False salesman

Start

I once thought that having money would bring me the happiness I once longed for and fill the voids left by life and a cold childhood.

I introduce myself, my name is Andrew, a billionaire who once had a father and mother, but lies ended my life. I ended up in an orphanage because neither of them wanted me in their lives, the woman who once raised me and nursed me as a child, left with another man. And the guy who took care of me found out that I was not his son and abandoned me. The rest of my family did not want me, as they considered me a bastard and left me at the doors of an orphanage. Since I was nothing more than a child son of someone without a name and who never answered for me. 

In the place where I lived part of my childhood and adolescence was not very good, there were many children like me. Each one with their sad stories and traumas. 

As time went by, my life developed little by little in that place. Until I became an adult and ended up working in a store. It was the only thing I could do for a living, since paying for college was very difficult. I needed someone to help me, and a scholarship was too much pressure for me. I never excelled in high school and would probably be the same at a place of higher education.

At the store where she works. Every day someone would do something to annoy me. They would usually steal things and spill things on the floor. I was always alone on night shifts, so there wasn't much I could do. I would just clean up and report what had happened, but one day something pretty weird happened. A guy in his office clothes opened several alcoholic drinks in the store and wouldn't pay for them. He just gave me the money to pay for some cigars. Which was just to annoy me, I never knew what was in it for him to behave that way. 

I stood up from the chair in front of the cash register and went over to him.

The man looked at me with some anger and threw a wad of twenty dollar bills in my face, so I wouldn't touch it. He was a rather eccentric person and loved to draw attention to himself. I started counting the money he threw at me and it was much more than the bottles were worth.

-I said, "Let's see if life changes a bit, shitty cashier. 

The man walked away laughing at me. He only did that because he wanted to humiliate me. It was normal for people with money to do all kinds of things to annoy others. They would look for any excuse. This was just one of the many times something like this happened to me, but at least this man paid for what he took.

I returned to my post at the cashier's desk and saw an old man waiting for me. He had several lotteries in his hand. Most of them he had already sold and he had a few left. The man looked to be of a somewhat advanced age. Maybe seventy or eighty years old, but he had to keep working, sometimes until he died because the state would not pay everyone a pension. Only a few enjoyed that privilege.

I went to the cashier to serve him, but he began to speak.

-I need to sell these ten lottery tickets," he said. I saw the man throw several bundles of money at him.

Hearing the man, I didn't hesitate to do so, as I had already picked up a lot of money from the floor and I didn't care to give it all away. I took several ten and twenty dollar bills and handed them to him. He received them and shoved them into my hand. He wasn't there for more than two minutes and walked out of the store like it was nothing. I didn't even know how much I gave him, I just did it to help him.

I left the lottery tickets at the reception desk, I didn't believe much in luck. In the short time I was studying in school I learned that it was impossible to win in games of chance like this. Everything was computerized so that only a lucky few could do it.

[...]

Hours later I came off my night shift and handed him the balance of purchases that made the cash register.

When I saw the window, I welcomed the daylight with a lot of peace and quiet. It was the beginning of winter and the cold was getting worse and worse in this part of the country. December was near and it would be unbearable, but it was no time to think about that date. I simply had to be aware of my surroundings. The neighborhood where I worked was not a safe place and neither was the city.

Since I left the store I knew it was a challenge to get back home safely. Insecurity was on every street, even on the subway that I had to take in a few blocks. Everywhere was being robbed and the police couldn't cope with so many robberies. My integrity depended on myself and how fast I could react to any situation.

I was only carrying a black briefcase to look like a normal person, the colored briefcases attracted the attention of the thieves, because you could see if they were new and the social status of the person.

The road where I had to pass the cars came and went. I had to wait for the flow of cars to slow down a little to pass. In this area there were no traffic lights, since they had been stolen so many times that it was better not to invest more.

When I saw that not many cars were coming, I managed to pass to the other side and continued advancing along the avenue, I still had a long way to go to reach the subway and get to my destination.

[...]

After almost twenty minutes I arrived at the entrance of the subway. Because of the time of day there were a lot of people going to their jobs and it was impossible to get there without tripping or bumping into someone. 

Again I began another journey. Here there were gangs and people who specialized in robbing and kidnapping people. 

