At the age of 22 Sam was living on the streets without food, water or a place to live. Growing up Sam caused a lot of trouble in school whether it was for pushing some kid on the playground or talking back to the teacher, Sam always found himself in trouble. This caused his mother a lot of hardship.

Sam’s mom was very pretty and liked by many guys when she was in school. She had long blond hair that looked like birds flying through the sky when the wind blew. Her blue eyes looked like the ocean on a warm summer day. She always dressed like she was going on a date which she was because she had a whole line of people just waiting to go out with her. Sam's mom had Sam when she was only twenty years old and was still in college. She had to stop going to school to raise her son. She wasn't thrilled about this but she would do anything to make her baby boy happy and raise him well. Sam remembered growing up in a happy home. His mom loved him to pieces and kissed him on the forehead every night before he went to bed. 

“Brush your teeth, Sammy” she’d say.

“I love you, I love you Honey!”, she’d say.

“Eat your veggies”, she’d say.

Sam and his mom had shared walks, bike rides and movies with popcorn. Life hadn’t always been so hard.  Although, as Sam grew older he became more of a problem - almost too much for this mom to handle. 



“Shut -up, mom”, he’d say.

“I hate you, I hate you!”, he’d say.

“Leave me alone”, he’d say.

Now, Sam’s mom worried about Sam and his life on the streets. Days, weeks, and months would pass without a word or visit from Sam. When Sam did finally stop by his mom’s place for a hot meal or a comfy bed she always welcomed him home but Sam knew he was the sadness in his mother’s eyes. He couldn’t stand her sadness so his stays would be short and few.

Sam’s daily routine would consist of waking up at dawn and going to bed at sunset. In between waking and sleeping Sam rose from the cardboard box that was flattened and positioned underneath the overpass next to the highway, Sam would walk around the block looking for any food he could find. He also looked for water so he could brush his hair and maybe clean himself off a little before he started his day. By about seven thirty in the morning,  Sam would make his way to his spot next to the coffee shop. He sat there every day because he loved the warm fresh smell of coffee in the morning. Sam positioned a sign that read “Homeless. Please help” along with a cup filled with the hope of people’s generosity. Some days regulars hurrying in and out of  the coffee shop stopped just long enough to toss Sam a few coins or hand him a cup of coffee.
 
Sam made about twenty dollars a day by sitting on the corner of the coffee shop. The twenty dollars he made was enough to barely get by. At night Sam would make his way back to his cardboard plot of land and take a nap to rejuvenate before he would set out to look for food or go spend his money that he had earned that day. Sam wished that his mom was there to scratch his back and kiss him on the forehead before he settled down for the night. It was always in the evening that Sam would think about this mom and all of the wonderful things that she had done for him over the years. He knew he should change his ways and show his mom he loved her.
A few hours after the sun had set, Sam was sleeping while the other homeless people were still up looking for food or a place to sleep. Sam was not the typical homeless man - he was very kind, talkative, clean and a very responsible person with his money. Many of his homeless friends would spend their money on drugs and alcohol. Sam was not like this.  He would use his money for food and water. In the winters it would get very cold living on the streets so Sam would buy warm clothes that would keep him from getting hypothermia at night. Sam had tried to find a job multiple times but he was always turned down and he had no idea why. But this would never phase him. Every day Sam followed the same routine, except for fridays...for that is when he bought his ticket.

At the end of the week Sam would head to the party store in Greenville And buy a lottery ticket for one dollar. Some days, this meant that he had a one and a three hundred million chance of winning. He loved the anticipation that would build up inside him when it was the day of the drawing. But he would never win and all of the people that would win would have a lot more money than he did and he started to feel that the system was rigged (it wasn't).

On March thirteenth there was a drawing at five PM and they announced that the winner was from the town of Greenville and it was bought at the party store on M-15. At the time of the drawing Sam had no clue that he could be one of the winners because he had no way of knowing the winning numbers. So the next day Sam went to the coffee shop on the corner that he sat at and found a newspaper that had the winning numbers. He was more excited than ever when he read off the first two numbers. They were the same ones that he had. But on the third number he was off by one number, a fury of rage was building up inside him. He knew that if he were to get the winning lottery ticket that he would be able to get out of his crappy life, be able to start a new life that he had been dreaming of, and finally do something nice for his mom.. A few weeks went by, a few tickets were bought and he had not won.

It was his mom’s birthday on april twentieth and he really wanted to get her something nice but he didn’t have any money that he could spare. Sam's parents had offered him money before but he would never take it because he was not a person that wanted free handouts from other people even if he was in a tough spot. He was the kind of person that wanted to survive for himself. He knew that there was a lottery drawing coming up on the eighteenth and if he could win this he could buy his mom anything that he wanted for her birthday.

The eighteenth had come around. Twas the night of the drawing. He was able to find a TV in the party store in Greenville and he waited there while the balls were being shot up the tubes. The five white balls came up and Sam had all of the same numbers and there was just one more number and Sam would win two hundred million dollars. The only number he needed was thirteen and that number had cursed him the last time. The ball went up the shoot and to his disbelief the red ball had the number thirteen on it. Sam dropped down to the floor in astonishment, Sam had to look at the ticket ten times before he realized that he had just won the lottery. He had been trying to win for over two years. He knew that he would be able to change his life and make his mom have the best birthday ever.

He had a marvelous idea. Instead of buying a giant present like a car for his mother, Sam was going to put the lottery ticket in a box with the newspaper showing the winning numbers and give it to his mom for her birthday; she would be able to relive the same feeling that Sam had felt two nights before. The only thing that Sam ever wanted was to make his mom happy because she had raised him and she was the best mom in the world. He could never repay her for what she had done for him but he was going to try to show her how much he loved her.