Kyle Rasco's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Dinner ended late. Alysse laughed twice, and Kyle held both those sounds like coins. Then she asked where he lived. He looked at the parking lot. She followed his eyes to the battered truck and went quiet. "I've got nowhere real to take you," he said. "Just that." She didn't flinch. But he could not offer her a truck bed and call it a home. He needed walls before her ship left. The next morning he drove past the grand A-frame cabin again. Steep roofs. Snow along the rails. A frozen lake sat behind it, half ice, half open water, calm and blue. A sign stood at the gate. Kyle read it twice. The manor was being given away. One winning ticket took the deed. Free entry. He gripped the wheel. Inside, a woman sat at a plain table with a laptop and a stack of forms. A check-in sheet lay in front of her. She slid a slim printed ticket across the table. Bright numbers ran down its face. "One per person," she said. "Draw's at noon." Kyle carried the ticket back to the truck. He drove to the arena. Alysse was rolling slow circles on the shifting floor, reading the gravity by feel the way she'd taught him. He held up the ticket. "What's that," she said, not stopping. "A shot at a house. Real one. Lake and everything." He swallowed. "For you. So you don't board that ship." She stepped off her board. She took the ticket and studied the numbers. Her jaw worked. "You keep betting everything on one card, cowboy." "It's the only card I've got." She handed it back. "Then let's watch it lose." But she came with him. They stood in the cabin's yard at noon. A crowd pressed close. The woman from the table read numbers off a screen, one at a time. Kyle checked his ticket. First number matched. His chest tightened. Second matched. Third. He stopped breathing. The woman read the last number and looked up. "Winner," she called, and pointed at Kyle. The crowd turned. Alysse grabbed his arm. The woman brought out the deed, thick paper edged in gold, the manor's name stamped across the top. She held a pen. "Owner of record," she said. "Name?" Kyle signed. The pen shook. The house was his. Walls, a roof, a frozen lake, a real address at last. Alysse stared at the cabin. Then at him. "You did it," she said, low. "I did it." He turned to her. "Stay. Please." She was quiet a long moment. “I could see a future with you Kyle. And you make me laugh.” She smiled and tried to hide it. “I suppose i could stay.”