“See you in 1990 then,” I replied, more in hope thanexpectation, and we parted company. I didn’t bother hanging around for the restof the meeting, I felt satisfied that my work for the day was done, and Ididn’t really want to run into Josh’s dad again.
All I had to do now was to wait a couple of decades to seeif he turned up or not.
July 2021
My day at the races had given me a bit of a taste forgambling, so I decided to amuse myself with it a while longer. Even if Icouldn’t make any long-term benefit from it, I could still have some fun on adaily basis.
I also wanted to ensure Stacey was well taken care of in thefuture, so I decided it might be fun to engineer a lottery win on her behalf.
I waited until a rollover Saturday arrived to ensure I’dhave the only winning ticket, and tempted Stacey to spend the evening at homewith the offer of a Chinese takeaway. She adored Chinese food, so it wasn’tdifficult to persuade her.
The summer had seen a change take place in my domesticcircumstances. It had been in August that Stacey had moved in with David in hisflat in London. She’d found it a tough break to make, and on the day she leftthere had been tears, her saying that she was worried about leaving me allalone.
I assured her that this wasn’t going to be a problem, wishedher well, and watched as she and David drove away to start their life together.She had promised that she would visit me every other weekend and, true to herword, she had done.
Having Stacey back home with me brought a new lease of lifeto the old house. It had other benefits, too. I had reason to make more of aneffort with cooking, and began to enjoy eating with her three or four nights aweek.
Sometimes we would just stay in and watch TV together; othernights she was out with David, or he would come over and stay with us. She seemedblissfully happy, and it was no surprise when she broached the subject ofmoving in with him.
It was while she was plucking up the courage to tell me shewould be moving out that I got the first indication that there may have beensome stormy waters in the past.
“Dad, I’m so happy with David,” she had said. “I wasn’t sureif I’d ever feel comfortable with someone after what happened when I wassixteen, but he’s been so good to me.”
This set alarm bells ringing, but I could hardly blatantlycome out and ask her what had happened when she was sixteen. It was clearly a“big thing” that I obviously should have known about. Up until that moment ithad never been referred to before.
There would be plenty of time to find out. Stacey was 21now, so I just replied that I was glad she had found someone to make her happy.
So now, here we were, on Saturday night, and I was about tomake her even happier. I’d made sure that we were sitting down watching the Lottodraw as we ate our Chinese. I’d even put a bottle of champagne in the fridgeready for the ensuing celebration.
Just before the draw, I said, “Oh, yes, I’ve justremembered, I’ve bought you a present,” and handed her the £2 ticket.
“This is a surprise,” she remarked, “I can’t remember youever playing the Lotto before. Why now?”
“I don’t know really,” I said, “I was just passing thenewsagent’s in Summertown earlier and thought, why not? I knew you were cominground tonight so thought it might be a bit of fun.”
It was soon more than a bit of fun as the first threenumbers came out of the ball machine, matching three numbers on our ticket.
“We’ve got three numbers,” said Stacey, excitedly. “That’sworth about £25, isn’t it?”
“We’ve got four now,” I said, as the number 44 plopped downout of the machine.
“Oh my God,” mouthed Stacey, watching, as the fifth ball,number 12, appeared. “We could win this.”
The last ball seemed to take ages to appear. We were waitingon number 5. I tried to seem as excited as Stacey was, but it was difficult tofake it. When you knew the result in advance, it took away the suspense.
Sure enough, number 5 appeared and Stacey started jumping upand down and screaming “We’ve won, we’ve won! I can’t believe it!”
Caught up in the moment of euphoria, I grabbed the bottle ofchampagne from the fridge and popped it open. Stacey was in a state of shockand disbelief, but there was no denying the evidence on the ticket.
Once she’d calmed down sufficiently, she phoned David, whowas down in London. In barely an hour, his car was pulling up outside. A callto the claim line confirmed we did indeed have the only winning ticket, andwere some £5 million or more better off than we had been that morning.
The celebrations went on long into the night. We sat aroundthe kitchen table, booze flowing freely, talking about what we’d do with themoney.
I knew it was of no benefit to me where I was going, so Imade my intentions clear. “Stacey, I bought the ticket for you, I want you tohave the money. You’ve been talking about moving in with David in London. Nowyou can buy yourself a nice house there and not have to worry about rent or amortgage ever again.”
Houses in London didn’t come cheap. I’d read in the paperthat the average price in most areas was now well over a million pounds. Inareas such as Kensington and Chelsea it was several million.
“All I ask is that you look after me in my old age,” I said,wondering if I’d done enough yet by keeping off the cigarettes to have earnedan old age.
Up until now, any changes I had made in the world hadn’taffected our lives directly. Buying the lottery ticket was the first majorchange I had instigated. From now on, the timeline was certain to diverge fromthe one I had known before.
Stacey and David
