Tonight, after picking my son up from his basketball practice, we stopped at the convenience store to buy a Gatorade. They were on sale 2/$5, so we bought 2. At the checkout counter we were third in line. The woman in front of us was buying a pack of cigarettes, a Snickers bar, and $20 worth of gas. In front of her was a mom and her daughter, who might have been 4. I couldn’t see what they were buying, but as they turned to walk away the little girl handed the woman behind her a $1 lottery ticket. Then she gave one to me, too. “Here you go, you win.” The ticket hadn’t been scratched. I win? How does she know that? “Thank you,” I said. “You’re welcome,” she replied giddily. Grabbing mom’s hand, she skipped out of the store.
I paid for my 2 Gatorades and headed out into the parking lot. A small black SUV was pulling out of the space beside me. As it turned to pull away it stopped suddenly. The same little girl hopped out of the backseat and did her same skip across the parking lot to where a man was pumping gas. “Here you go,” I heard her tell him, “you win.” I wondered how many $1 lottery tickets her mom had bought, just to give them away.
Maybe someone who got one of those tickets won some money. Enough to pay an overdue electric bill, or to buy their first meal of the day, or to pick up an unaffordable Christmas gift for their own little girl. I sure hope so.
My ticket didn’t turn out to be a winner, though I don’t suspect that possibility was on the mind of the little girl when she gave it to me. She probably doesn’t even know what a lottery ticket is, let alone how it works. She probably doesn’t know that winning is a matter of matching numbers. All she knows is that it’s a matter of “Here you go.” And that’s not bad. In fact, it’s pretty great.
PleaseGrace 