The Lottery Ticket
"I have never believed in anything called luck", Jide said as he was going through the paper in his back pocket.
It was the first Friday of May when the streets of Lagos were filled with so many activities. Everyone is busy going about their daily activities. Jide boarded a car that was going to Ikeja when he came across a woman who was selling lottery tickets.
"Oga, you should try your luck. The ticket is just 100 naira." The woman advertised the lottery ticket to him.
Jide paused to think deeply. The last money with him is 500 naira, and that money is his transport fare. He looked at the woman with lots of people queuing at the front of the woman's kiosk, where the lottery tickets are being sold.
One part of him is convincing him to risk it, and the other is telling him to ignore the woman's temptation.
"All of these things are a scam. But Jide, there is no harm in you giving it a try," he muttered to himself.
He bought a ticket from the woman, but not necessarily because he wanted to risk it, but because the kiosk of that woman reminded him of his late mother, as it had a similar look to his mom's kiosk.
On Monday morning, Jide had been preoccupied by a whole lot of activities for the weekend and had even forgotten about the ticket he bought.
It was 3 weeks later when he was going through the pocket of some of his trousers to find a 1,000 naira note he kept somewhere, and he didn't know where he kept it. Surprisingly, he found the ticket in one of the trousers ' pockets. It has shrunk together that the words on the ticket are now looking so unreadable.
"Well, this is the ticket, let me even check", he muttered to himself as he picked up his phone, opened the lottery app to check whether he won or not.
Luckily and surprisingly for him, all the numbers on the ticket matched.
As he looked again and confirmed that it was true, he saw he had won 10 million naira.
That can't be. He was shocked at that particular time, not knowing what to actually do.
Remembering how he risked it with just 100 naira now to win 10 million naira.
Everything was looking like a dream for him.
But shocking also for me, he came across a little instruction under the option that displays the amount he won.
"This is valid for 14 days from the draw date"
Checking the number of days it has been, it is already 21 days from the draw date.
That particular night, he couldn't sleep as he was wondering what he should do and how he should go about it. Lying down on his bed, Jim's girlfriend called. It was Sandra
"Hello Jide, you haven't called me since morning. What's wrong?" Sandra asked on the phone.
"Sandra, I'm fine"
"Jide, I know you much better, you are not sounding like someone fine. Are you sure you are okay?" Sandra asked again.
"Sandra, I missed something big. I can't talk now. We will talk later," Jide responded and hung up the call with Sandra.
Jide thought about that particular issue for days. What a power of hindsight it is.
He was so close to something big that was ready to change his life around,, but he missed it.
The next day, he passed in front of the woman's kiosk. Looking to see the lottery ticket one more time, and how people were queuing again to get some.
He muttered to himself. "If only I had known?"
Then he walked away.