Next to bullfight and soccer, lotteries are Spain's biggest sport2. There's some kind of drawing3 almost every week, but the most important of them all is the one held just before Christmas. Its grand prize is 50 million pesetas4, which is about $1,250,000. And tax free5, too.
The tickets are sold year round, all over Spain. Every number is divided into a hundred parts, and most people buy one part, which costs about $1. When the winning numbers are posted6, nobody in Spain works or eats or thinks of anything else.
Walking along El Prado7 in Madrid that day in the 1950', I passed a cafe where I saw the winning figures posted and excited people looking at them. Like almost everybody in Spain I had a 1/100 ticket. My hand was trembling as I took out my wallet and looked at my own ticket. It was 141415. Number 141414 won the grand prize. I was used to not winning, but to be so near .... Even my 1/100 cut8 would have been about $12,500.
Then I remembered where and how I'd bought my ticket, and I was almost as excited as if I'd won myself. It had been the summer of last year, when I'd gone to the Balearic Islands9 on vacation. One night I'd dropped into a little wine shop called the Two Lions, in Palma de Mallorca10. I liked it. The shop was cool and comfortable; the wine was excellent and cheap, and everybody liked Hernando, the young man who ran11 the place.
Well, Hernando owned it, but his wife actually ran it—and ran Hernando, too. I don't know whether Maria was really, physically, bigger than he was, but she seemed so. She had a sharp voice and black eyes that watched everything in the Two Lions. If Hernando smiled twice at a pretty Swedish girl or wanted to give credit to12 an old friend—well, Maria would say something sharp, or give him a long, hard look. And he'd give in, saying, “Yes, my love.”
But that summer night, Maria was visiting her mother in the country. Hernando was a different man with her gone. He had a brighter gleam13 in his eye; even his voice sounded deeper as he sang to his guitar. When a ticket vendor14 came in, Hernando demanded to see what numbers were for sale in the Christmas lottery. He looked them over; then he took one block15 of numbers and shouted, “A sign! A sign from Heaven!”
He took my arm, “Look, my American friend! I am born on the 14th of this month. And here is a number with my birthday three times —141414!”
The vendor smiled and began tearing off the usual 1/100 ticket.
“No!” Hernando shouted. “When heaven gives a sign, a wise man does not quibble16. I'll take all of them, the whole hundred!”
There was a sudden silence. A whole number cost about $100, a lot of money for a small-time wine seller. Somebody said. “What will Maria say?”
That shook Hernando for a moment. But then, he shouted, “I do what I do!”
He did it, too. He had to empty the cash register17 and even go back into his house to find the rest of the money, but he made it. Nearly everyone bought some kind of ticket that night. I took my usual 1/100, from the next number: 141415.
Now, walking slowly along El Prado, I wondered what Hernando would do with the money. Would he leave his wife, sell the Two Lions and live like a king?
It was months before I could get to Palma again. My plane landed in mid afternoon, and I went straight to the wine shop. Outside, anyway, nothing seemed different.
I went in and saw Hernando sitting alone at a table reading a newspaper. He jumped to his feet with a big smile. “Welcome back, senor18! It has been too long!” Without even asking, he brought a bottle of my favorite white wine.
“Congratulations!” I said to him. “To the lucky millionaire!” He smiled strangely when I told him how glad I was that nothing had changed.
“Ah, senor,” he said, “much has changed. You remember the one who asked what would happen when Maria found that I had spent so much money for a whole number?” I nodded, and he shook his head sadly. “He was right, that one!”
Maria had been like ten thousand wildcats. She had screamed and shouted, insisting he resell his ticket and get the money back.
“Finally I had to agree, senor．” He said. “One cannot live in a hurricane19 night and day. But it was not so easy to resell so many tickets. Still, I have friends—and clients20 who are also friends. So all but one were sold. She allowed me to keep only one ticket.”
“If it had happened to me,” I said, “I'd have cut my throat after the drawing, to think of those other winning tickets I'd let go.21”
“My first reaction also, senor. And yet who held the other ninety-nine winning tickets? My friends. And whom do they thank for it? Me. Hernando! I am their lucky talisman22; my business has ever been so good.
“Second, my friend, although I had only one ticket, still it won me five hundred thousand pesetas. I have a car, new clothes, some money in the bank.”
“True,” I said. “Still, when you think about what you could have done with the rest of the money ...”
He smiled again. “Indeed, senor, I very probably would have made a fool of myself23. As it is24, it has brought me things that not even a billion pesetas could buy.”
I was puzzled, and must have looked it25. “You ask what I thought of missing so much money,” he said. “Has it not occurred26 to you how my wife would feel? She who forced me to sell those tickets? Can you imagine her feelings?”
“Now,” he continued, “all is changed! Whenever Maria raises her voice, I say to her, 'One-four-one-four-one-four.' Instantly, she must think of the fortune we lost because of her. What can she say? Nothing!”
He emptied the last of the bottle into our glasses. “So, senor, I have won something most men cannot buy. I have won peace, a happy marriage, an obedient27 wife.”
He turned slightly in his chair. “Maria!” he called, not sharply, but with calm command. The curtains at the inner door fluttered28, and Maria came in. A different Maria, subtly29 changed, seeming somehow smaller. Not servile30, not unhappy—indeed, happier, softer, more womanly.
“Maria,” he said casually31, “bring us some more wine, please.”
She moved to the barrels32, smiling. “At once, my love.”
1. lottery n． 彩票
2． 此句意为：彩票抽奖在西班牙是仅次于斗牛和足球的重大活动。sport [sp?蘅?蘼t] n． 文体活动。3． drawing n． 抽奖，抽签
4． peseta n． 比塞塔(西班牙货币单位)
5． tax free 免税的
6． post v． 发表，公布，张贴
7． Prado 西班牙语，指高级住宅区的林荫大道。
8． cut n． 一份
9． the Balearic Islands 位于西地中海，属西班牙
10． Palma de Mallorca 地名
11． run v． 管理
12． give credit to 赊账给
13． gleam n． 闪光
14． vendor n． 叫卖者，小贩
15． block n． 一组（批）同样的东西
16． quibble v． 犹豫，模棱两可
17． empty the cash register 把现金出纳机的钱全部倒空
18． senor（西班牙语）先生
19． hurricane n． 飓风
20． client n． 顾客
21． 此句意为：这要是发生在我身上，想到到手的巨奖被撒手放跑了，公布大奖后我非自杀不可。此处是虚拟语气。
22． talisman n． 能带来好运之人或物
23． 此句意为：我差一点就犯了傻。此处为虚拟语气。 make a fool of 愚弄，欺骗
24． as it is 事实上
25． …must have looked it 即must have looked puzzled
26． occur v． 发生，出现
27． obedient adj． 温顺的
28． flutter v． 飘动，掀开
29． subtly adv． 微妙地，敏锐地
30． servile adj． 卑屈的
31． casually adv． 漫不经心地
32． barrel n． 酒桶