False salesman

Rain

The cab driver took me to the building where the tickets were sold and dispatched to different places.

He was waiting patiently for me on the corner of that street.

I walked up to the building, there were two security guards armed with short shotguns. They were kind of scary. I walked between them and entered the place as if nothing had happened.

I saw just as the cab driver had told me. Everything was disorganized, there were big lines, maybe twenty people were there. I felt a bit annoyed. The driver was right, this was quite stressful. It might take me more than two hours to get there. Although there were four cashiers, they had to take the details of the people who won the small prizes given out by the lotteries.

There were a few chairs around the place, only pregnant women and elderly people sat there.

There were a lot of guards here to prevent theft.

[...]

Time passed quickly and it was almost midday. My feet were a little stiff from standing in the same position.

I started to get a little sleepy and the cell phone that my partner used rang several times, but I couldn't talk on the phone here. It was for security, no one could do that. I had to turn off the cell phone and wait my turn. It was quite surprising that so many people had won some money. 

Suddenly someone stopped by asking to get some kind of people through. I got a little nervous, I was going for the biggest prize and I didn't want anyone to know who I was.

Suddenly a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes looked at me.

-Excuse me, what prize are you here to claim?

-Why do you ask?

-Most of them come to claim small prizes and some of the tickets are fake. Don't worry, I'm just going to check something. 

She didn't trust the man very much and she told him so.

-I don't trust you.

-Hey, look, I'm a guard of this place. Please don't complicate things.

As much as I didn't want to, I had to cover it up a little and show him. He wrote it down and went to the next person after me, and apparently it was true what he said. I just listened to what he said to the man.

-I'm sorry, that bill is a fake.

I didn't turn to look, I just pretended I hadn't heard anything. I continued standing waiting for the line to move forward and watched as more people got out of line. What the man told me was true. There were a lot of fake lottery tickets. Luckily mine was the real thing.

[...]

When it was my turn. I was a little nervous, I didn't know what to do. My hands were shaking a little and I was breaking out in a cold sweat.

The person who was attending me was in a box where I couldn't see his face. I could only hear his voice and I gave him my papers.

I gave her my ID and my lottery ticket. She took them and took a while to talk to me. I got a little tense because of the silence.

She handed me my ID and a small piece of paper.

-She said, "Please go to room two. We can't give you that much of your security here.

I was a little surprised I thought they would give me a check. I grabbed the cokes the man gave me and walked down the hall to one of the rooms. The guards were watching me. Apparently they knew what was going on.

I saw several doors and went to open the one with the number two on it.

I pushed the door without thinking with my hand. There I saw a kind of office where there was a group of people sitting at a table.

They looked at me and I spoke.

-I was sent here, sorry I didn't touch the door.

One of those people decided to talk to me.

-Do you have all the numbers of the complete winning ticket?

-Yes.

I walked up to them and handed them my ID with the lottery ticket and they looked at it.

The older person pulled out a check and started writing the number and my name on it.

-Well, that's it. Now you have to have your picture taken. 

I didn't want to, but I had to, as it seemed typical for this place, I only had a cap and glasses on, so I could avoid people noticing easily who I was. 

[...]

I received the check and my ID, but because of taxes I lost almost fifteen percent of the prize. Now I only had thirty-five million dollars and I could invest it in whatever I wanted.

I could not show happiness, because it would draw too much attention from the rest of the people here. I had won a significant amount of money that many people also wanted to win someday. 

I left the room, but I took off my cap and glasses. I had to look like a normal person. Everyone looked at me when they saw that I had left the place where no one else had entered during the whole time we were standing in line. That was enough to make me slightly suspicious. So without looking at anyone I left that place.

[...]

I came out of that building and saw that the weather had turned a bit cold. It had started snowing all of a sudden, it was a very strange thing. All my confusion had happened because of the time I was cooped up with so many people in that place. 

Now I had to look for the cab driver, who seemed to be gone, he got tired of waiting for me. I was a little worried that my check would get wet. I tried to look for another one, but the rain made the cabs avoid leaving.

I didn't know what to do, but suddenly a vehicle moved out of the rain and stopped in front of me. He got out of the car with an umbrella and walked over to me.

It was the same bald man with a serious look.

-He said, "See, I waited for him. Well, where did I take him?

-I took him to the center of town.

We both walked to the car and he kept me from getting wet. I opened the door and got in. He quickly went to the front of the car and started off in the weather.

[...]

We arrived in the center of the city, the rain was worse in this place. The streets were flooded and there were few vehicles in this place. Only a few people risked getting wet. Stores and some stores were closed because of the chaos this weather was causing. 

I was still in the cab, the taxi was not yet near my hotel, it was difficult to pass through so much water that it almost exceeded the tires of the vehicle and could even turn it off. 

I was a little worried that my check would get wet, I didn't know if I would get out of there, but the driver looked at me.

-I gave him mine. With the money he gave me I can buy another one, so don't even worry about that.

He handed me his umbrella, and I had to accept it, I couldn't let my check get wet.

[...]

I got out of the car being careful not to get wet, and opened the umbrella. The ground was somewhat flooded. The water was quite strong. It was dragging small things and was up to my ankle. I was a few meters away from my hotel, but the rain didn't stop falling. My white sneakers were gray and full of water. They were one of two pairs of shoes I had. Maybe tomorrow I would buy another two, but for now I had to hold on for a few more minutes. 

Despite the hour it was quite cold, my hands were shaking and my feet were shaking. Maybe it was because in a few days we would start winter and the snow would start to fall in some cities and this was one of them.

I walked to my hotel in the rain, I just wanted to get some sleep before starting my new life in this city.