“Everything okay?” Her tone was anxious as she held a rambunctious Lisa.
He looked around the room for a moment before his eyes finally met hers. “Sure, everything’s A-okay. You have to go over to see the lottery people this afternoon. Enough time has passed.”
“Will you go with me?”
“I’ll go over in the cab with you, but I won’t go in the building. I’ll hang around outside until you come out.”
“What all do I have to do?”
“Just present the winning ticket. They’ll validate it and issue you an official receipt. There’ll be witnesses there and all. You’ll be confirmed every which way from Sunday. They go over the ticket with a high-tech laser to verify it’s authentic. They got special fiber threads in the tickets, some of them right under the row of numbers. Kind of like U.S. currency, to prevent counterfeiting. It’s impossible to duplicate, especially in a short time frame. They’ll call the outlet where you bought the ticket to confirm that lottery number was indeed purchased at that site. They’ll ask for background info on you. Where you’re from, kids, parents, that sort of thing. It takes a few hours. You don’t have to wait. They’ll get in touch when the process is complete. Then they’ll release a statement to the press that the winner has come forward, but they won’t release your name until the press conference. You know, keep the suspense building. That stuff really sells tickets for the next drawing. You don’t have to hang around for that either. The actual press conference will be the next day.”
“Do we come back here?”
“Actually, ‘Linda Freeman’ is checking out today. We’ll go to another hotel where you can check in as LuAnn Tyler, one of the richest people in the country. Fresh in town and ready to take on the world.”
“You ever been to one of these press conferences before?”
He nodded. “A few. They can be a little crazy. Especially when the winners bring family with them. Money can do strange things to people. But it doesn’t last too long. You get asked a bunch of questions and then off you go.” He paused and then added, “That’s nice what you’re doing, going to Sweden for your mom like that.”
LuAnn looked down as she played with Lisa’s feet. “I hope so. It’s sure gonna be different.”
“Well, sounds like you can use a little different.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll stay.”
“Stay as long as you want. Hell, you can stay forever if you want to.”
“I’m not sure I can do that. I don’t think I’d fit in.”
He gripped her shoulders and looked her in the face. “Listen, LuAnn, give yourself some credit. Okay, so you don’t have a bunch of fancy degrees, but you’re sharp, you take great care of your kid, and you got a good heart. In my book, that puts you ahead of about ninety-nine percent of the population.”
“I don’t know how good I’d be doing right now if you weren’t here helping me out.”
He shrugged. “Hey, like I said, it’s part of the job.” He let go of her shoulders and fished a cigarette out of his pack. “Why don’t we have some quick lunch and then you go claim your prize? What do you say, you ready to be filthy rich, lady?”
LuAnn took a deep breath before answering. “I’m ready.”
LuAnn emerged from the Lottery Commission building, walked down the street, and turned a corner, where she met Charlie at a prearranged spot. He had kept Lisa for her while she had gone in.
“She’s been watching everything going by. She’s a real alert kid,” he said.
“Won’t be long before I’m running every which way after her.”
“She was doing her best to get down and crawl off, swear to God.” Charlie smiled and put a very exuberant Lisa back in her carriage. “So how’d it go?”
“They were real friendly. Treated me real special. ‘You want coffee, Ms. Tyler?’ ‘You want a phone to make calls?’ One woman asked me if I wanted to hire her as my personal assistant.” She laughed.
“You better get used to that. You have the receipt?”