I WON THE LOTTERY
Volume 1
By LEZEL
It began as a discussion of character, behavior, and obedience. Nothing new really, I had already been scolded for it before, but on those occasions I could not measure the true intentions or thoughts of my parents when they gave me those "lessons".
"Don't be arrogant", I thought it was a constructive criticism of my stubbornness or arrogance, but it turned out to be just the imitation of baseless argument that my father said every time his orders were illogical or inefficient, or when he was really wrong about something that bothered him, that's how he was, he used to scold me for everything and I came to believe that no matter what I did I would never do things right, But the reality is that only a small percentage of those occasions were my fault, now I think he was just looking for excuses to take out his frustration on me just because he could.
I didn't understand it right away, but I did resent what for me were unjustified screams, insults and emotional violence, perhaps out of spite, perhaps through defense that my subconscious developed as a measure of emotional counterweight, but I became proud.
The only one who can help me is me, the only one who can understand me is me, the only one who cares about me is me.
It was nothing out of the ordinary, my mother was also the same in a different way, she argued with my father for me, she said that she loved me, that I was the most important thing for her in the world, but when the time came, she also took out her frustrations on me, my father's method was insults, my mother's was cruelty, While my father attacked like someone who uses a sledgehammer, my mother did it like a dagger.
My father's insults were bearable in a way, my mother's made me question my value in this world, they made me feel as if my existence was nothing more than a waste, and days later he would say again that he loved me, even looking to hug me and pet me as if I were a pet, as if nothing had happened.
What is love? Can someone say such cruel words and love at the same time?
I endured everything until the end, but little by little it intensified.
- Could you not take it out on me and go to therapy?
I would say to my mother in an annoyed tone, whether out of rebellion or emotional self-preservation, I didn't want to accept her words.
-If you don't like it, there's the door, you're free to leave, but if you don't then no way, you put up with it.
That's how it began, occasionally saying common things like that familiar saying, "as long as you live in this house you're going to follow my rules," a phrase meant to educate, but for me, it had become nothing more than another form of mockery.
I couldn't fend for myself yet, it was as if she was telling me what she would continue to do and saying whatever she wanted if she wanted to continue receiving food or a bed, without caring how it affected or felt me.
Wasn't I her son?, Is it so easy for someone to just run her children away?, Did she do it because she knew I wouldn't do it, that I wouldn't leave, that I couldn't?
"You have nothing, I have given you everything.
It was another of his favorite phrases. Was it true?, the first time I didn't take it as much importance as I should, but when I had more critical thinking, I began to feel trapped in a suffocating way.
I looked at my bed, my clothes, even the food, everything my eyes could observe. None of this is mine, I have nothing, no home, this is not my house, it was theirs.
I began to use that thought in a way that could be called vindictive, but it was only fair, if the dishes were dirty, they weren't mine, it wasn't my house. If the garden was unpruned and full of dry leaves, it wasn't my problem, it wasn't my house.
-Here you eat, here you sleep, here you shit, if you want to continue here you have to do homework, and if you don't want to there is the door and a bridge two blocks away.
They both told me, so what, was I a guest, a tenant, I certainly didn't feel like a son, I had all the obligations, but no rights, and that wasn't just to say, I had grounds for that.
When it was time to buy something, even if it was absolutely necessary, the faces and attitude with which they did it, after a long time of convincing them that they were necessary things, all their body language and even verbal at times, everything was of absolute annoyance, it seemed as if I was that alcoholic and drug-addicted relative who bothers his family to ask for money that everyone knows he cannot return. Everything they bought from me of their own free will was later claimed as if I had forced them to give it to me by force, they made me feel worse than useless, I felt that I was a nuisance.
But it's not like that was my whole life, just my whole life in... that house, suddenly all the tasks had to be done by me, we didn't even divide the work anymore, it became all my responsibility, was I now a servant or something like that?, the treatment was very similar to that, I had no proof, but I was very sure that the law required me to have a contract and a salary, Woe to me if the tasks were not done.