I just kept walking towards the stairs, many people were trying to get up and down quickly. It was quite a process, some of them smelled bad and made us all uncomfortable. I tried not to breathe at that moment. I just wanted to get inside and settle in an area that didn't have that smell.

I just went down the stairs until I finally got to the hallway where everything was grouped together to pass, but first I had to buy the ticket to continue with the trip.

I approached the ticket office and handed the money to the cashier. The person's window was black, so I could not see his face, or know if it was a man or a woman, I only received the change for the money.

I walked over to the crowd of people who were anxiously waiting for the subway to arrive. All those guys were a little anxious to get to their destination just like me.

And from one moment to the next the subway arrived and slowly slowed down. Now I had to wait for the doors to open and start a fight to enter the train. 

Sooner than I expected the doors opened and people started to leave the place as if nothing, but at the same time they were trying to get in. 

As I was far away from the doors. I tried to squeeze in from one side, I felt the pressure of so many people being pushed. Until I finally managed to get in before the subway filled up.

Unfortunately, here I would also be uncomfortable and cramped. People were pushing and shoving and crowding. I just tried to sit down so as not to be uncomfortable any longer. It was almost an hour's ride which was quite stressful.

In a few minutes the train filled up and more doors closed. Many people were left outside. 

All around me were hundreds of people who were uncomfortably close to each other.

[...]

Almost a moment later I arrived at my house which was in a kind of suburb. It was a much more dangerous place than the place where I worked. Here lived several of the thieves who also dedicated themselves to stealing here, generally committing crimes at night. In the morning they rested and tried to avoid the police.

Luckily for me there were not many people on the street. Just regular people walking everywhere. They weren't gang members or anything like that. 

I walked up to the entrance of the residential complex where I lived a little more quietly and opened the door. 

The security guard saw me at the front desk and didn't say anything, so I just walked up the stairs. I lived on the 5th floor and I had to go up quickly to be there in less than ten minutes. I was a bit tired and wanted to avoid meeting the rest of my neighbors, some of them were noisy and troublesome. 

The stairs were made of wood and cement, they had some windows where the light came in, and it was a bit annoying at this time, because the sun was shining directly here.

I kept going up until I reached my apartment. There I started walking until I finally reached my apartment. I took the key and opened the door.

There I saw that lonely place, with only one chair and an old TV. With what I earned I bought a house and sent it to my siblings at the orphanage. Some of them didn't work and I just didn't see the need to fill this little place with so many expensive things. Besides, the thieves of this suburb lived here too. They would stick a mirror under the doors and see which apartment they stole. It was normal to see the apartments open.

This was a place if there was no God, no law. The police only came when there were murders. They didn't waste their time with robberies.

I sat in the only wooden chair I had. I felt very tired, I just wanted to get some sleep. I left my briefcase on the floor and went to my bed, which was in one of the two rooms in this place. When I got there I lay down without hesitation. 

As I tried to sleep I remembered the tickets, I had completely ignored that, and I didn't care much about it either. I didn't believe in superstitions, it was impossible for me to win the lottery among so many people.

I just closed my eyes and waited for it to get dark to go back to work in the store again.

[...] 

I woke up in the afternoon and my phone rang several times. I looked at the time and it was already three o'clock in the afternoon and I had to get ready to get to work on time. 

For me everything was an infinite cycle that repeated itself every day. Even on weekends. I never had a day off, only when I got sick or the store closed.

I simply went to take a shower to fulfill my daily routine to get there clean. 

I turned on the radio to hear the news, since I hardly watched TV and didn't care much.

I started to shower and all of a sudden I heard someone mention lotteries. <<A man had won fifty million pesos and turned up two days later dead. The police were looking for the suspects.

It was normal for something like that to happen, if I won the lottery, I would never be on television, it was stupid. All the thieves in this neighborhood would be looking for me and they would kill me too. They didn't care about anything.

[...]

I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror. 

My face was still the same. I had not changed, I was the same person with black hair and almost hairless. My chin was somewhat round and my eyes were not very expressive, I was a serious person who saw the world in a very complex way. I didn't expect anything from anyone and I thought about how to change my life, but I didn't know how to do it. I didn't have a university degree, nor did I have time to study. The only way was to go to another city. I had to study and work in the same place. I felt that everything would be quite complicated for someone like me.

