"I want money! I want money! I want more, I want more, more!!"
On the sofa while wearing my shoes, I stare at the TV screen where the song lyrics are cited. That's A, whose nickname is 'cheapskate', singing a parody of a famous Blue Hearts song. Of course, I don't think one bit that he calls himself that nickname...

A stood up from his chair at the exact hour work ended, and came over to my desk as I was turning off my computer the same way. "Oi, won't you come have a drink with me? Are you free?" he invited me.
As usual I didn't have much enthusiasm, but as I was extremely hungry since I had forgotten to bring a lunch, it was too troublesome to think up a reason to refuse.
"Ah," I replied.

As quick as we sat down at the counter of a bar in the outskirts, A started grumbling his usual complaints.
"The bald manager, he's an enemy to my eyes. Just today he told me to buy coffee and didn't he only give me the money for one cup? He's truly a stingy guy!" Saying this, A was gulping down his draught beer. I ignored his story while reaching with my chopsticks toward my boiled appetizers.

Anyway, as A is a man with a lot of dissatisfaction, particularly at times such as when he is drinking, he says nothing but complaints with regards to other people. After so long I was having feelings of regret about being in this place with A, but it was too late and before I knew it A was becoming red in the face. What's more, he was becoming proportionally more talkative. Meanwhile he was saying "Ah~ I'm bothered. Okay!!　Let's go to karaoke!! Ah, of course we'll split the cost?" Not giving eye to the mug of beer in my hand which I had just ordered, of his own accord he called out to an employee for the final bill. Of course, we split the cost.

The details being what they are, the two of us were in a Karaoke Box in front of the train station, but only A was singing. I was just steadily praying for time to pass so we could go. However many songs it was that A carried on singing alone, I expected that he was worn out as he sat down on the sofa while loosening his necktie.

Then suddenly he turned his face to me, "Oi!! I am absolutely gonna be rich!! And then I'll be the one pushing that manager around. Even the old woman a while ago said it, didn't she? It's my destiny to become rich!!" He stood up again as he was bragging, and in the blink of an eye went to tackle the next song, whichever one it was that he entered.

"Now that you mention it... she was a strange lady, wasn't she..."
I took a sidelong glance at A, who was earnestly singing alone, and recalled the strange old lady he had spoke of just now.

When we left the bar and were trudging along the road toward the station, an old lady suddenly appeared as though blocking us, and gazed into A's face.
Then she departed with the incomprehensible words, "Your wish... will soon come true!"
"What was that...?"

Because we were drunk we didn't pay much heed to it, but come to think of it that's an odd thing to say... I was thinking about such things while staring vacantly into my Oolong tea on the table, when the wall-mounted phone rang. It seemed as though our time was up.

With exclamations of 'Ah well,' A and I left the shop and walked the short distance to the station. Thereupon, A suddenly shouted "Ah!!" and started to run. Surprised, I followed A with my eyes and saw that something had fallen down on the sidewalk. It was a wallet. A had discovered that and gleefully ran off toward it. When I caught up with him, he was already checking the contents of the wallet without heed to being noticed by the public.

"What is that?"
The reply I got was more or less as I expected, but A faced me when I asked that timidly, and said, alone in his pleasure, "Coooool!! There's nearly 30 000 yen in here!! Lucky~!!"
It seemed not in the least did he intend to bring it to a police station, and would pocket it instead. I let out a sigh involuntarily, whereas A was still in a state of excitement. "No way~ That old-lady's fortune-telling was spot on!! I've become rich, just as I thought!! Just as I thought. That's right!" He was repeating things like that.

Unable to keep company with him anymore, I started walking again, leaving A there.
Then I heard from behind me, an earth-shattering sound like 'dosha'! When I turned to look back, A had disappeared from where he was just a while ago. Instead, in the place where A had been there was now a thing like a lump of some kind of crushed metal stretched out. A sticky liquid was flowing out from underneath it... It appeared that a shop sign that was hung up on a building had directly hit A with some momentum... I stood dumbfounded for a little while, but when I became aware of the gravity of the situation I rushed over to the signboard. Some passersby who were in the area helped me move it.

A's head was steeped in dark red just like a rotten tomato, and was smashed beyond recognition. I couldn't begin to think of what course of action to take, though as I wiped sweat from my forehead I looked toward the signboard that we moved. Written on it was, "SLOT GOLD."
When I saw that, I felt a chill of an unknown nature and could do nothing but stare dumbfoundedly down at A, unmoving...