The day came when I got tired, my father's insults were my good morning and good night, my mother's disappointments were my breakfast, and her complaints and scolding my lunch, lunch and dinner.
That particularly bad day, I went up to the roof to wash my clothes, after a while I put it aside while I leaned on it to look at the mountains and the horizon, there was a small fence that separated my body from a mortal fall, and I thought about it, oh of course I thought about it.
What if I finish it all?
I started to raise one leg, but a flash of lights pierced me.
Wait, why do I have to be me, I lowered my leg to watch the fall to the floor. They have made my life miserable, now I also have to die for them?, in the best of cases they will cry for me for a month or two, they remind me of two years with bitterness, and then what?, do they continue with their lives?, do I become a photo on the shelf or a box while they try to forget me?, even if they divorce, what would I gain from all that?
They were my thoughts, those that came to me over and over again, I always ended up annoyed.
I began to think about the matter, did I want to end everything for my good or for theirs?
Honestly, as the well-fed, needless kid I was, all I wanted was to make them proud of me, but then even that started to feel bad and dirty. It wasn't my obligation to do anything to make them happy, and they had made it very clear that they wouldn't do anything for me after I came of age, so I quickly got used to finally letting go of those silly illusions, and killing the part of me that still wanted to please them.
Don't get me wrong, they were still my parents, and if one day they needed something from me and I could give it to them I would, I wasn't ungrateful, or at least I didn't want to give them the excuse to call me that.
But anyway, that was my mental situation when everything happened, that day I had classes in the afternoon and I was on my way to school, as usual I could not say goodbye to my parents without making a courage for anything.
-Where are you going? – My father said in his typical cretin tone while having lunch at the table.
"To school," I replied, as if my uniform and backpack were not enough of a clue.
"Aaah, and you didn't see the trash can full?" Who do you think is going to put it together? –Said.
"You certainly don't," I said as I took the bag from the small boat.
-What did you say? – he said angry at my answer.
"Do you want to do it?" – I said lifting the bag.
"You're very silly, son, just do what they tell you and don't answer." – said my mother sitting on the opposite side of the table.
"They didn't ask me for anything, they just told me that they would rather have a pigsty than carry a bag," I said with growing anger.
-You're very stupid, is that why you go to school, to be arrogant? – My father said, seeing me in red.
-No, I go so that when he sees someone leaving in a uniform and a backpack he does not ask where he is going. – I said leaving and ignoring the shouts that demanded my return, I threw the ball and left.
Passing by a convenience store and more calmly I bought my lunch, I thought I would take it from whatever my parents were eating, but I couldn't do that quietly. I went into the store, took what I needed and that's where I saw them, the national lottery tickets, I had never played, and either because of my altered mental state or out of simple curiosity, but I overlooked all the reasons why it was a bad idea to spend the equivalent of a day's spending on a lottery ticket, and I ended up buying it.
The store manager who I don't know if he was the owner showed me how to use it and where and when I could see the results at the end of the week. I kept that ticket as a souvenir, as something that is only for decoration, I didn't have the slightest hope that it would serve for anything other than to keep a piece of gum, and I regretted it for the rest of the day for having done it, although since I wanted it to work, that would be the answer to all my problems, although of course nothing would happen just because I wanted it very much, But just out of curiosity I checked the results at the end of the week, I sat looking at my cell phone, and that day.
-Hey? – I said while looking at the winning numbers on my phone.
I blinked over and over again, and over again as I looked between my cell phone and my ticket.
-No, this can't be, I'm sure I'm wrong. "I thought as I checked number by number.
I wrote the numbers of my ticket on a sheet of a notebook, a little above that series of numbers, I wrote the winning numbers that I looked at on my cell phone. I checked number by number up and down next to each other looking for any differences.
When I had no doubt that they were the same numbers I thought that something must still be wrong, and in order not to get upset, I did what the instructions said, I called the corresponding number hoping that somehow it was all a hoax or something like that.
After an answering machine process and pressing the keys that I thought were correct in the menu, someone finally answered.
