In September 2004, Hurley wins the lottery, and over the ensuing weeks, everyone around him seems to suffer increasingly bad luck. His grandfather dies of a heart attack, the priest officiating the burial is struck by lightning, his brother's wife walks out on him, his mother breaks her ankle while the house he bought her goes up in flames, and Hurley himself is falsely arrested. He then visits an asylum where he'd resided for a time to talk to a patient there, Leonard Simms, who continually mutters the numbers Hurley used to win the lottery.