The next puzzle fell in the What Are You Doing category. Lucky spun for $800 and straightaway bought a vowel, ‘I’, because about seventy-five per cent of What Are You Doing puzzles began with a gerund.

_I__I__ ____ ____ _

‘I’d like to answer this,’ said Lucky.

‘Feeling lucky, Lucky?’ Marjorie asked. ‘Sorry about that. Are you sure you want to guess this? It’s early days.’

‘I believe it’s Singing show tunes.’

The board lit up with letters.

‘What in the world?’ said Marjorie, leaving the podium to stand next to Lucky. ‘Did someone put something strange in your coffee this morning?’

‘I didn’t drink coffee today. It makes you sweat in pressure situations.’

‘Now, Mr Lucky, we ought to clear something up for our audience, shouldn’t we?’

‘I think so.’

‘For anyone who wasn’t watching yesterday, you are the Lucky of the Lucky’s restaurant chain, which most viewers over the age of twelve would remember?’

‘I am.’

‘I used to love going to those cafes when I was a girl! That was real old-fashioned food. How could I forget those milkshakes and the icy pineapple drinks? Where can I get a Lucky’s meal these days?’

‘You can’t. There’s not a single Lucky’s restaurant left.’

‘Nooo! That’s a shame. Good memories, though. Please spin the Wheel of Fortune, sir.’

He brought up Lose a Turn and the audience groaned. A group of people sitting to the left of Dan cheered and whooped and called out the name of the next contestant, the Brisbane real estate agent, who, when asked about her hobbies, said she’d almost finished her doctoral thesis in linguistics. Almost finished, she said again. Marjorie laughed like she hated her. The real estate agent leaned forwards and spun $500 first, and $400 second, and third $300, and solved the Event puzzle—Dinner and a movie. The seventh round progressed much the same. Lucky watched the real estate agent spin large and win letter after letter. Marjorie’s face hardened. The Brisbanite accumulated $900 to nail the puzzle (Rhyme)—Go with the flow.

In the second spin of the final puzzle the real estate agent hit Bankrupt. ‘Yes!’ someone in the audience cried. Marjorie offered a few words about the capriciousness of the Wheel of Fortune—and yet she pronounced this volatility the same thing that made the game exciting (‘So fun,’ she said) and the reason Wheel was the longest-running gameshow on national television.

Marjorie asked the art teacher from Launceston what she’d do with her winnings.

The teacher said she wanted to visit Rome with her husband and walk the Via Appia.

‘All right,’ said Marjorie, ‘anything’s possible if you make it all the way to the big dance. We’re looking for a fictional character.’

The art teacher bought an ‘A’ and guessed ‘D’. On the next spin she bought ‘E’ and asked for ‘N’.

A_______E __DDE__

__ ___E AND _EA___