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Beginner’s luckby Saviana STANESCU
Who are those who are lined up in small stores where they sell magazines, meat and nonalcoholic drinks in New York? Apart from a rushed businessman - buying a cup of coffee, a New York Times and a mineral water – all you can see is restless faces belonging to immigrants who invest their last dollar - extracted carefully from their wallet – in a ticket from Lotto or Megamillionare.
Yesterday, I was forced to wait for my coffee because of an old lady, from the Dominican Republic. She was yelling in a mixed-with-Spanish English, accusing the salesman of tricking her. The lottery ticket she bought had scored four numbers and a so-called Bonus; therefore she should’ve won 3.000 de dollars. At least that’s what her grandson had told her, after searching the matter on the Internet. The problem was that the “wonderful” Bonus couldn’t be used unless – when buying the ticket in the first place – she would’ve given an extra dollar. In this case, the word “EXTRA” would’ve been printed on the ticket. However, no-one has told her about this possibility. It was her first ticket for the American lottery. She came here about 6 months ago, so that she would take care of a little grand daughter, since her children couldn’t afford a "how do you call them - babysitters?!" – And they work as if they were robots, day in and day out. Mad but full of regrets, the lady was accusing the administrators and the lottery owners of charlatanism. The poor Pakistani salesman, who could hardly speak any English at all, was accused of being an accomplice to the enormous conspiracy of stealing money from the poor. Typical for the string of American civilized life, no-one got involved in the controversy. Typical for the same string of discipline and order, the Police came quickly, disguised in a handsome officer who calmed the “deceived” lady right away. The general conclusion: each of those who do not pay attention to what they read, sign or buy – down to the smallest details they see, hear or intuit -pays. Still upset, the lady with the ticket drowned her sorrow in an ice-cream, since the summer-warm spring finally came to New York. She sat and enjoyed it on the little bench in front of the store.
The ice-cream and the atmosphere that followed the fight encouraged some sort of a "immigrant solidarity": two girls – Olga and Dasha - from Ukrainia and Russia, began to complain as well while staying on the same bench in West Village. This is how I learned that you use credit cards to pay for the absence of mind. Olga received an extraordinary promotional offer: no interest, plus a $9.75 cheque. She dialed the number on the brochure and a robotic voice answered and, because the girl’s English was not that good, she couldn’t realize that, by calling, she accepted the offer. She’s never used the credit card she got in an envelope. Moreover, she hid it in a closet so that she would resist the temptation of spending it. Recently, she received a letter obliging her to pay over 300 dollars. What had happened? Once accepted, the credit is “self-destructing”: first come the installation fee, and then these multiply since the first fee was not taken care of etc. Practically, it is very easy to owe money without having used the credit ever. Dasha’s dramatic and wise conclusion: "Here, my dear, you don’t only pay what you consume. You also pay absence of mind and stupidity! It is harsh, but that’s the way money are made". "Yes, this is how some people make money on our backs" – said the Dominican lady, still upset, rising so that to leave. "OK, this is it, we learned a new lesson", affirmed Olga, adjuring America’s positive spirit - the one convincing you that even the biggest trouble can be seen from a positive angle – for offering you another life experience.
The girls remain on the bench, talking to their compatriot, Andrei P., who has just been caught with a small "scam" of credit cards. He had hundreds of false credit cards, copies of the original ones. He made them with the help of a few video cameras, installed near a few ATMs in aloof neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Bronx. The police have just caught him cashing in paper currency. They also found about 24.000 dollars in his home. He was accused of “dodgery and identity theft". It seemed to like the sweet and easy life, beautiful women, expensive cruises and the good wine.
Olga and Dasha were pending between admiring and criticizing. In the end "he did not steal, he only played with numbers for a while…why isn’t he allowed to do what the lottery is doing?"...
