The Winning Raffle

The Martin family lived in a rented house across from us, and some of the kids were forced to sleep in a converted bus. There were thirteen kids ‘hell raising’; every one I got to know, but the two I hung around with were Alec and his brother Joe. Joe was not a handsome looker but did very well at school, he scored high marks in sums and would never play the fool. Joe worked odd jobs around the town and was careful with his money, but Alec who was my age - well, he was not a clever ‘bunny’. Alec led Joe on a merry dance long before he’d turned eighteen, and he always carried big ideas, leaving Joe to fix his dream, then walked away to tramp the country with a swag and billy, while Joe built a horse stud from just one stallion and a filly. For some years Alec drifted ‘round; every day he lower sank, while Joe had made his fortune with a million in the bank. A call from Alec was expected but not about some outback cup. He'd entered Joe’s stud stallion a week before he’d rang Joe up. I was working for Joe now and heard the scream of "Bloody Alec!" And when Joe hung up the phone he was looking pale and sick. "I won’t send him my stallion but one you’re better ‘backin’ me’. I'll send him that flamin’ pensioned hack bound for the knackery.” Two days driving dusty roads, Joe’s driver pulled onto the roadside. He went behind to check the float and found the poor old horse had died, but being paid to do the journey, Joe’s driver kept on driving anyway, AND he left the horse with Alec and told Joe the tale next day. Some time went by without contact, then a surprise for Joe one day. A cheque arrived to him from Alec with a note that had him say, "Thank you Joe for that old horse; it surely changed my luck it did. Even though it never got to run I still made two thousand quid.” "Two thousand flamin’ quid!" Joe pondered - "But the bloody horse was dead!" Joe rang Alec who declared, “It couldn’t race, so I raffled it instead.” “What’s that you say!” Joe asked. “You raffled it! But didn’t anyone react.” "Sure" Joe replied, "The winner did - so I gave him his dollar back.”