The blinking answering machine light taunts you as you put away your dog's leash and toss him a treat. Dropping his squeaky toy, the dog swallows the treat whole, without chewing — damn that dog and his bad eating habits. You know it's going to end up back on your carpet this afternoon if his track record is any indication.

You stroll over and press the playback button your machine. It comes to life with a crackle and hiss, reading out a local phone number and the time the message was recorded — just over ten minutes ago. Then the message starts playing, stating your name quickly, then following up with:

You've been randomly selected to be KING FOR A DAY! Please visit our offices at 1275 Main Street before 6pm today if you want to claim your prize and quote the reference number KFAD555.

The answering machine beeps as your scribble down the address and reference number from the message. Looks like these guys are pretty persistent. Maybe it's worth checking out after all?

RATE THIS BRANCH!

Author guidance for This story

You know all that irritating bulk mail you have to dig through to reach your bills and court summons every day? I was picking up my mail one morning and thought about what would happen if I actually followed the directions inside of one of those blasted things.

As an aside, let's try and keep at least one "avoidance" thread going as long as possible, even if it forks this way and that. I'd love to see how many different ways our protagonist can avoid following the suggestion of the award notice. It's good for comic relief. :)

updated Jan 22 '11 by nickb