The Shooting Star
They say that if you see a shooting star, you should quickly make a wish, for your wish might just come true, in miraculous ways. But what if you saw a shooting star in your dream, just like Ugyen did?
The old door groaned upon a slight push as Ugyen stepped outside cautiously on the shaggy veranda of his old hut that made a cracking sound even under the weight of his slim body. With another one of those deep, unmistakably depressing sighs, he latched the rusted metal and climbed down the damp stairs. There was no point in bothering to lock it; no one in their sensible mind would care to ransack his old hut.
A fluffy white pigeon flapped its wings cooing its melody in the cool morning breeze. It took almost fifteen minutes to start the engine of his garbage truck that worked only 50% of the time and looked like it belonged to the late 1980s. He managed his livelihood by serving Green Ways to collect waste from Thimphu city.
Being a humble person from the lower class and lacking in social graces, people tended to look over his presence. He was routinely ignored and unseen by the people he met, people sometimes poured waste all over him when he helped to dump their garbages. Some maintained a safe distance from him with a look of disgust as if he was an open jar of Casu Marzu. “ If I were a rich guy, would they see me?....” he wondered sometimes.
People came with heaps of rubbishes upon hearing the roaring sound of the old engine of his garbage truck. When he was about to leave after loading all the garbage- “ Hello there..wait a minute young man”, an elderly woman with grey hairs in the white dress was struggling with a garbage box as thrice as huge as herself.
Ugyen hurried over .”Pass it over grandma, I will help you.” He took the lead-heavy box and loaded it in his truck. The old woman smiled at him, “Your ribs cage a good heart child. Thank you, my child.” He didn’t notice as a paper was slipped inside his jeans pocket. “ It’s my privilege grandma_” he turned to find himself talking to thin air. The old woman has left. Or rather vanished. “ Oh! She might be having very long legs” he laughed at his joke. It had been a horrible, horrible day.
Thoroughly exhausted, Ugyen sat on his old rocking chair by the cozy warm hearth. “ Ouch! What is it?”, he reached inside his jeans pocket just to find a Paper. It had a typical first-class look. He unfolded it, “ MEGA MILLION Win up to $1,000,000. S# No. 55856 …….oh a lottery? How did it end up with me?” He frowned. “ Maybe it’s one of the rubbishes of those big heads or a fraud.” He switched on his old version of television to watch BBS news as he always did.
“We the BBS department would like to congratulate Mr. Ugyen Wangchuk, with the lottery No. 55856 for winning the MEGA MILLION LOTTERY! You are requested to kindly visit the nearest BOB bank by 19th May to receive the cash price of $1000,000 transferred from MEGA MILLION lottery organization .”
Can an involuntary heartbeat pause? It seemed like he did. The time froze that instant. He was confounded so much so that his whole body froze like a statue.He pinched his cheek for daydreaming such a shameful dream. “ Ouch!!... It hurts. This means…oh God! It’s real. For heaven’s sake it’s real !”, he jumped and danced in exuberant joy ignoring the cracking sounds and groans of the floor of his hut.After all, it is his day!
He carefully picked the lottery as if it was a delicate vase full of diamond sapphires. “Had I known that such a lottery exist, I would have combed the whole universe for it! “ ; )