It was about 9pm when the phone rang. The caller asked for Mr Pickering & said he was from OzLotto in Sydney.
Being suspicious of ‘late night callers’ I said in my best Spanish “Qué quieres?” (what do you want!) just to see where this potential scammer was heading.
“Mr Pickering I will need to confirm your identity in just a moment, however before I do – I hope you’re sitting down – I’m pleased to inform you that you’ve won tonight’s $8million Oz-Lotto!”
Well… a long pause while all this sunk in then (sarcastically) “Oh really?... That’s great news thankyou very much” – then I hung up.
Hmmm – Eight Million Dollars eh?... What would I do with that if I really HAD won? Nahh – just a scam call probably trying to get my bank details or something.
Then the phone rang again. “Mr Pickering… we know this is very hard to believe so all we can do is assure you this is absolutely correct. Just log-in to your online account and check your numbers in tonight’s draw. We will call you back in the morning or you can call us on the number on the website”
Hmmm “Yea right – ok.. ummm thanks!” – He then wished me ‘goodnight’ and we ended the call.
Well being ever so skeptical I decided to check my numbers anyway, then suddenly…. WHAAAATTT!!!!... E-I-G-H-T MILLION DOLLARS??? REALLY????
Of course Kaye thought I was joking – She knows I love doing the OTT thing sometimes. I even went and got a bottle of bubbles we had in the fridge and said… “OK let’s celebrate!!! – YEE HAAA - $8million – can NOT believe it!!”… with lots of hugging & plenty of smiles she finally realized it was true!
Now believe it or not we’re not into having ‘lots of money’ – yes it’s nice to have enough to be able to do the things you want when you want, but we started talking about what we might do with all this cash.
Help family? Of course – maybe some friends doing it tough or several charities… We could keep $1m for ourselves and make 7 people or organisations ‘instant millionaires’. Or halve that - say $500,000 and make 14 of them extra happy!
Well we had plenty of time to decide, so CHEERS!!... Here’s to the luckiest day of our lives!
'CLINK'…
At that moment I woke up – drenching wet from the glass of water by my side of the bed.
BUGGA!... It was just a dream… JUST A DREAM!!!!!
Of course if it did ever happen, would I really be telling anyone?... Would you? 😊
Fiction © 2022 - Brian Pickering
OZ Lotto image © Jumbo Interactive Ltd, an ASX Listed company (ASX:JIN) T/a Oz Lotteries