-Hello? – said someone on the other end. It took me a few seconds to respond, mainly because I had no idea what to say, but after what felt like a polite waiting time I answered the first thing that came to mind.
-Hello.
- How can I help you, sir?
-Em, well, the truth is that I think I just won the lottery, and I just wanted to be able to confirm it or something. – I said with slurred words full of doubt.
-Don't worry sir, we can quickly confirm it, in which classification do you think you won?
"I have no idea actually, the ticket I bought is colored..." I said checking the color and section on my phone.
They quickly identified the classification, then asked me where I had bought it, it seemed that they already knew where the winning ticket had been sold along with a code that apparently had the ticket and that they also knew that it belonged to the winning ticket, to make sure that the winner was the real one or something like that.
-Indeed, sir, you are the winner of the National lottery of the highest amount in the special category. CONGRATULATIONS! Now what you have to do to claim your prize is...
I wrote down the instructions and annoyed the operator by making her repeat it three times until she hung up, she seemed to be amused by my clumsiness.
I sat there in the chair for so long that I couldn't see when the sun had gone down. When I was finally able to measure what I had in my hands, the emotion could not be contained inside me, I wanted to scream, I wanted to run, I wanted to jump, I wanted to go and tell my parents right away.
But I stopped in my tracks.
It wasn't that I hated my parents, I understood that despite everything I never lacked food, clothes or anything I really needed. It was only their all-too-frequent emotional outbursts that bothered me and often made me wish I could leave this house and let them kill each other.
-I only have responsibility to you until I am 18 years old, after that I have no obligation to support you.
What would happen when that day came? Well, now he didn't have to fear that day anymore.
I looked at the ticket in my hands. It's true, nothing was mine except this ticket, a ticket that if my parents found out about it they would snatch it from me on the spot, claiming that I bought it with their money or something, they would think it would belong to them too, and even if this whole fantasy was real it would be over as soon as they found out, they were that selfish. Of course they would give me a lot of money, but it would be an amount that they would decide, one significantly less than the total, and if anything, they say that people go crazy with a lot of money.
"This money is mine.
I said to myself, they didn't lack money right now, it didn't matter if they didn't have it. It wasn't that I held a grudge against them, but they would be fine. And don't look at me like that, I wouldn't tell them, but I wouldn't leave them with nothing.
It was at that moment that I drew up a simple plan. Collect the money safely, secretly emancipate myself so that they would not have any legal authority over me, buy a nice house anonymously through a lawyer, move out, and only when everything in my life was resolved then I would return to them the approximate amount of everything they have spent on me, this to avoid uncomfortable accusations about everything they gave me and how ungrateful it would be, I can hear them from the future and also all the headaches they caused me for a long time.
-At the same time in another place-
A young woman stared at nothingness with her phone still in her hand.
-Hello?, Miss?, miss, is it still there? – said a voice on the other end of the line. – Wow, I understand that this news was very shocking to you, my deepest condolences, is it possible that I can communicate with an adult? – asked the woman, that's when the girl reacted.
-How? – asked the young woman.
-It was in an accident on the highway. - The voice replied with deep sorrow for the girl. – Look, miss, I understand your shock, but if it's just you then it's important that you understand the following and if I could suggest that you have something to write it down, it will be very important. – said the voice.
The girl hurried to find a daughter and a feather.
-What you must do from now on is...-
-The next day-
I went on with my life as if nothing had happened, I had a lot of things to plan and the award ceremony would not be for another week.
The next day I continued with my normal routine, taking public transportation to go to high school and waiting for the prettiest girl in school to get on the shuttle to her stop.
Sometimes it varied, she got on one before or one after the one I took, but given the equality of schedules we usually met. It's not that we didn't talk or anything, it was just that we almost didn't have the opportunity in the transport, mainly because it was impossible if she sat in the front or back, she would have to sit next to me so that she could have the opportunity to talk normally, but by the time the bus arrived at her stop it was almost full in its entirety.
That day he didn't go up, I shrugged my shoulders without thinking too much about it, he should have had one before or maybe he will later. But she didn't.
