Learners' Zone

"I mustn't forget my purse", voiced Mandy to her kids as she rounded them up for school. In a huddle of bags they reached the school, kids to their class and Mandy to her Return To Learn group.

For three weeks the group of ten women had been meeting in hope of producing a community newspaper but, like everything else in life, raising the money was proving to be a struggle. Sitting around the table trying to think of ways to raise money was proving to be a typical start to a Wednesday morning.

"What’s our total this week?" asked Deirdre, our group leader.
"Two hundred and sixty five pounds, two bottles of wine and a basket of fruit," rhymed off Karen, looking quite devastated.
"We’ll get there eventually," said Deirdre, "there’s time yet".
"Not enough time," said Christine...
"We’ve got more chance of winning the lottery," said a down hearted Ellen.
"That’s it!" said Hannah, "We’ll put on a line each and see what happens, eh?"
"Like a syndicate?" said Lisa.
"Yeah". said Amy, "I’ll put it on at dinner time if we all pick our numbers now".
"I’ll put it on", interrupted Jackie. "I need to go to the shop anyway".
"That calls for a cup of tea," said Maggie.

By twelve thirty the lottery numbers were picked, put on and paid for and at the back of everyone’s minds again as they got on with their work.

That night after bathing and putting the kids to bed Mandy sat down to a well-deserved cup of tea in front of the television.

"Turn over Steve. The lottery’s on in five minutes."
"You can treat me to a new car if you win." sniggered Steve. "I don’t fancy ya chances much though".
"I don’t fancy your chances of getting a new car either", shouted Mandy as Steve walked into the other room.

When the lottery numbers were due to be called out Mandy was glued to the television screen. As the balls started spinning in the machine, Mandy sat on the edge of her seat. The first ball was released and Mandy ticked it off, number 9 ... 11 ... 7. Mandy was shaking like a leaf. They had the first three numbers.

She sat there with her heart in her mouth, pleading with the television to release their numbers. The next ball was released, and the next. Mandy was getting excited as she ticked off 21... 32. They needed one more number to hit the jackpot.

Mandy sat with her head spinning, willing for the last number to be called out. "Please, please, please," Mandy said mentally trying to drag the last ball from the machine. Number 43, was called out and Mandy went into a state of shock. They had done it. They had all of the numbers. They were rich!

Then from the television came, "And the bonus ball is ... 2"!

Mandy couldn’t move an inch. Her heart was beating like a stopwatch. She couldn’t breathe. All she could hear was the drumming inside of her.

"You look like you’ve seen a ghost love", said Steve returning from the kitchen.
"We’ve done it, we’ve done it", shouted Mandy jumping up and down. "We’ve won the lottery!"

The next few hours went past in an array of phone calls and excited chatter of how they were going to spend their share of the windfall... Holidays, designer clothes, paid off mortgages and new cars were on everyone’s minds. And of course the newspaper was well and truly sorted, they also had their front-page story!

The days flew over till the next Return to Learn session on the Tuesday morning. All they needed now was a name for the article.

"Let’s call it, ‘Our Little Earner’, or ‘Group’s Golden Windfall’" said Ellen.
"I know!" shouted Hannah, "I know what the headline should be, 'Return to Learn gets Nice Little Earner'".
"More like Return to Earn", said Karen.

"That’s our headline sorted", said Deirdre. "Return to Earn!"