Hi Friends on Facebook and Friends in Life,

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening!

Sit back, relax and picture yourself in this scenario…

It’s the morning, you slowly rise up to the sound of your alarm clock and notice that its pouring rain outside.  Damn.  You shower, change, eat and quickly head out the door.  When you reach the street you realize that you don’t have enough change for the bus.  You whisper ‘shit’ under your breath and begin looking around for the nearest convenience store.  The one you’re used to visiting is two blocks away and so you decide to battle the rain and go there.  As your walking, you notice a sketchy looking corner store that you’ve always avoided because of the people that shopped there.  Already sick of the rain you decide to go to the rough looking convenience store instead.

You walk into the store and a wind chime goes off.  You see that the owner is busy listening to a very animated customer go on and on about something funny.  The owner acknowledges your arrival with a quick nod and then returns his attention to his jittery customer that’s speaking to him.  You stand in line up behind the customer and yawn because you’re still fairly tired.  You stare at the dirty floor and imagine yourself back in your bed sleeping.  When you look up the customer who was just babbling away is now staring at you dead in the eyes.  The man inhales a burb and breathes out a huge cloud of alcohol infused air.  You take a step back to protect your nose hairs from burning off from the stench.  The drunken man looks down at your hands that are clenched in a fist and says ‘What? What do you need?!’  You look at the owner confused and say, ‘I just want change, change for a five’ you wave a five bill that you’ve removed from your wallet.  The drunken customer stares at it and then bursts out into uncontrollable laugher and the owner also amused joins him with his own laughter.  “Yeah I just want some change, my bus is coming any second now”. 

The drunken customer catches his breath and slurs “your wroooongth!  You don’t just want chaaaaange (he mocks your desperate voice). NO!  You DON’T just want change!  Mister you want dollars, denero, mullah!  Am I riggght?!”  You look at him irritated and then quickly glance outside to see if your bus is on its way.  “Yeah sure (I guess)”  The drunken man looks at you straight in the eyes and yells “NO!  I’m right!  I’m right damnit!  You want mooooney!  Just like everyone else.  Am I right? … I’m right!  That’s why you get up every morning and get dressed up in your fancy schpaaaancy outfit and go to work.   And you!  You probably hate your feeecking job! You wish you were doing something else but your scared….yup yup!  Your scared to be broke and fail!  So now everyday your just waiting for a miracle to happen to get you out of it, to get you rich and happy.  Yesth!  That’s what you really want!  You waaaaant…a way…out of your…shitty life!”  You laugh inside at the fact that a drunk man is telling you that you want a way out of your shitty life, you think to yourself, uh look who’s talking.  You shake your head annoyed and say ‘Yeah, I guess so…but can I just get change.  I can’t miss my bus.”  The owner goes to open up the register and the drunken customer yells ‘NO!’  The drunken man reaches into his pocket, nervous you step back again and read yourself for whatever might happen.  The guy reaches around his pockets and then comes out with a handful of coins that he drops on the store counter.  “Heeeere!  I’ll give you fucking change!  Take it!  Have it all!”  You quickly say no and ask the owner for change again.  The owner tries to take out change but the drunken man is waving at him to close the till.  Deeply offended by your rejection, the drunken man scowls at you.  Before you could explain your urgency to catch a bus you notice a bus heading down the street towards your stop. You decide to take some of his change that he’s offered.  “Fine, here’s my five I’m just gonna take enough for the bus, you could have the rest!  I really don’t care.”  The drunken man yells ‘NO I don’t want or need your money!’ He then asks the owner to give you a lotto ticket.  You’re about to say no but the bus is soon approaching so you quickly grab it and run out the door.

