Literary Magazine

Summary: On the website Every Day Fiction, there is a story, Your Luckiest Day, in the form of a letter full of advice from an older brother to a younger brother.

           The short story Your Luckiest Day, by Douglas Campbell, is in the form of a letter from an older brother, Pvt. Landon Pickett, to his younger brother, Rory Pickett. It starts out talking about how Landon is proud of Rory for doing wonderful in school and how Rory has a steady girlfriend, Lynette Samuels, and all that stuff, but then Landon says that he heard from his mother that Rory wanted to join the army. He says in his letter "you’re all on fire to sign up for this war next month when you turn eighteen. I’m writing to ask you, little brother — no, to beg you — not to do that. Oh, I know those recruiters, the things they tell you: how the girls will love you in your uniform, how your country needs you now. Well, let me tell you a few things."

            Landon goes on to describe several things… How there are no women like Lynette in the army, how uniforms only look so good for a little while then they get really gross, the horrors of war, how Landon is lucky to have just lost his leg and not his life, as well as how he made a terrible mistake when he joined the army by not marrying his sweetheart beforehand. 

            Landon’s last full paragraph in the letter is the really powerful, and is difficult to even attempt to restate, so here is a direct quote. “So I know I’m not the best person to be giving advice, lying here with my strength gone, my sweetheart gone, half a leg gone. But I feel qualified to give one piece, and here it is: Rory, your luckiest day, your luckiest hour, your luckiest minute is the one you’re living right now, the one you’re holding in the palm of your hand. Don’t you dare do what I did. Don’t toss happiness aside and go off chasing a pack of blood-soaked lies, thinking everything will be the same when you come back. If you’ve got happiness right there in front of you right now, for heaven’s sake, grab it. Grab it with both your hands and hold on tight. Because it can disappear quick as a rainbow.”