The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning (2 page)

“I won? How much did I win?”

“Sir, you won the big one, you won $42 million!”

“What? No bullshit. I won?”

The store’s general manager smiled, saying, “Sir, may I offer you my congratulations too. You won the grand prize! You’re the first grand prize winner the store’s ever had!”

“You’re going to give me $42 million?”

The general manager laughed, saying, “No, we only pay up to $500.00. Any prize larger than $500.00 is paid by the lottery commission.”

“How much did I win?”

Laughing the General Manager said, “Why don’t you come with me to my office? We’ll call the lottery office together.”

I followed the manager to his office in a daze. His office is the size of a large closet, he has a steel desk and one visitor chair which I dropped down into. His desk is covered with piles of paper, there’s a bulletin board on the wall covered in notices from corporate. The office looks like a cave made from paper memos. It smells of old paper. I wonder
is this real or some joke?
Have I entered the Twilight Zone?
I remember I left the bags with the five items I bought at the customer service desk. I started to look around, the manager smiled saying, “I think you’re looking for your bags, here they are. I had a feeling you might forget them.”

“Thank you, if I didn’t bring them home, I’d have to come back and buy them again.”

“You’ll certainly be able to afford them. Let’s see, according to the lottery, you won $42 million, which is spread over 26 years. You will receive a yearly deposit of $1,6115,384. Of course, you’ll be responsible for paying all of the taxes on your winnings as regular income. You can also take a one-time cash payment, which, of course, is discounted. After tax you’ll receive $28,770,000. You don’t have to decide now. In fact, the lottery suggests you contact a tax advisor and a lawyer before you make your decision. You have one year from last Saturday to cash in your ticket. There are no exceptions. If you miss the date by even one day, you’ll lose the prize. I had a customer who once won $5,000, he lost his ticket, by the time he found it, the time had expired, he was out of the $5,000. Be very careful with that ticket.”

“Trust me, I’m not going to lose the ticket.”

“If you want, we can scan a copy of the ticket and your driver’s license which I’ll be happy to send to lottery’s office for you. We can call them to verify your winnings.”

“Thanks, that’s very kind of you.” I still don’t believe this is happening.

“Don’t worry about me, the store wins a nice prize for selling you the ticket. This certifies we sold it and validates our claim. As the manager, I’ll get a small part of the store’s prize, so my family thanks you for buying your ticket in our store.”

I nod my head, still not believing what’s going on.

He scanned my license and the lottery ticket while I’m sitting in his office in a daze. He emailed it to the lottery, then he called them to confirm they received my information. He told me the manager at the lottery office would like to speak with me. The general manager handed me the phone, “Hello, this is Jay Tolson.”

“Mr. Tolson, congratulations, we’re happy to confirm you hold the winning ticket to the January 24
th
winning Powerball lottery of $42 million dollars. Please bring the winning ticket and two photo ID’s to our office in Richmond in order to claim your prize. Do you have any questions for me at this time?”

“Not really, I’m still in shock.”

“I’m sure you are. If I can give you a little bit of advice, try to contact a lawyer and an accountant before you start spending your winnings. We’ve seen many people go through huge amounts very quickly.”

“Thank you. I think I’m going to need a few days to get my head screwed on straight. How much notice do you need before we claim our prize?”

“Twenty-four hours would be great.”

“I can do that.”

“Jay, again, congratulations. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you soon.”

The store manager padded me on the back saying, “don’t lose that ticket, keep it in a safe place.”

“I will,” I said, walking out of the store with the manager chasing me with my two bags. I smile, shaking my head and thanking him. Getting in my car I call my wife, thinking,
I can’t wait to tell her. Damn it, we WON, I can’t believe it!
We won, we really won! I still can’t believe it.
People are honking behind me, they want my parking spot.
I pull out of the parking lot while dialing my wife
.
“Honey, you’ll never guess what...”

“Hon, I’m really very busy right now. Can I call you back?”

“Sure, but don’t you have even one moment?”

“No, bye.”

Guess she’s really busy, I’ll wait fifteen minutes. I don’t want to tell our daughters before I tell Lacy, she’d kill me. Shit damn, we won! We can buy a house, a new car, she always wanted an SL, I can get one for her. Damn should we live here or move. I’ll try her again.
Her direct line rings twice before she answers it, “Honey, is everything OK?”

“Yes, it’s just I want to tell you something.”

“Honey, we’re really busy today, I’ll call you back as soon as I can. Bye.”

Click.

Damn it, I have to tell someone. I’ll drive to her office and tell her in person. Yeah, I’ll get some roses and surprise her.
I drive to a small florist in a strip mall on the way to her office “Hi, I’d like a dozen long stem red roses in the best vase you have.”

“Sir, it’s Wednesday, we only have those in the case. We usually stock up for the weekend.”

“I’ll take them. Do you have a box I can put them into?”

