The Lottery Winner by Jason Mosley

I’ve always played the lottery. I think that’s because when I was a kid, I remember my dad playing it. He was a pro at it. Looking back when I was a kid with him at the store, he would pull his lottery slip out of his back pocket with the slips already filled out. He never let the computer pick his numbers. He chose them himself. He had his lucky numbers book and daily horoscope numbers; I mean, he was really into it. He never won the big one, though. He’s still trying to beat the odds, even to this day. I give him credit for his habit of wasting money on the lottery rubbing off on me, but as the saying goes, "You can never win if you don’t play."

Today, my current lifestyle routine is pretty simple. I wake up, make my coffee, take my shower, feed the dog, and I’m off to work. I work at Sanchez Bar and Grill as a waiter, and it sucks. It sucks in terms of pay: I’m only making 3 bucks an hour, plus tips. Only the women waitresses get tips, so of course I lose there. The atmosphere sucks because the staff is all Mexican and doesn’t know any English. I feel like I should know Spanish by now as much as I hear it for 8 to 10 hours a day. The distance sucks, too, because my job is almost 30 miles away from my house, for a total of more than 60 miles in a day’s commute. Most of all, my boss sucks. My boss talks trash to me in Spanish because he knows I don’t understand him. At the restaurant, not only am I a waiter but also I’m the cook, the handyman, cashier, and the janitor. I’m bald headed, but if I had hair on my head, it would have been pulled out. As it stands currently, I’m working there just to make ends meet. 

On my way to work, I always stop at the gas station to grab some snacks, get the paper and of course play my numbers. I owe this expensive habit to my dad. Most people’s bad habits are bad for their health, but mine only costs me about 50 bucks a month. Depending on whom you ask, I guess my lottery habit isn’t so good, but at least I have a slim chance of winning.

On this particular day, I purchased 15 tickets, costing me 15 dollars. The jackpot was for 100 million dollars. I think my 15-dollar investment for the chance of millions is pretty worth it. At the gas station, I will not play the lottery unless the gas station clerk Kim is there to ring up my numbers. I consider her my good luck charm. I told her if I win, I’ll be back to make her day. So far, after five years of playing, I feel my day is coming. Today is the day! I’ve said this phrase to myself every time I play, but I’m still broke, so after I left the gas station, I went on about my day.

At the end of another stressful day, I finally made it home. That night when I got home, I was so tired. I live in an apartment with thin walls, so everyone can hear what’s going on in your place. I lay down on the bed with my numbers on my chest, and turned on the news. Normally after the newscaster says the winning numbers, I ball up my tickets and shoot them like a basketball into the trash can right in front of me. So it was time for me to lose again. As the numbers were being brought up on the screen, I shot the numbers in the trash can. I think I did that so quickly because I expected to lose. After about an hour, I decided to double-check the winning numbers just for the hell of it. I took the balled-up tickets out of the trash, sat down in front of the computer, and brought up the lottery website.

As I looked back and forth between the computer screen and my lotto tickets, a weird feeling came over me. My dog walked into the room with me, and had a "What’s wrong with you?" look on his face. All six numbers on the computer matched all six numbers in my hand. At that moment, at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, I screamed, "I won, I won, I won!!" It was 40 degrees outside, and I ran outside screaming, with only my underwear on. Neighbors were yelling at me, and dogs were barking, but I just couldn’t stop.

I got it together and went back in the house. I sat on the couch and thought to myself, "What do I do now?" I finally fell asleep. The next day when the lottery office opened at 9 a.m., I was right there standing with a big smile on my face.

The lottery representative said, "You must have won the jackpot last night."

I said, "You’re damned right!"

After taxes, the 100 million dollars that I won was knocked down to only 70 million dollars. When I walked out of the office, I said to myself, "It’s party time!"

To the car dealership I went! I bought the most expensive convertible Porsche 911 they make. It was March, but I didn’t care. The sports car cost 100,000 dollars. It felt so good. Next, I called up a real estate agent. I told him I was looking to move to Florida and I wanted to spend one million dollars on a house. He e-mailed me back with 20 beautiful houses to choose from. I told him I would see him next week.

The next day I pulled up to work in my Porsche at the same time my boss was parking his car. He clearly saw me and I knew he wanted to ask me about it. The whole staff was waiting for me, and when I walked in I yelled, "I quit; I’m rich!"

My family and friends were happy for me. I told them I’d give them a small amount, but after that, don’t ask me for a dime. Everyone agreed, and everyone was happy with what they received from me. I said that we all were going to party in the Bahamas for a week, and the trip was on me. We all had a great time.

When we got back, life just continued on normally. I didn’t change at all. I continued on as I normally do, just with a little bit more money in my bank account. I later went to the gas station and gave Kim 50,000 dollars as I promised when I was broke. She was in tears. I sat down with my dad, and we laughed about our habit of playing the lottery. It changed our lives, and even with us both now having a lot of money, we still continued to play.