you!"

"That's alright," Dani smiled. "I don't believe in luck, either good or bad, so transferring your bad luck to me will cause it to dissipate."


Three weeks later, Dani and Edna stood in the Blue Moon Casino watching customer's put coins into slot machines. To their right, a man dressed in the blue and white uniform of a shuttle pilot put five coins into a progressive Cow Jumped Over The Moon jackpot machine and pulled the handle. When the first reel stopped on a blue moon, the second wheel on a quarter moon, and third wheel on a cow.

"Damn machine," he mutter. "Cold as Pluto's mountains." He got up and stalked toward the bar.

Edna took one of the fifty cent tokens the desk clerk have given her and Dani had checked in. She went to the machine, put the token in, and pulled the handle. The first reel stopped on a Holstein cow jumping over a blue full moon, as did the second, and third reels. Edna stared at the machine as bells began to ring and lights flash. The manager, followed by a photographer came running to the machine.

"Congratulations, Miss..."

"Uh, uh," Edna continued to stare at the machine.

"Her name is Edna Bernstein, Sir," said Dani frowning and then grinning.

Congratulations, Miss Bernstein," the manager shook her hand as the photograph video taped the scene. "You just won the million dollar Cow Jumped Over The Moon progressive jackpot." He paused to let the information sink in, "You make take the money in one lump sum or in monthly payments."

"Do I have to decide now," Edna ask as the shock wore off.

"No, Miss, just let me know by the end of the week."

"I will, Sir," then she turned to Dani. "What do I do with a million dollars?"

"Well, Edna," Dani frowned. "You can quite that dead end job and buy a house."

"Dani," Edna's hands trembled. "If I keep the money I couldn't go back to Earth and I'd lose the only friend I've had in ten years. If I haven't already lost her by winning the jackpot."

"What do you mean, Edna?"

"Let's go up to the room," she started towards the elevators. "Dani, I think we need to talk."

In their room, Edna sit down on a chair by a window shaped video screen while Dani sit on another.

"Dani," Edna said, "are you upset that I won the jackpot?"

"Not so much upset as jealous," Dani fiddled with the hem of her blouse. "For ten years I went to casino after casino with David. I watched him put ten or twenty tokens at a time into one armed bandits and progressive slots, but the only thing it got us was an ocean of debts. We lost the business, the house, and the car. My parents and David's parents have joint custody of our children and neither of our parents will speak to us."

"At least your parents are still alive and there is the chance of a reunion."

"What are you talking about, Edna?"

"Both my parents, my husband, and son were killed when the old Coleman mine collapsed and buried the town."

"I thought there were no survivors?"

"Dani, no one who was in town that night survived."

"Oh, you're that Unlucky Edna."

"If I keep the money and go back to Earth, then it doesn't matter if I take a lump sum or equal yearly payments. The court judgment was specific and it's still enforce."

"In that case, why don't we both stay on the moon?"

"What about David and your family?

"Edna," Dani laughed nervously. "I suspect, when he gave me this vacation, my brother thought I would bring David with me. David can't pass up a slot machine or a poker table and David always looses. Maybe David's better off if I remain on the moon where I can't enable him."