I stopped thinking and changed my clothes, looked in my briefcase and took my things out of it. The only new and different thing I found was that lottery ticket and a few hairs of mine.

I took the tickets and threw them on the bed. Although I thought about throwing them away, they were just garbage to me, I didn't think about it anymore and threw them on the bed. 

I just took my briefcase and walked to the door of my room. I had to leave quickly to be at the store before half past five, to avoid the congestion of people going everywhere.

I quickly got off my floor and saw a group of gang members in front of the receptionist. Maybe they were robbing him, but I couldn't do anything about it, maybe they would rob me too or even get me in for getting involved.

I got out of there, although they looked and didn't pay attention to me. It was all in the hands of the watchman since he had a sidearm and could protect himself and even call the police.

Unfortunately for me, there were more people on the streets. Everyone was getting ready to go out for the night. Today there were student graduations and parties of different people. The day would be busy and I wouldn't be here. I just headed back to the subway and headed north of the city. 

I passed by a place where they sold lottery and I saw some numbers that caught my attention. It was 4032812706, when I saw it I knew it looked a little bit like one of the numbers I had, I only saw the first numbers. I wanted to go back to my room when I saw them, but if I went back I would lose the time I had gained to get there early.

It seemed a bit fanciful to see what were the same numbers I had there.

As I walked and kept thinking about the numbers I saw. Suddenly I came back to reality when I saw the police passing by me. I had a bad feeling about this, I thought about the watchman and what had probably happened to him. It had been half an hour since I had left.

[...]

Luckily I arrived at the store where I worked. Everything was the same as a few hours ago, but the streets were just as busy as when I left. A new workday was beginning, but it was one of the heaviest. It was already Friday and people usually went out to eat with friends and family, usually buying lots of food and gifts for their gatherings. I had already had a lot of trouble on days like these.

I walked into the store and saw one of my classmates. He was a boy a little younger than me, in his early twenties. His hair was blond and his eyes were black, his face somewhat elongated, he had three children with different women, he was under a lot of pressure and he had another job, the money was not enough for him. He wanted to study, but the time would not be enough for anything. 

As soon as he saw me he started to change his uniform, he didn't even wait for his shift to end, he wanted to go to his other job. I didn't say anything to him because I felt a little sorry for his situation, it was very difficult and he was prone to committing crazy things. In addition to covering his family, he had to pay his expenses and it was very difficult for him to be like that.

-Hello, well, I'll leave you there. A lot of people came today, be careful, they already robbed me once. The boss will be very upset if it happens a second time.

His eyes seemed to be about to close, he couldn't even stand up. I took one of the energizers in the box and gave it to him.

-Don't worry, I'll pay for it. Better hurry to your other job.

He just waved his hand and walked out of the store. At that moment there were a few people. 

I had to make sure they didn't take anything, or call the police. Since this was a protected place I was obliged to report it. 

[...]

Two hours passed since I started my shift. I was still a little sleepy and decided to take an energizer. I could not fall asleep in the middle of work. 

All of a sudden I saw the same old man from the other night arrive with two armed guys. I remembered it was the same guy who sold me the lottery and I got scared.

One of the guys had a tattoo on his face, a cross and several words.

-The old man said he sold you some lottery tickets. Is that true?

I kept thinking about it, if I said yes. They would force me to leave my job and I had to go get the lottery ticket, and they would kill us both so we wouldn't report them. Since with the cameras I would be able to report the theft and take the prize from them. If I told them that I should not get serious and leave in a few days from here, because they would probably notice. Since they would still be watching me.

-No, you are wrong, he has not sold anything to me, maybe it was a customer.

The man was serious and didn't believe me, he pointed a gun to my head.

-If you are lying we will come for you and kill you.

I could not show fear and stood still.

The guy lowered his gun and left the place, together with his companion. The old man stared at me and already knew that I had the ticket, but said nothing more. I wondered how they knew he was selling the ticket that looked like the winner. He looked at me and remained silent so as not to get me in trouble, but several people were there listening, which was dangerous for me, the more people that found out the worse it was.