At work you have an awful day at and you can’t wait to go home.  On the way home you notice the corner store where your day began.  You study the exterior of the building and notice a lotto centre sign in the window.  You remember your gift from the drunken man and contemplate throwing it away.  You feel like if it wasn’t for your rushed morning perhaps you may have had a better day at work.  You decide that it’s probably not a good idea to throw away a lotto ticket.  However you can’t bring yourself to walk back into the store so you decide to check the winning numbers online at home.  When you check the numbers on your computer screen you’re shocked to find that your ticket numbers match the winning numbers: 33-21, 29-99, 7-8’.  You’ve won!  You jump up and down with joy and pour yourself a glass of apple juice on ice, it’s the closest thing you have to champagne in your fridge.  You sit down on your couch and stare at the ticket for an hour thinking about your life and how you’re so deserving of this moment.  You think about everyone from your parents to your siblings to the person you’ve always had a crush on.  You can’t wait to change everyones lives.  You start to replay your day in your head and suddenly you remember that you wouldn’t be $25 million richer if it weren’t for the drunken man that purchased the lotto ticket for you.  A surge of guilt enters your body and you begin to think about whether or not you really won, you didn’t buy the ticket.  It was gift from a man you hated.  You compare your life to his life of alcoholism and street roaming.  You ask yourself if you should return the ticket to the drunken man over, over and over again.  Finally you make a hard decision to try and find the man to return the ticket, its what your heart tells you to do and so you follow it.

The next morning its sunny outside and you think twice about the decision you made the night before to return the ticket.  However, you run to the sketchy corner store and like déjà vu the drunk man is standing at the counter chatting away with the owner except the only difference is this time he looks a little less drunk than yesterday.  You grip the ticket in your pocket and  clear your throat before interrupting.  ‘Hi guys!  Goodmorning umm guess what?  I…I have some good news!  Actually great news!  Uhh sir I’m not sure what your name is but I didn’t get a chance to thank you yesterday for giving me bus fare and…for buying me a lottery ticket.  Um I guess I should just tell you that you won.  The numbers on the ticket you bought (me) matched the numbers that were pulled in last nights lotto!  Can you believe it!  You won!  You won!  YOU won the LOTTERY with the ticket you gave me.  SO YEAH!  Congratulations man, you’re a millionaire!” 

The owner covers his mouth in shock, unable to say a word.  The drunken man stares at the ground with a straight face.   You stare at the drunken man with a huge grin on your face and say, “I know this is crazy!  What are the chances…right?  You WON!”  The drunken man finally raises his head to reveal his blood shot eyes that are filled with sadness and horror and murmurs “No. No. No. No.  I don’t want it!  I don’t want it! You keep it!”  You look at him with the same confused look you had while standing behind him 24 hours earlier.  “Excuse me?” The drunken man stares at the ground again, tears are pouring down his face.  The owner of the shop has his mouth covered he’s unable to speak.  You try to take another stab at getting a reaction out of him ‘Sir!  Aren’t you excited?  You should be excited!  You won!’  He raises his head all the way up and wipes away the tears with the sleeve of his shirt.  “No…I don’t want it!  Hoooow do you think I got here!  Free money is baaad.  I don’t want anything except my family and friends.  Two years ago I won the lottery.  Back then I was the happiest person alive, my family loved me, my kids were doing great in school and every day I was progressing at work.  After I won the lottery we all went nuts because of the money.  It ruined my life!  I wish it never happened to me everyday.  I come in here; I come in here every morning and tell this man about my times before I won the lotto because he’s the only person that’ll listen to me for 5 minutes.  Winning money is the devil!  I never want free money ever again!   No one …let me tell you, no one…teaches you how to be rich…they just teach you how to get rich.  Celebrate your work and get rich naturally doing what you love.  Forget about luck.  Make it happen, don’t happen to make it! Congratulations on your win. I’m outta here”. 

Now what are you gonna do?  

Hasta manana!

The Perfect Lunchtime Read is a writing series that began on January 7th, 2011.  Every weekday I write a new Perfect Lunchtime Read for you to enjoy while eating your lunch at work or taking a break from your hectic life.  Every weekday new Perfect Lunchtime Read is posted on justdistracted.com.  A notice of its arrival on the website is sent via Facebook & twitter.com/justdistracted

Every writing piece is light and easy to read, I like to leave the serious topics with the New York Times.  Warning: My writing style is no holds bar but don’t worry you won’t be seeing any NSFW photos posted anytime soon.

If you have feedback, questions or comments please feel free to email me at justdistracted@gmail.com 

To read previous Perfect Lunchtime Reads click the magnify glass search button and type the words ‘the perfect lunchtime read’.

Hope you enjoy your lunch and thanks for reading!

Lils