When I arrived at my classroom and classes were about to start, she still did not appear. We had the same schedule because we were in the same class.
The teacher arrived, class started, but she never showed up. I thought it was nothing, I was just intrigued because she never missed, so I continued with the class as I normally would.
The classes went normally, the lottery prize never strayed from my mind too much, just enough to be able to solve the exercises without many problems, I would say that it only took me a little longer than usual. Thinking about it, it felt strange not to compete with Ariel to see who would finish an exercise first, the professor reviewed it and signed, and as I returned to my seat I looked at Ariel's closest friend writing on her phone with concern on her face.
Oh yes, that's her name, Ariel Schwarz Palacios, half German, according to her because of her father, and the proof of that statement would be available to anyone who gave her a look, she was tall, the same as me, and I am 175 centimeters tall, mostly pale and clean skin, blue eyes and platinum blonde hair, everything in her screamed foreigner, Except for her face that reminds a bit of the features of a Mexican, not that that was a problem, it was like taking the best of both worlds and merging it with love and passion, I'm sure that's how they did it, ahem, and I should shut up now.
It was hard not to notice all the differences of such a characteristic character with the rest of the cardboard-colored mortals that inhabit this densely populated concrete jungle that we call city, not that I cared, I was almost as white as her, but it was just genetics, nothing to be proud of or sad about. Anyway, back to the subject.
I thought Ariel would have only taken one sick day or something not serious, but nothing serious wouldn't be a reason not to tell her closest friend at school, let alone not respond to her messages, if the look of anguish on Marilyn's face was any indication.
I sat down without giving it much importance, anyway not that I could help with anything even if I wanted to, and contrary to what my age would suggest I was not desperate for a girlfriend or partner. I'm a teenager, but I have too many things to think about for hormones to have time to be a problem, even more so now that I was about to be a multi millionaire, so I didn't care too much nor was I in love with Ariel, I just liked to look at her from a safe distance, like a nice work of art given to the world to make our lives a little happier, Although that didn't stop me from talking to him normally every day, we were more rivals than friends.
And so the day went by, I heard at lunchtime the girls from the table next to me that Ariel never answered Marilyn's messages or calls, nor read them, that was until my own friends brought me back into the conversation forgetting trivial things.
-Do we go to the machines after school? – said Kevin, a blondie of almost 165 centimeters, he was very good at soccer, we called him the chaneque.
"Better at billiards," said Alejandro, a dark-haired man a few centimeters shorter than me. Did I mention that I am the tallest in the class?
I deliberately refrained from speaking as much as I normally did, my desire to tell someone that I had won the lottery was very strong, I was afraid that my tongue would slip if I talked too much. That, of course, raised suspicions.
"And now why so quiet?" – The Chinese asked, his real name was Luis, he was darker than the night and his hair looked like tow, hence his nickname.
"I don't have much to comment on today," I replied after chewing and passing my food.
"Oh, I know, it's because Ariel didn't come, right?" hey? Alejandro said in mockery.
-Do you like the Ariel Pinche suizo? – Said the chaneque, honestly I didn't find the rudeness interesting or funny, he felt uncomfortable, did that make me classist?, my expression gave away my thoughts.
They called me the Swiss, perhaps because of my appearance or the way I spoke, in short, at least it was not something denigrating.
-Yes, well, they are always fighting for grades, I say they do like each other. – said the Chinese.
It felt strangely funny when people started gossiping next to the gossip topic.
"I don't deny that she's pretty, but even if I liked it, I don't want to go out with anyone right now." – I said without a trace of nervousness.
And I wasn't lying, I was about to become a rich guy, if that information was leaked not only would I not have to worry about getting a girlfriend, on the contrary, I would have to worry about the many women who would surely go after my money, that was a depressing thought, one that had not crossed my mind yet. It sounded like I could never find true love again, an interesting topic.
"You say it as if you could do it whenever you want," said the chaneque.
-Jealous? – I said with an arrogant smile, his twitch in my eye amused me so much that I laughed.