You have received a believable-looking, business-sized white envelope in the mail. The return address is from a company called Peerless. Printed on the envelope, in bright red letters, are the words "You May Have Already Won." Tell the story of what it is you may have won - or what it is you didn't win. Tell what you do with this envelope.
Start with: Life takes some funny twists and turns...
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"Life takes some funny twists and turns and you just have to go with the flow." Rebecca drew a thick red line through the sentence and grimaced. If this is how the whole piece was written, she was wasting her time reading it. She could already picture cliches tripping over cliches, propped up by bits of homespun wisdom. What drivel. Some days the effort it took to get through the articles the editor threw her way far eclipsed the measly amount on her biweekly paycheck. She sighed and picked up her coffee mug, wincing at the disgusting taste of the lukewarm brown sludge.
She skimmed the rest of the page, smiling in grim satisfaction that her initial conclusion of the article's quality was correct and put it aside into the "write a rejection letter" pile. She contemplated getting up and making more coffee but decided she couldn't be bothered and reached for the next envelope from the stack her editor sent over while Rebecca was working from home recuperating from recent ankle surgery.
The envelope was addressed to her by name which was unusual as most people wrote directly to the editor-in-chief if they put a name on at all. Maybe one of her prior rejects who bothered to read the rejection letter to the end and remembered her name? That would be a novel approach. Intrigued in spite of herself, Rebecca picked up the letter opener and then noticed something else. The envelope was missing a postmark and the return address looked like a company instead of a person. Company's name was Peerless Entertainment Group and the address looked to be downtown, in fact, just a few blocks from where Rebecca worked. Rebecca turned the envelope over and felt her heart sink in disappointment. On the back, splashed across the expanse of white, were the words "You May Have Already Won" in bright, lurid red typeface.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," she muttered. Undoubtedly she won a cruise or a similarly exciting venture. Her mood souring, she was about to rip the envelope in two when her attention was drawn to a tiny black line of text hugging the edge of the flap like a trail of ants heading to a picnic. Rebecca tilted her head and read Open the envelope, Rebecca. What have you got to lose?
Well, that was an unusual marketing gimmick. Of course, they knew each recipient's name so it wouldn't be that difficult to automate the "personalized" touch, but still... Rebecca paused, then steeling herself against the inevitable disappointment, she ripped the envelope open.
At first the envelope appeared empty but then her fingers brushed against the thick edge of a stiff card. The card felt to be about the size of a formal invitation and as Rebecca pulled it out, she could feel the delicate embossing on its face. The words Peerless Entertainment Group were embossed in matte black type on the cream card. She flipped the card over and read the bold, flowing script:
Congratulations, Rebecca,
You just won a new life.
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