Monday, I dashed into 10Box for the lottery machines. By dashed, I mean that I hobbled at maximum speed, because it looked like a big storm was brewing, with dark clouds to the north, which had little tails dipping down.
"When will she ever learn?" As my 2nd best old teaching buddy Karen used to say, after winning all my pretzel sticks in a weekend game of poker. I stopped at the left machine and put in a twenty. Pushed my selection. Heard a long TEARING noise, and got nothing! Dang it! An exact repeat of my previous misfortune!
I stepped over to the right side machine, hoping that left side machine would come to its senses, and dispense my ticket. But no. I got crosswords out of that right side machine, and moved back over in front of the cheater.
A woman came to the right side lottery machine, and put in money while talking to her whiny son. They were waiting for the husband to pay for their groceries. I waited. Waited. And gave up. My knees were extra-hurty, with the overcast weather. No way did I want to call a manager up front and stand there 30 minutes to be told there was nothing they could do. I gave up and hobbled out.
As I was buckling up, that family came out the door. They seemed to be looking at somebody down the parking row. But wait! They were looking at ME! I put my window down.
"I know I left a credit on that machine. It has done this to me before, and I just can't stand that long to wait."
"Oh. We thought that was you! The machine started working again. That ticket went off the screen. The cashier came over and got a ticket for the credit. She said she's going to look at the surveillance tape to see who it belongs to."
"OH! I guess I'll go back in while I'm here. Thank you SO MUCH!"
"You're welcome. We just wanted you to know that they have a ticket for your credit."
"You're so nice! THANK YOU!"
Off I went. I lurked creepily at the end of the checkout, waiting until the cashier was done with her customer.
"I was just here, and the lottery machine locked up, and another customer said you got a credit ticket from it."
"Oh, that was you! I have the ticket."
"I guess I just go over to the service desk?"
"Well, unfortunately, our manager is on her lunch break. She should be back within 30 minutes, and can give you the money."
"I can't hang around that long..."
"Just write down your name and phone number, and you can come back another time. Thing is, it has to be cashed out by tonight. But she can save it for you to pick up later."
I wrote down my name and number. Since I was already back inside, I decided to get two more crosswords out of the right side machine, rather than make a stop at Casey's. I noticed a woman at the left side machine, waiting, with a ticket showing and the machine locked up.
"It just did that to me! I should have known not to use it! They say when it's cloudy, that machine doesn't work."
"It's done this to me before, too, but I waited and it finally worked."
The cashier came over. "It's acting up today. I can get a ticket for your money, but it will be about a half hour before our manager is back to give it to you."
"My husband is waiting in the car, so I can't stay."
"Let me get your name and phone number, and we can let you pick it up later." She grabbed the OUT OF ORDER sign that was taped to the side of the machine. "We put this on here, but people keep moving it to the side!"
When I got home, I got a phone call from the manager. She said she had my money for when I wanted to come pick it up. I told her I'd be there in the next couple of days.
It's my own fault. I swore I wouldn't use that left side machine on cloudy days. But it HAS been two weeks since that last time it cheated me. I thought perhaps they might have gotten it fixed. It never used to do that. It's a pretty recent thing. Like in the last couple of months.
Let the record show that my extra crosswords did not win.
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