Inkwell prompt #87

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The Midnight Gamble

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Lucky was loving it at the moment, all his years in sports betting was finally paying off. It was his fifth win in the space of 3weeks and it had been a streak.
Before now he had lost a lot of money to sports betting but now he felt he had finally become "lucky".

He was from a home that was struggling to go by, he lived with his mum who sold bananas as a trade. She was hardworking and doing her best but recently her health was declining and couldn't go to the market as often as she did years back.

Lucky's mother had urged him to further his education a year ago. And when Lucky secured admission to the University, This added even more burden to his mother, and though she did her best Lucky could see it was such a huge burden on her.
Lucky felt the pain of his mother and would do anything to help out. And that's how he started to gamble on sports.

He hadn't quite been lucky after so many trials but with the recent turn of events, Lucky considered himself to have mastered the "art of betting".

In a few days, he was to return back to school and Lucky didn't want to bother his mother, the burden would weigh down on her already deteriorating health.
He had gone this route before but now he was more confident than ever. He hadn't saved anything from his previous wins but lavished them on extravagances. This time he needed the money for something serious and so took all the money that was left including the little his mother forced him to take despite his refusal.

On the weekend of that week, there were alot of games that Lucky was sure he could win a bet on. He played a total of 15games.
The first day of the weekend had gone and 13 out of the games were in the green. The next day, Lucky was scared to death by the 14th game which had almost done a lot of damage. Lucky had the option of cashing out on 14/15 games but he was even more confident now.

Lucky was so sure the 15game would be an easy wind. The 15th game was on the next day of the same weekend.
The game started as Lucky had predicted the home team was winning by 2 goals to nothing and Lucky had predicted the home team to win.

Lucky looked at his ticket with a potential win of 350,000. His heart was filled with so much Joy, with that kind of money he'll not need to bet again anytime soon.
On other days, Lucky would've monitored the game till the very end but he had so much confidence that he had won already.

Lucky fell asleep daydreaming about what he'd use the money he'd win for and when he woke up, the skies were darker as the sun had gone down. Lucky got up drowsily from the bench he was sleeping and stretched himself while yawning wildly. He picked up his small phone and saw the time. The game was over by then, and Lucky wore a wide smile on his face.

He walked to the bet-house were he placed the bet to confirm the final outcome of the game. He walked in with a air of confidence all around him, feeling on top of the world.
But his Joy was cut short when he found out the game had ended in a 2 all draw.

Lucky froze, he was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe what he had found out, he didn't know how to react. He dragged himself home looking like a withering leaf, with the way he walked a powerful wind would sweep him off his feet.

Lucky couldn't tell his mother what had happened. The next week he prepared his bags to leave for school without a single cent on him. He could always look for menial jobs when he got to school but for his transport he had only one chance which was what was popularly called the "911 bus".

The 911 bus wasn't actually a bus. It was simply trucks which where transporting illegal booze across the country. And because it was illegal booze, they Journeyed through the midnight.
Lucky had joined the 911 bus once and it was a terrible ordeal. On that one occasion, before he got to school it was 6am the next morning and his eyes were completely red because one couldn't afford to fall asleep, as they were sitted untop of the booze at the back of the truck.

Lucky had no other alternative so irrespective of the danger and inconvenience, he was going to take the 911 bus.