“Of course, I’ll be happy to wrap them for you.”

Lacy works in the rural D.C. office of a Dallas-based oil and gas fracking company. The high demand for oil and gas has kept her really busy. It’s only a few miles from the strip mall to Lacy’s office. Parking the car, I grab the roses and the copy of the winning ticket verification to show her. I ring the front door bell so someone will unlock the door, to let me in.  Most of her coworkers know me because I usually drive and pick her up on Fridays. It’s our date night, after her work we go out to dinner. Joe, the receptionist, opens the door for me. “Hey, sport, what have you done now?”

“Huh?”

“Roses, the only reason a man hand delivers roses is cuz she’s busted you doing something nasty. What did you do? You cheat on her? Oh, man, if you did, she’s going to shove those roses up your ass. Man, I don’t want to be you.”

“Joe, no. I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah right, no one hand carries roses unless they got busted.”

“No, really. I have some great news to tell her.”

“You got knocked up?”

“Joe, you’re an asshole. Where is she?”

“Busy today, really busy. Something is going on at headquarters, they’re driving everyone crazy. No one even had time to go out for lunch.”

“Can you just call her and tell her I’m here?”

“OK, but it’s your head.”

Lacy comes out of the inner office looking both happy and tired. I jump up holding the roses, “Honey, you’ll never guess what happened.”

Lacy looks surprised seeing me in the lobby with the roses, “Hon, I love you, thank you for the roses, what did you do wrong? Did you break something at home? Didn’t I tell you I’m really busy today?”

“Lace, just hang on a second, please give me just one minute. I promise just sixty seconds.”

Getting annoyed, she crosses her arms across her chest, “Well, I’m waiting and very busy today, so hurry up. Everyone is waiting for me.”

“We won!”

“We won what?”

“The LOTTERY. We won, we really won!”

“Slow down, we won? How much?”

I lean close, whispering to her, “We’ll net around $28 million.”

“NO SHIT!”

“No shit, really!”

She dropped the roses and jumped into my arms, the vase broke on the floor, sending water, glass and roses all over the foyer. “We really won?”

Joe looked up saying, “I’m not cleaning that mess up! You broke it, you clean it.”

“Honey, look, here’s the verification.”

I show her the confirmation printed from the lottery machine. Her eyes get as big as the full moon. “Oh my God, we really won!”

“Yes, that’s what I was trying to tell you.”

“What do we do now?”

Her manager entered the lobby saying, “Lacy, I’m sorry to break up your little rendezvous, but we’re really busy today. Jay, it’s good to see you, however, I’m sorry, but I need her to finish a project that’s on a time urgent status. Headquarters is screaming at us to finish it. I need her to write her section.”

Lacy leans into me, “Honey, should I quit?”

“Not yet, we’ll talk tonight. I’ll see you later.”

She reaches up to kiss me, Joe laughs, saying, “I told you, I’m not cleaning up the mess you made on the floor.”

Lacy and I bend down to pick up the roses, she says, “I’ll find something to put them in, you go home and rest. Don’t lose that ticket. By the way, did you get the items on the list for tonight’s dinner?”

“Yes, but don’t you want to go out to celebrate?”

“No celebrating until the money’s in our hands.”

I leave Lacy with an armful of wet roses. Driving home, I listened, as I usually did to the all-news station. They reported on the election held three days ago in Greece. The announcer was saying, “If the new Greek government holds to their promise of not maintaining the current austerity programs, the German lenders are going to demand immediate repayment of Greece’s loans. Other European countries are watching the events in Greece very carefully as many would like to renegotiate the loans which bailed out their failed economies.” I thought to myself,
I wonder if the Greek’s will try to write their debt off and if they do, I’m sure the other countries in Europe will do the same. If they do, it will crush Germany and Switzerland. This could be the spark that burns down the Euro, destroys the EU and ripples around the world causing a depression. Why worry about stupid shit, we won!

A few minutes later I’m home. I pull out a pad and start making notes to myself, the first heading on the pad is, ‘where to live.’
We could live anywhere. Where should we go? If the Greece elections are the first rock in the lake which is the world’s economies, the coming economic tidal wave will impact where we live. If an economic meltdown is coming, we should prepare for it. We should live in a different location then if everything is going to be fine.
I got so wound up thinking what to do, I lost track of time. Before I know it, Lacy arrives home. I look at my watch, realizing I’ve sat at the kitchen table for five hours filling pages in my notebook with notes and thoughts.

Lacy calls to me, “Honey, what are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, just putting some thoughts down on paper.”

“Can you put it away so we can make dinner?”

“Sure. Are you sure you don’t want to go out?”

“I’m sure, today was long and stressful. I just want to change and have dinner with a glass of wine.”

“I’ll start it, you go change.”

“Thanks, please turn on the news, coming home, I heard something about a problem in Europe.”