Chapter 1 — Let Luck Play With You

“If you’re heading home empty-handed today, young man, at least buy a lottery ticket.

You look like someone life owes an apology to.”

That was what Ruben told me one morning at a gas station off the interstate in northern Virginia.

I could barely keep my eyes open after a brutal twenty-four-hour shift consulting for a medical logistics firm out in Tysons Corner.

I smelled like stale coffee, my dress shirt was wrinkled under my blazer, and all I wanted was to pump my gas, buy a bottle of water, and disappear from the world for a few hours.

Ruben was sixty-three, originally from Texas, with a thick white mustache, big calloused hands, and a quiet chuckle that sounded like it had survived one misfortune too many.

He was one of those older men who spoke as though every sentence came wrapped in a proverb.

“I don’t play the lottery,” I said, sliding my card across the counter.

“Then don’t play.” He slid the ticket toward me anyway.

“Just let luck play with you for a second.”

I don’t know why I bought it.

Exhaustion, maybe.

Or maybe because sometimes fate disguises itself as a stranger’s passing thought, so it won’t scare you off.