A Sketch by Jean-Pierre Martinez
A bar. Two women are seated at a table. The first is staring straight ahead.
Woman 1 – What are you looking at?
Woman 2 – I’m waiting for the lottery results. They’ll show them on the screen over there…
Woman 1 – You play the lottery?
Woman 2 – I felt like giving it a try.
Woman 1 – Why not…? (Silence) What’s the jackpot?
Woman 2 – 115 million.
Woman 1 – 115 million…
Woman 2 – You’re wondering what you could do with 115 million.
Woman 1 – Once you get past a certain amount, it’s all meaningless anyway. Like when they say a star is 115 million light-years away — you don’t stop to wonder how far that is in kilometres.
Woman 2 – Or how much fuel it would take to get there in a Ford Fiesta…
Woman 1 – What numbers did you play?
Woman 2 – My social security number.
Woman 1 – Fortune favours the bold… Imagine if we actually won.
Woman 2 – It’s a bit hard to picture, honestly.
Woman 1 – No more Mondays. No more work. 365 days of holiday a year…
Woman 2 – Yes… Leaving everything behind…
Woman 1 – Everything? What would you do if you had 115 million right now? Well, 57 and a half… (The second one looks at her.) Wait, we’re not married, are we? For better or for worse…
Woman 2 – I don’t know… You win 10,000 euros, you’re happy. You treat yourself a little. But it doesn’t really change your life. 115 million, that’s a whole different story. There’s a “before” and an “after.” You become someone else entirely. Like being born again. It’s kind of scary, isn’t it?
Woman 1 – First thing I’d do is tell my boss exactly what I think of him… then head straight to the Mercedes dealership and buy myself a car bigger than his. Winning the lottery is another way of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat… on an individual level…
Woman 2 – Still, it must be quite a shock. Going from one day to the next with no limits to your desires. No more constraints. Just being able to do whatever you want. Anything you want…
Woman 1 – I think I could handle it.
Woman 2 – I’m not so sure… Just read the papers. So many lottery winners end up completely broke…
Woman 1 – If the worst thing that can happen after winning the lottery is going broke… then you didn’t have much to lose in the first place.
Woman 2 – And then there’s all the divorces… Do you think our relationship would survive it?
Silence.
Woman 1 – On second thought, I’m not sure… How do you give meaning to a billionaire’s life that just lands in your lap like that, by pure chance?
Woman 2 – Do you think daughters of billionaires ask themselves those kinds of metaphysical questions?
Woman 1 – Yeah, but they were born into it. They’ve had time to get used to it. They don’t know anything else. When you win the lottery, it’s all at once. One in 20 million, can you believe it?
Woman 2 – The average number of sperm in an ejaculation is 300 million.
Woman 1 – So what?
Woman 2 – So… if we’re both here, we’re already incredibly lucky. Our proletarian lives also landed in our laps by chance. Let’s just say the lottery is giving fate a second shot, to correct the fact we weren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths.
Woman 1 – I don’t know… It scares me a bit. And it kind of suggests our current life is worthless… That it wasn’t worth living. Is that what you think? Is that why you play the lottery?
Woman 2 – What are you talking about…? And anyway, it’s the first time I’ve played. It’s just for fun.
Woman 1 – Most winners are first-timers. It’s called beginner’s luck…
Suddenly, they both look a bit anxious.
Woman 2 (tense) – They’re about to announce the results…
They stare at the screen, transfixed.
Woman 1 – Well…?
Woman 2 (checking her ticket) – Not a single number. Not even one. That’s pretty rare, you know. I’ve forgotten most of my statistics lessons, but I wonder if the odds of getting nothing at all are almost the same as hitting the jackpot.
Woman 1 – So in a way, you could say we were lucky…
They look at each other, amused and strangely relieved. A moment of tenderness.
Woman 2 – Just think, all that happiness could’ve slipped through our fingers in an instant…
Woman 1 – Gives you chills, doesn’t it…
Black.
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A sketch from the collection At the Bar Counter
Link to the collection for free download (PDF)
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