Kissin' Eight Grand Goodbye

Couple of years ago a bunch of us at work started a lottery pool.

Put one dollar in every week, we pool the money, we buy lottery tickets.

When we win, we divide up the prize.

Simple enough.

So, the pool started with five of us.

Since we did not all meet together in the break room at the same time, the way the factory shifts work and all, one guy was designated the record keeper.

And he done a good job.

It took about 16 weeks before we had a small hit, about $600.

We divided it five ways.

I figured I put a total of sixteen dollars in the pool and got back one hundred and twenty.

Hey! Even the wife was impressed. I gave a few dollars to the kids. We all felt great about it. I started thinking of what I could do with more money.

Funny how this lottery thing works, though. Just ‘cause you hit doesn’t mean you are going to hit again anytime soon.

So it was well past 19 more weeks before we won one hundred bucks.

The odds were getting longer and this time I barely broke even.

Still, word spread throughout the factory, even to the supervisors, and a year after we started the lottery pool we had 29 members.

The same guy kept track of it all and he done a good job.

I didn’t like the supervisors being involved ‘cause they’d come into our break room to put a few bucks in the kitty and it seemed like they kind of soiled the air. These were the same guys who gave me a hard time on the floor.

As time went on things started to happen. One lady’s husband died and she had to drop out for a while. Another guy got laid off, came back, then got laid off again. A new employee joined the pool, then suddenly disappeared. We found out she come in from a temporary help company. One fella got himself fired for stealing, right in front of one of the supervisors who was in the pool. It got ugly with the union vs. company battles, but he eventually was gone.

Point is that the record keeping got difficult.

One week we won one hundred seventy five dollars. Divided 29 ways, it added up to six bucks and change.

I was well behind at that point. Still, I kept thinking of things I could do with extra money.

The second year of the lottery pool we all agreed to chip in five bucks apiece instead of one dollar. Plus we agreed to pool the winnings so we could buy more tickets.

Reason being that it gave us a better chance to hit it big.

Five months and one hundred and ten dollars out of my pocket we still had not hit on any winnings.

Then we won a small prize of a hundred seventy five dollars again. This money went into the pool to buy more tickets.

The next week I got my hand caught in a scroll machine, and it twisted it like a rag doll. The supervisor on the shift forgot to tag the machine as out of order. I was off on worker’s compensation when I heard the lottery pool at work hit for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

That made it payout time.

With the dropouts and all, the membership was down to 21. Each member got eight grand and a few extra bucks, according to my calculator.

Trouble is I was owed some of that money.

Here is why: We won a hundred and seventy five dollars to which I contributed. Those winnings went to buy more tickets, including the big payout ticket.

In my entire life I don’t remember ever meeting a lawyer. But I was thinking that now.

Some of that money was mine.

Before I started looking on the web for a good lawyer, I went to the record keeper for the lottery pool.

I had to meet him in the parking lot since I was legally off work.

"I don’t see how I can do anything for you," he said. "I’ve already passed it all out."

I went to my union steward.

"The company looks the other way on this stuff. You know that. You’re not supposed to be collecting money at work for betting."

"But it is legal, it is a state lottery," I said.

"There is nothing we can do," he said.

Finally, I got on the web. Thumbed through the Yellow Pages. Asked a couple of people to refer a lawyer.

"You have got no legal recourse to those winnings," the lawyer told me. "You have learned a lesson. That is about all you are going to get out of it."

Maybe I need a new lawyer.

A couple of days later the factory supervisor appeared at my door. He was the one who did not tag out the machine. He was also in the lottery pool.

"I am real sorry that you got injured on account of me. I can tell you I have been reprimanded for it."

I felt something forming in the atmosphere, a cloud of good will.

"We won that lottery. You heard that, I’ll bet."

He reached into his pocket.

"I know you feel bad about missing out, so here…here is a lottery ticket. Maybe you’ll be the winner this week."

I took the ticket but found no words appropriate.
He left.

The lottery drawing was on Wednesday.

I checked the numbers.

None of mine were picked.

I went back to work a couple of months later.

The record keeper assumed I would be rejoining the lottery pool.

"No thanks," I said.

I think I’ll just get a second job.

End