What're the Odds?

A microfiction strand that comes from tinkering with random things

Thunder and lightning culminate as one: Abundance.
The I Ching Oracle

Vince puts his last coin in the slot and hits the button. Chunka-chunka-chunka. Burrringgg!

Jackpot! Sirens wail, lights flash, folks gather round, as the slot-machine begins spewing out change. The coins spill at Vince’s feet, and he thinks for a minute of scooping them up, but they have people for that. Besides, the flow is continuing.

Out the coins fall, a stream of them, a torrent. They reach his knees and he looks round as people applaud his triumph.

A torrent, a cascade. Up to his hips, the pressure hard and reassuring. Hard cash.

A cascade, a flood. Up to his chest, and Vince finds he can’t move. Pressure a little uncomfortable now.

A flood, a cataract. As his face submerges, he thinks to call out, but a coin tumbles in his mouth and chokes him. The pressure is crushing his chest as the coin jams in his throat.

The people hoot and clap. But Vince can’t hear them anymore.

---

In spending, exceeds in economy: Small exceeding
The I Ching Oracle

It takes them quite a while to figure out that the slot-machine has gone wrong, and that the customer has perhaps fallen victim to a freak occurrence.

Pit bosses quiz punters at the margin. Most are in a margarita haze or a piña colada stupor, and have precious little to impart. The smarter ones, the more wide-awake and espabilados, are digging through the coins piled up in the floor, either to rescue the lost man or to lay claim to the metallic bounty. If it’s the latter, they’re disappointed: there are Hungarian florints and Turkish lire aplenty, Argentinian pesos and Armenian dirhams, but few silver dollars or even bona fide quarters.

Still, they snatch the woolly caps off babies to pile up the swag. Rescue efforts underway.

When they finally uncover Vince’s face from the mountain that is his once-in-a-lifetime payout, it’s purple from coins choking his mouth and gullet. But there’s an unmistakable happy smile.

What are the odds?

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NOTE

As with other random microfictions in my ‘Project Rando’ experiment, this story starts with I Ching readings. By coincidence, exactly one week apart, the oracle gave exactly converse readings, namely:
9 October: Small Exceeding 62, Abundance 55
16 October: Abundance 55, Small Exceeding 62

The die roll also gave exactly the same word count for both, 160. What are the odds?

It seems the oracle was trying to tell me to link the two pieces, so that’s what happened. Don’t look for me to buck fate, I’m just providence’s fawning bitch.