The Lucky Ticket

The sound of hundreds of bicycle wheels clicking filled the night as they rode towards the Lottery Retailer. Poppy’s heart pulsed with excitement, ambition, and dedication as she looked back at Georgie clutching onto her sweater, his red blanket flying in the wind and the rest of the neighborhood on their bikes following her lead. It was a strange feeling.

She and Josh locked eyes, his face held a strong look that only added to her anxiety. She knew what he wanted her to do. Poppy had just turned eighteen a few weeks before, the money could be hers legally. She could leave New York, leave her father, and make a life for herself.

When she looked at the lottery ticket she saw what she could only feel were prophecies, fate. Georgie, in a safe home, far away from her father. Poppy was the one who raised him anyway. She saw college, with her grades Poppy could go to Berkeley. And most of all, Poppy saw freedom, something that salivated her mouth and rattled her spirit. Something that responsibility took from her when her mother passed away.

Poppy strained her break as she slowly came to a stop in front of the small shop. The many other bicycles stopped with her causing a chain reaction like dominoes. After parking her bike, she lifted Georgie out of his baby seat and rested him on her hip. As she held on to him, the ticket in her breast pocket and her neighborhood following, she entered the lottery retailer.

Only Josh, Poppy, and Georgie entered the shop, the rest of the neighborhood stood outside looking in through the windows like eager children window shopping a toy store. Poppy put Georgie down and held his small hand, together they walked up to the counter.

Quietly, Poppy took the ticket out of her breast pocket and slid it under the glass, “My lottery ticket won.”

An old woman looked up, her glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, and reached for the ticket. “Your name, Miss?” she asked.

“Young. Poppy Young,” she replied, eagerly. It was like watching all the fantasies she’s been having in her mind since she picked up the ticket that fateful night, unfold before her eyes.

“You’re aren’t in the system, dear. Let me look up the ticket number…” the old woman spoke with a bored voice only adding to Poppy’s building rage. It’s fate, she reminded herself. “Ticket number 5473 belongs too...hmm strange there’s no name but it was bought.”

It’s fate, Poppy reminded herself. She was chanting it like a prayer, almost like magic. “It’s my ticket,” Poppy reassured the woman.

“I’m certain this ticket is fake, Miss,” the woman spoke with a strong voice, looking Poppy in the eyes. Poppy knew she looked like a crazy person, because in a way she was.

“I’ll go to other lottery retailers,” Poppy nodded to herself and reached out her hand, wanting the woman to give her ticket back.

The woman obeyed and handed her the ticket, but with a reply, “I am certain your ticket is fake. You could go to all the lottery retailers in the state and they would say the same thing. You’re not in the system, it doesn’t count. Better luck next time,” the woman ended with a sorrowful smile.

With a rage boiling inside Poppy’s soul, she snatched the ticket from the woman’s thin wrinkly hand and stomped out, hitting her shoulder against Josh’s on the way out. It’s fate, she reminded herself.