I bought the winning lottery ticket!
Actually I knew it all along. I had a hunch. In the beautiful square of Pylos, there is a cigarette shop. I know, not the best place to put a cancer stick store, but there it was, within walking distance to our office, as always, but this time it looked different. Seemed to glow, maybe it was the smoke coming out as the evening sun shone through it. Whatever it was, it called me. It was a beckoning of light. I never play. (You know that gamblers can get addicted and live in a state of delirium.) I had, though, been hearing through the grapevine that this was a biggy. I had also, decided again not to play. But - something shook that reasoning from my head, all those years of statistics - out the window. I just had to go in. And deep down inside, I knew why. I was going to by the winning lottery ticket. I took a deep long breath of fresh Mediterranean air from across the street, ran over and in, tried to hold it as long as possible and then realized that the coughing lady working the store couldn't understand me with my breath held like that. So I exhaled and asked for a quick pick for the 27 that's Twenty Seven Million. YES I said MILLION euros. 27 million euros please thank you very much indeed. Ticket. And I got one in a flash, or maybe that was a cigarette lighter in my face. Either way, I ran out, shaking my hair of the smoke and holding on tightly, oh ever so tightly, to my winning lottery ticket. But not so tight that my palm sweat would ruin it or my clenching fist would wrinkle it illegible. It would be still a few hours before it would be known to the world. I tried to stay up late enough and see it on the tv, but amazingly I fell asleep. Must have been the adrenaline rush I had. I dreamed for an eternity. I dreamed of how I'd spend the winning money. Our money. Countless renditions. Would I fly out my family to us here in Greece, or would we buy that pink jet and fly out there? Oh the planning went on to the wee hours of the night, till I actually did wake. And there was the ticket. My winning lottery ticket. Still there. Sitting peacefully on my nightstand. In good shape. Waiting with me for the sun to rise. Ready to be transferred into TWENTY SEVEN MILLION EUROS. Needless to say, I couldn't go back to sleep. I was too excited. I knew it was true. I waited till morning designing larger houses, with helicopter pads, and live in maids quarters, making more plans and more plans and more.
And some more.
And then my husband woke up. And because the whole deal was in Greek, and I had missed it on the tv the night before, he was the one who searched to find the winning numbers. Of course he enjoyed torturing me - insisting his coffee comes first. Before becoming a millionaire? I couldn't eat a morsel. He checked the numbers. I double checked. He didn't seem too surprised. I was beside myself!! He casually went about his business! I couldn't sit still!! It was too much to take in. The lottery people had actually made a mistake. They got my numbers all wrong! Every one of the winning numbers was wrong! Does anyone out there know how to contact these people? We need to talk.....
I had plans.
Lots of them.....
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