NUMBERS (PART 1)

larrakin had been playing the numbers for years
without ever winning a cent
all of his mates and rellies played
his best pal johnno swore by the numbers
'i tell ya larrakin - i got a feeling
this week is gonna be our lucky week!'
everyone had their own way of choosing the numbers
from the sublime to the ridiculous
rozza always started with the number of women he'd slept with
and then worked upwards and downwards in tens
except lately there wasn't a lot of upwards left
digger had a mini hand-held machine containing the 49 tiny numbered balls
and chose the first six that popped out
johnno openly scorned the others' methods
he didn't consider himself to be superstitious
and refused to dwell on such niceties
always circling six numbers as quickly as possible at random
larrakin was the only one who religiously stuck to the same numbers
11, 18, 22, 26, 33, 44
johnno thought this was hilarious
'you're a superstitious little bugger, ain't ya larrakin!'
'aw leave me alone johnno
they're just me numbers, mate...'
what larrakin didn't tell the others
was where his numbers came from
if truth be told he was too embarrassed
one sunday evening a couple of years back
larrakin had taken lisa down to coogee beach
it had been a balmy early summer's day
and they had sat on the shore eating a picnic
knocking back a few tinnies
staring out over the breakers towards wedding cake island
as the gulls squawked and swooped looking for titbits
and the hazy orange sun slowly melted into the horizon
lisa had suddenly smiled and jumped up
taking a piece of driftwood and drawing a grid in the sand
'what ya doing?' larrakin asked scratching his head
'you'll see' lisa said
'come and help me find some stones'
after they had collected half a dozen small pebbles
lisa drew a mark in the sand and motioned at the grid
'come on larrakin
i'm going to help ya choose some lucky numbers'
'but ya don't even play the mumbers, lis'
'so what? you haven't won anything so far, have you!'
lisa pointed at the sand chessboard
neatly divided into seven rows and columns
crouching down she wrote a one in the top left square
and a forty-nine in the bottom right
'there are yer numbers larrakin
come here and stand behind the mark
are you ready to throw?'
larrakin always smiled to himself when he remembered that evening
standing on coogee beach bathed in orange sunlight
throwing pebbles like a kid
of course the beach numbers had never come up
not even one of them
but there was something special about larrakin's numbers
and he had never changed them since
not long after that evening at coogee
larrakin had been out for a stroll
and accidentally bumped into lisa and rozza
sitting together on a park bench kissing
none of them had said anything
and since that day he hadn't seen or spoken to lisa
though he knew that rozza wasn't seeing her any more...
it was saturday night
and just as he always did
larrakin switched on the big draw...

(tbc)