A Crack at the Lottery

Something odd was going on in the taipan's office.

He was focused on rearranging numbers on a sheet of paper. There was nothing to do that day, anyway. Eventually, he became tired.

Bored. Eric thought. So boring.

He looked at the numbers for a while. Slowly, a thought was forming; it was something he did very often a long time ago. His gaze became even more intent. Suddenly, he had an idea. 

He looked at the day's news and checked the lottery results. In a few minutes, he rose from his seat and dashed out of his office.

"Don't mind me, Denise," he called to his secretary. "I'll be right back!"

He leaped into the elevator, which was nearly filled to capacity, and told the operator to take him to the ground floor. Everyone else in the elevator was wonder what the taipan was up to with this sudden burst of energy.

He ran across the great lobby of Great South Tower, past Maximilian who was returning to his office from a meeting. The younger Ong was talking to somebody on the phone when he saw his father heading in his direction.

Maximilian noticed a mischievous twinkle in his father's eyes as the latter dashed past him. "Dad?" he asked.

Eric didn't answer. He continued running to the entrance and kicking up dust. "Get me my car," said Eric to the doorman, "quick! It's urgent!"

The doorman hurriedly picked up the intercom and called Eric's driver. Within minutes, the black limousine appeared at the main entrance of GST. "Get me to the nearest lottery booth, George," said the taipan as he hopped into the car and slammed the door.

It didn't take long to find a lottery booth, and the attendant was speechless when she beheld Eric Ong step out of a limousine that had stopped outside the booth. The taipan made his way to the booth, in front of all the astonished people, snatched a fistful of lottery cards and ran back into his car.

Up next was an ATM. The taipan fell in line with other people who were withdrawing money. All were nervous and surprised to see him queue in with them. When his turn came, he withdrew twenty thousand (Philippine) pesos and ran back into his car.

It didn't take more than twenty minutes from the time Maximilian saw his father run out of the building to see him run back in.

"Out of my way! Out of my way!" yelled the taipan excitedly as he rushed past everybody, kicking up dust as usual.

Maximilian paused for a moment and put his cellphone back in his coat pocket. He then decided to find out what his father was up to and made his way to the latter's office. 

Inside he saw his father hunched over his desk, snickering mischievously to himself and scribbling on several sheets of paper. Also on the desk were a stack of lottery cards and pile of money.

"Dad, what are you doing?" asked Maximilian.

Eric made no reply and continued scribbling and snickering. Maximilian walked away, shaking his head.

That night at Ong manor, everyone noticed that Eric barely ate or spoke to anybody. Even at the dinner table, he was scribbling on paper.

"Honey," said Christine, "what are you doing?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," said Eric.

"You're up to something, aren't you, dad?" remarked Linus. "C'mon, say something."

Eric snickered and paid no attention.

"Dad?" asked Cyrus, waving a hand in front of him. "Hello? Hello?"

"Don't bother him," said Maximilian after taking a spoonful of soup.

"Why not?"

"It's moments like these that something pretty unexpected is going to come out. Let it pass, or he might snap."

"Snap? What're you talking about?"

Only Justine kept quiet.

Later, Christine woke up to notice that Eric was out of bed and making his way downstairs. He was still snickering to himself and scribbling. She closed the door and went back to sleep.

Linus woke up and made his way to the kitchen for a midnight snack. As he walked across the corridors, he caught sight of his father in one of the halls, sitting in front of the fireplace and scribbling.

Squinting through his glasses, Linus tried to approach. Maximilian appeared from behind, grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth.

"What are you doing here?" Maximilian whispered.

"Me? asked Linus, turning to his brother. "What are you doing here?"

"He's up to something," replied Maximilian, pointing to Eric. "I'm not sure what."

"What, are you spying on him?"

"Ahem!" another voice whispered.

Both turned around to see their sister, Justine. Without a second thought, she grabbed the both of them by the ear and pulled/led them away.

"What are you two doing?" she whispered loudly after bringing them outside her room.

"Dad's up to something and I want to know what!" Linus replied.

"You're supposed to be in bed!" said Maximilian.

"Look, Maximilian," Justine snapped, pointing at him. "You may be my big brother and you and daddy can boss me around but I am not going to let you give him a headache over something as tiny as this."

"But-"

"Go to your rooms, the both of you!" she threatened. "Or I'll scream!"

"Sheesh, what a pain," Linus grumbled and the two of them trudged back to their rooms.

That morning, Eric was still scribbling and snickering to himself, even at breakfast. As everybody, except Christine, drove off to work (school in Justine's case) Christine, baffled by her husband's behavior pulled out her cellphone and rang the cardinal up.

"Hello Peter, hi," she said. "Can you check on Eric today? He's been acting pretty strange lately. He'll be in his office. Thank you."

Peter arrived at GST later that morning at around ten. Reaching Eric's office, he discovered that the taipan had postponed all his appointments for the day and was at his desk, scribbling and snickering to himself. "Eric," he asked. "You busy?"

"Nyee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee."

"Christine says you've been acting weird lately."

"Nyee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee."

As he approached the desk, Peter noticed a pile of lottery cards and a stack of money lying on it. He made a slight chuckle. This was something they used to do often in college.

"Go get 'em, tiger," he said, patting Eric's back. "Let me know if you win the jackpot."

Eric nodded and continued snickering and scribbling as Peter left. Later everybody was at the door, wondering what the taipan was up to. But when he raised his head, they all panicked and hid themselves. By eleven-thirty he was finished and he walked out of his office, clutching a stack of filled-up cards after first stuffing the money into his coat pocket.

He was driven to the same lottery booth only to discover that it was closed for lunch. Undeterred, he stood outside waiting eagerly while the driver bought him his lunch of a cheeseburger and fries (and the latter had to feed it to him as Eric wasn't letting go of the cards)

When the booth reopened at one-thirty, Eric was first in line and he dropped his bets without a second thought. Scooping up the tickets, he went back to his car. For the rest of the day, he continued snickering to himself and shuffling the tickets like a deck of cards. The attendant couldn't believe her eyes; the tapian had just placed twenty thousand Philippine pesos worth of bets.

The next morning, word got out in Manila that Eric Ong was in town. Indeed, Manila was still the capital even though its population had shrunk to only one million.

Everybody was wondering what the whole commotion was about, as the taipan's armored escort -tanks and armored limousines- were unloaded from the EOGC aircraft that landed on a special runway. Even the president was notified. Strangely, the EOGC entourage never went to any of the usual VIP spots.

The director of the government lottery office was astonished that Eric Ong appeared at his office's doorstep, so he had to make himself look good. He donned his barong and, together with other officials, came to meet the taipan at the gate.

As Eric Ong approached him, the director extended his hand in welcome. Eric, in turn, put a hand into his pocket and pulled out... the winning ticket.

Some fifty-four million Philippine pesos were claimed that day.

A week later, a letter arrived at the cardinal's office. It was from Eric. Opening the envelope, the cardinal pulled out a check for twelve million Philippine pesos. He collapsed to his chair, laughing.

Justine returned home from school to discover a large pile of money on her bed, some ten million Philippine pesos. She almost fainted. Cyrus found a key to a brand new car on his bed. Christine found two tickets to Hong Kong Disneyland on her dresser.

As for Maximilian and Linus, they each got a one (EOGC) peso coin.

"He knew we were snooping on him," murmured Maximilian as Linus repeatedly hit himself on the head with a large book.