The Giveaway: Mainstream

The giveaway was coming to town! The word went through the town like wildfire. Everybody had seen the giveaway on TV, had crossed their fingers and sent in their votes and hoped and prayed that their little town would be the lucky one chosen for the giveaway. "Look at what they gave that sewing woman!" Mrs. Lydia said, staring in awe at the screen. "You'd think she'd be properly grateful. *I'd* be properly grateful if I had been given it." Her sister just shook her head in agreement. "People these days, you'd think they forgot what it was like not to have anything." "If our town won, I just know we'd do better! We could set a real example, so that they'd never--"

Inspiration: Winning a contest, entering some more.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Kind of a Ray Bradbury feel to this one. Of course, this is one of those reality TV shows that puts a camera in every living room, spurs and watches how the accumulation of all these goods tears apart family and town--but that's too easy. Also need a good satisfying finale--drag everybody through the muck, make 'em figure out the giveaway people are nudging things, and have them be shown up. Also, townsfolk get to keep the stuff--some do, some don't. Oh, shit, I think this isn't a genre short story. Note to self: figure out how to work aliens in somewhere, or set in an alternate universe--you really don't want to try and sell more literary short stories, do you? Do you really?