Scratch It Off

Andrea fumbled blindly through her purse, pushing useless stuff aside. “Where is it?” she muttered to herself as she began pulling stuff out and placing it haphazardly on the counter. “I know it’s here.”

There, finally, at the bottom of her purse was a little, black book that kept all the information that she deemed important: birthdays, addresses, allergies, etc. As she pulled it out, something fluttered out from the pages and to the ground. Andrea picked it up and looked at it confusedly for a moment before she remembered.

It was a silly tradition. Ever since she and her cousins had all turned eighteen, their grandparents had started giving them scratch-off tickets for Christmas. For a few years, it had become a contest to see which of them had the biggest win. Eric was the biggest winner so far; he had won a hundred dollars about five years ago. Ever since then, it was always just wins of five or ten dollars at the most.

This past Christmas, with the Covid-19 crisis and social distancing, Andrea hadn’t been able to go home to see her grandparents for the holidays. Instead, they sent gifts through the mail and had family parties using video chat. It had been hard on everyone, but especially her grandparents, as they rarely got to see anyone nowadays.

When Andrea had received her yearly scratch off in the mail this year instead of in person, she nearly cried. This wasn’t how the tradition was supposed to go. She was supposed to be surrounded by her family and scratch it off with her cousins to see who won the most money. It was supposed to be a tradition full of family and love, not sitting here in her cold apartment, by herself. So, instead of scratching it off to see if she won, Andrea had just dropped the scratch off into her purse. Apparently, it had made its way into her little, black address book, and that’s how she found it today.

Andrea held the scratch-off in her hand and made a decision. She wasn’t going to scratch this off by herself. At least part of the tradition was going to survive, even if it was weeks late. She picked up her phone and called her grandmother using the video chat. It took a few rings before the call was picked up; Andrea had almost given up.

“Nana!” Andrea said when she saw her grandmother’s face fill the screen of her phone.

“Andrea, dear, is everything okay?” her grandmother asked worriedly. “It’s nearly 11 p.m.”

Andrea glanced at the clock in shock. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Nana! I didn’t realize it was this late,” she explained. “But look what I found.” She lifted up the scratch off so her grandmother could see it.

“Is that… is that the scratch off Henry and I sent you at Christmas?” she asked as she put her glasses on.

“Yes, but I haven’t scratched it yet.”

“Why ever not?”

Andrea paused a moment before answering. “I didn’t want to do it alone. We always do it at Christmas, at your house… all of us together.” She took a deep breath. “So, I thought I would call you and scratch it off with you.”

“Well, alright dear. Let’s see how much you’ve won this year,” her grandmother said indulgently.

Propping the phone against some books on her counter, Andrea smiled and made sure her grandmother could still see her. She found a penny in her wallet and slowly started scratching. First, she scratched off the row of five winning numbers to be matched. “Okay, here goes nothing” she said to her grandmother as she started scratching the twenty chances she had to win.

Her grandmother just smiled and nodded encouragingly as Andrea scratched.

After scratching everything off, Andrea looked at it carefully, blinked, then looked again. She looked up at her grandmother. “Nana… I think…” she drifted off and sat down hard in the chair at her counter.

“What is it, Andrea? Is something wrong?” her grandmother asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Andrea said as a big smile started taking over face. “I think I just won twenty thousand dollars.”

“What?!”

Andrea held the card up so her grandmother could see it and pointed out the matching and winning numbers. “I just won twenty thousand dollars,” she said again breathlessly.

Her grandmother just stared blankly for a moment, then started laughing quietly. “Well, I guess you’re the big winner now. Maybe Eric will finally quit bragging about that hundred dollar win from five years ago.”

“Nana!” Andrea said in surprise.

“Well, he does, and you know it. Every year, he starts off by reminding everyone how much he won then, and how he’s the biggest winner. Now, you know I love all of you the same, but sometimes, he needs to know that—“

“Nana!” Andrea interrupted, knowing her grandmother could go on like this for a while once she gets started. “I think I need to make some phone calls, maybe give Eric a call. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Her grandmother chucked. “Okay, honey. I love you, Andrea. And, congratulations.”

“I love you, too, Nana. Bye”

Andrea hung up on her grandmother and stared at her scratch off ticket. It was a little white lie. She wasn’t going to call Eric, no. But send him a picture of this winning ticket, yes. And maybe a picture of herself with her tongue sticking out. Who cares if she was thirty years old? You’re never too old to rub it in when it’s your family.