Speedway Sevens

Today I had an extra fifteen seconds on my agenda so naturally I decided to dream a dream. I made this decision while walking past a Speedway on my way to my car.

I'm gonna buy a scratch off, win a thousand bucks then get in my car and get home on time. I'll cash it in later. I can feel it this time like every time and I did win $500 bucks once and that feeling was like this feeling.

I ducked into the Speedway and was irritated to find a couple of young punks standing in front of the machine trying to figure out how they were going to lose their money as seconds ticked off my agenda.

The punks, a young man and woman, looked at me as I looked at them. Immediate generation gap. I decided to soften my grill and said "good luck, whatever you pick will be a winner".

They gave me a wary smile and said "thanks".

They bought the ticket and left the Speedway..

I stepped up to the machine with the only dollar bill I had in my jeans. I slid that dollar into the machine and out popped a Lucky 7. Lucky 7 is a diagonal scratchoff game that requires three 7's in a row to win or two 7's and a $ symbol which doubles the prize.

I scratched the card and found a 7 in the right hand corner next I found a $ in the middle square. Finally I scratched off the left corner and there was the third seven. Not only had I won but I had won double the prize. The dream was becoming a reality. I'm gonna win for sure, it's only a question of how much.

I scratched the prize.........

One dollar multipled by two; two bucks.

At that juncture the smiling previous punks walked past me and said "thanks for the good luck. We won 4 bucks".

I said great " I just won two bucks myself"

We exchanged smiles as they went back into the Speedway.

That's when I made my mistake, I should have given my ticket to those kids. Plus I had another dollar win scratch off in my pocket from a previous dream. I should have given them that one too but I didn't think about it until I was back in my car, back on my agenda.

The three scratch off dollars in my pocket didn't mean much to me. The one dollar winner was a break even and the two dollar winner was the least I could have won with the doubler both kind disappointing. If I would have given those two tickets to those kids, they would have remembered the Speedway for a long time, maybe they would have cashed in and bought a 3$ ticket and won 500 bucks.

I would have had the feeling that I had done something nice.

Everybody wins.

Since I hesitated and the moment got by me, all I have in my pocket is two scratch off tickets worth three bucks which is pretty meh

Except of course, I got this story and although that is a considerable reward it is not as good as giving although better than receiving.