In a small town of Layonel lived a very simple and fun loving man called Jamie. He was 24 and lived in a small house with his parents James and Samantha. His father had a small eating joint and his mother was a tailor by occupation. Jamie used to help his dad after he finished high school. As time passed, James felt that Jamie was getting more and more adept in handling the entire joint by himself. Jamie was always known to be the luckiest guy in school. He always got what he wanted. May it be the easiest exam papers or the prettiest girl in school, Sussane, as his girlfriend. His friends always used to tease him about the fact that how lucky a person he was and what a loser he would be if it wasn’t for his luck!
Jamie did not take this criticism well and always tried to prove himself again and again that it is not for luck, but skill and hardwork that made him good at what he did. Sussane always supported him and tried to keep him cool and away from the criticism. One night when Jamie was closing his eating joint, a last customer had come in to order for a take away. Jamie was packing the food, when the customer asked him how he was coping with the expenses due to the new local law of using only crestin oil at eating joints. The man being astonished commented as to how lucky Jamie was, as all the other joints in the area were tested above the cut-off inspite of using the same oil. The man left handing Jamie his payment. He left Jamie pondering that night, if actually he was so lucky in life and that he would not be that competitive or potent if it wasn’t for his luck. Jamie wanted to test himself, but how could he throw his luck out of himself.
Jamie was frustrated and decided that he would buy a “million dollar prize” lottery and if he was that damn lucky, then he should obviously be able to win the lottery. He went to the store near-by, which was also closing and asked the store owner Roger, his friend, to give him the lottery for the 1 million dollar jackpot. Roger, being surprised since Jamie had never believed in buying lotteries, handed Jamie the lottery and told him to select 5 numbers from 1 to 60 so he could scan the lottery. Jamie picked up the lottery, and being the astute man he is chose 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He thought to himself, even though the odds of getting any 5 numbers are the same, the odds of getting a straight sequence is even lesser and would be very rare as though they would defy the rule of randomness. He gave it to Roger to scan it and paid him $2 for it. The results were going to be announced the next day at 4pm.
Jamie went home that night wondering as to how damn low his chances are to win the lottery. He was exhausted from the day’s activities and went into a zone of sound sleeping. The night had left his town with the beauty of sunrise. It was morning now, and at sharp 9:00am Jamie woke up to the ringing of his alarm clock. He was feeling good today after some nice sleep and was raring to go and work at his joint. He had not forgotten about the ticket and had one eye on the smallest needle on his watch closing in at 4. It was a busy day today at work since a group of buses loaded with tourists had come down to visit Layonel and had taken a break at his eating joint. This was not a surprise since those bus drivers were a huge fan of his eating joint. Once they all left, he was shocked to see that it was almost 5:30 pm. He told his staff he would be back. Curiously he took off to Roger’s store.
Roger greeted him and told him to press the “OK” button on the machine at the end of the store to see the results. Not wasting any time, Jamie paced quickly towards the machine. He entered today’s date and clicked “OK”. The screen showed—Today’s winning numbers are:: five, three, two, four and ***. Jamie did not know whether to feel happy or sad. It was as though he had won and lost at the same time. With utter disbelief he walked to the nearby shore and sat on the sand pondering about what had just happened. The winning numbers were five, three, two, four and nineteen! Yes, it was nineteen and not one. Jamie thought to himself that though it proved that he was not that lucky; he had lost the million dollar prize by just 1 incorrect number. Forget about being lucky, he felt as though he was the unluckiest man on earth. He began searching for answers for many unanswered questions in his head. How did he not win this? Was he not that lucky after all? How unlucky he was to miss out by 1 incorrect number! It was as though these heavy questions were hanging down from his eyelashes and forcing his eyes to close and so he went off to sleep on the beach there.
He woke up to the darkness of the night to hear extinguished screams of a woman who was probably shouting for help. He rubbed his eyes to have a better look and saw a man with a knife in his hand beating up a woman and trying to gag her with a piece of cloth, taking the advantage of this lonely beach. He had not noticed Jamie. Jamie was scared as he had not faced such a situation before. He knew he had to act cautiously so as not to cause any harm to himself or the woman. He started thinking quickly as to what his next step of action should be. He looked around and saw a piece of rock which was lying close to where has was at. He picked it up and walked cautiously towards the man, knowing his feet movements could not be heard due to the sand. He got right behind the man; hit his head with the rock, hard enough to knock him down, and soft enough not to kill him. The man fell unconscious to the floor. He removed the gag from the woman and took her quickly to his eating joint. The woman was badly bruised and he helped her out with his first aid kit. The woman thanked him and really appreciated what Jamie had done for him. Jamie told his staff member Gerald to drop her home as he had to close the joint.
The next morning Jamie’s mother Samantha was not feeling well and he had to take care of her as his dad was out of town. He was waiting for Sussane to come over. When she did, he kissed Sussane and told her to take care of mom till he is back. Being the sweet and generous girl Sussane is, she was glad as ever to take care of his mom. Sussane and his mom were very fond of each other and liked each other’s company. He then kissed his mom and left for work. On reaching his eating joint, his staff member Gerald gave him an envelope that someone had left for him. He opened a part of the envelope to slowly take out the letter in it. It read—“Dear Jamie, I am ever grateful to you for saving my wife’s life yesterday. There was a mad man who used to like her. He was heartbroken when I married her. He wanted to kill us for that. Although he is arrested disk sheller now, I feelit is not safe for me or my wife to live in this town anymore. I will be flying to another part of the world soon. I wanted to thank you but you were not here. We have a flight to catch. It is very unfortunate that I could not meet a great man like you. If you ever do need anything in life just let me know and I will always be willing to help you. I have also left a check for you as an appreciation gift for the kindness you have shown and for the good human being you are. Please do accept it. It would make my wife Alexandra and me really very happy. Thank you once again–Paul”.
Jamie could not believe what he had just read. He tore the edge of the envelope completely only to see a check, which read the amount as ten million dollars! Wow! Was this true? Jamie could not believe this. He was rich and he could now buy the house of his dreams, convert his joint into a high class restaurant and buy his parents and girlfriend whatever they wanted. Jamie ran towards his house to tell his mom and girlfriend that. On reaching halfway there he puffed for breath and fell to his knees and started crying. He was so happy! Then suddenly, he thought about something and lifted his head. This is what www.honmac.org he thought. Had he won the lottery yesterday he would have never gone to the beach to sulk. He would have never saved Alexandra and he would never get $10 million. He concluded that everything happened for a reason. He was destined to win $10 million and not $1 million. He smiled and accepted the fact that after all, he was that damn lucky!;)