Serendipitous love story: A Lucky Ticket
The moment I boarded the bus, I noticed her: she was dressed in a denim outfit, with a stylish little bag slung over her shoulder. A pair of dimples danced on her rosy cheeks, and her large eyes sparkled with a gentle light. How wonderful it would be to meet such a beautiful and kind girl! But how could I strike up a conversation? The usual lines were out of the question: “Excuse me, what time is it?”—too stupid; “Are you getting off here?”—too shallow; “Haven’t we met somewhere before?”—too clichéd.
I dropped a 5 kopek coin into the automatic ticket machine, and it immediately spit out a ticket. Thank heavens, my luck had arrived! It was a special lucky ticket: it had eight digits, and not only did the sum of the first three digits equal the sum of the last three, but both sums equaled seven—a very auspicious number! After all, God created the world in seven days, there are seven wonders of the world… I was lost in these happy thoughts.
But the girl hadn’t noticed my stroke of luck at all and was heading straight for the door. That’s it, she’s getting off the bus! Farewell, beautiful girl, farewell lucky ticket! I thought in despair, when suddenly a superstitious idea popped into my mind: if you eat a lucky ticket, all your wishes will come true. Hoping it might work for me, I discreetly turned away, closed my eyes, and gulped down the ticket. Then I started listening closely to my inner voice, waiting for a miracle to happen. It was no use! My face turned red, but I couldn’t come up with a single clever way to connect with her. All I could do was look at her with a helpless, pleading expression and silently beg: please don’t get off the bus, stay just one more stop with me! Then, as if by some miracle, the girl I was so taken with seemed to hear my silent plea. She slowly turned around and decisively walked toward me.
Amazing! I was so overjoyed that my head started to spin.
She looked at me briefly, then turned to the others on the bus and said in a clear, pleasant voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, please take out your tickets. Ticket inspection is about to begin.” As she spoke, she pulled out her inspector’s badge and turned to me. “Sir, may I see your ticket, please?” My heart leapt into my throat, and I couldn’t utter a word. “Did the machine malfunction?” she asked, concerned when I didn’t respond. “N-no, it worked fine.”
“Then, was the machine out of tickets?” “N-no, it had tickets,” I stammered, not really knowing what I was saying. “So, you didn’t buy a ticket?” Her tone became more stern. “N-no, I bought one,” I stuttered. “Then where is it? Please show it to me.” “It’s, it’s here,” I pointed to my stomach, “I ate it because it was a lucky ticket.”
The people around us burst out laughing. Oh, that cursed ticket—it had brought me nothing but trouble. The girl also started laughing. “I’m not a surgeon, just a ticket inspector. Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay the price for your luck now,” she said, emphasizing her words.
I knew exactly what she meant and asked in a dejected voice, “How much?”
“It’s 5 lira if you pay now; more if you wait until we get to the office.”
A fine’s a fine, big or small, so I might as well go with her. I put on a brave face, got off the bus with her, took out my wallet, paid the fine, received the receipt, and reluctantly said goodbye to her. Later, using the stamp on the receipt and the number on her inspector’s badge, I tracked down this beautiful ticket inspector and asked her out to the movies. To my delight, she agreed. And as for what happened after that? Well, she’s now my wife.
Just think, if it weren’t for that lucky ticket, how would I ever have had the chance to meet and fall in love with her?
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
