Everyone chuckled, Marilee jumping up and down with excitement. “Wait!” she called out. She then pulled the necklaces out of the paper bag and draped them around everyone’s neck. “Okay, now we can buy the ticket,” she announced.
They each dumped their remaining money down onto the counter, which was just slightly more than enough to buy one ticket. Then they stood there debating on the numbers to choose. “Definitely today, since it’s Tony’s birthday,” Ivy stated. They all agreed.
“Why not each of our birthdays?” Marilee suggested.
The four of them looked at each other and shrugged. “Sounds good,” they all agreed, then turned to the cashier who was rather impatient to get back to whatever he was doing before they walked in. But they ignored his impatience, too excited about their night ahead.
Minutes later, lottery ticket printed out and paid for, the four left the grocery store and jumped back into Daisy’s car. Thankfully, it started up on the first attempt this time, and the ladies cheered. Tony just shook his head, as if this was all too amusing, but he wasn’t going to show it. Tony maintained the He-Man persona at all times. On others, that persona might look silly, but on Tony, it seemed to come naturally.
“Are we ready to bring our Tony into the adult world?” Ivy called out.
Tony rolled his eyes and they all laughed, knowing full well that Tony had been an adult since his mother died. His father had been the worst sort of human being, slapping Tony’s mother around whenever he was in a bad mood and, worse, refused to get her medical treatment when she was diagnosed with cancer. The man was in prison now, convicted of killing someone during one of his fury-induced rages, Tony rarely acknowledged his parentage. Because of his mother’s passing and his father’s conviction, Tony had been on his own since the tender age of fourteen. He’d grown to over six feet tall by the age of fifteen which had been helpful because most authority figures assumed he was older than he really was and had escaped being put into the foster care system.
“We are!” Daisy and Marilee laughed, Marilee reaching over the seat to rub Tony’s shoulder.
They drove out to an open field where they parked along the side of the road. Daisy pulled a blanket out of her trunk and spread it on the soft grass. They all sat down and opened the box of wine, pouring it into the glasses they’d filched from the diner, then cut up the cheese.
As they munched on their meager celebration, they leaned back and stared up at the sky, ignoring the chilly air and just feeling free. “If we win the lottery, what will you guys do with your share?” Marilee asked dreamily.
Daisy snorted. “We’re not going to win. You know that it’s more likely you’ll be struck by lightning than win the lottery, right?”
“Ugh! You’re such a downer!” Marilee groaned. “Just dream a little, would ya?”
Daisy rolled her eyes, but in the darkness, no one noticed. “If I were to win the lottery, I’d…” she trailed off, not sure what she would do.
“I’d travel,” Ivy announced, leaning back on her elbows and gazing up at the stars. “I’d buy the best camera I could find and travel the world, taking pictures.”
Daisy sighed. “Let’s not talk about traveling the world, okay?”
They looked over at Daisy, hearing the stress that had suddenly come into her voice. “Have you heard from him?” Ivy asked, speaking about her brother, Gunner, who had joined the Navy. It was the only way he’d been able to get out of LowPoint, but that didn’t make Daisy worry less. Gunner was a great brother, sending money to Daisy every month even though she urged him to keep his money.
“He’s fine, I’m sure,” she said after a short pause, staring up at the stars. Everyone knew that she had just closed her eyes and said a silent prayer, begging God to make her statement true. “He was accepted.”
There was a startled silence for a moment, then Ivy and Marilee squealed at the same time. “To BUDS training – the elite Navy SEAL training?” they asked, shocked and bouncing on the blanket for a moment. “You’re kidding!”
Daisy smiled. “Yeah, he was excited too. He should be nervous, but you know Gunner. He forgets that he’s supposed to be scared.”
Marilee snorted. “Men!”
Ivy laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe men just know how to hide their fears better than we do. What is it, Tony?”
He shrugged and took another cracker loaded with cheese. To them, this was a gourmet meal. “I think it would be fun,” he said. “Maybe I should join the Navy.”
They women stared, horrified, for a moment, and then, moving as one, pounced on him. “Don’t you dare!” Daisy shrieked playfully, reaching down to tickle him while Marilee and Ivy held his arms and legs.
Daisy knew with shocking accuracy where he was ticklish and deployed her knowledge without mercy. “Okay!” he laughed, begging for mercy. “I won’t! I promise!”
When he gave them his promise, the three of them relented. “Not that we don’t love our men and women in uniform,” Ivy stated firmly as she brushed grass from her hands. “It’s just that your talents lean towards the kitchen.”
Marilee nodded. “I agree. If we win the lottery, you should open your own restaurant,” she suggested.
He thought about that for a moment. “I like that idea.”
Daisy laughed. “Yeah, but you should open it right across the street from Janice’s place.”
“And put her out of business, okay?” Ivy added.
“Deal,” he announced, grinning from ear to ear.
Ivy sighed. “Okay, so Tony would open a restaurant. What would…”
“And go to business school,” he added. “Then culinary school. I’d like to learn to cook really well. I want to know all the tricks that the great chefs know, then show them a thing or two. I’d like to open restaurants all over the world, and several in smaller towns. Not in the big cities.”
“Why in the smaller towns?” Daisy asked. “They don’t have the population that could support a restaurant.”
Tony shrugged. “Think about it. Whenever we need something, we have to drive into Louisville to get it. LowPoint doesn’t have anything special. It doesn’t have anything to draw people to the town.”
“There’s no reason to go to LowPoint,” Ivy added.
“Exactly,” he agreed. “If I had the money and the expertise to create a really amazing menu, I’d build a restaurant in smaller towns. Some place outside of the big cities, a place desperate for revenue, like LowPoint, that would draw people out of the cities and into the smaller towns. Give the town’s economy a boost and provide a few desperately needed jobs.”
“So a bit of philanthropy added to your dream, huh?” Ivy asked. “I like it.” She turned to Marilee. “What would you do if you won?”
Marilee started to reach for another cracker, but pulled away, thinking about her hips and thighs. She’d gained a bit of weight lately and needed to watch what she ate. The pounds packed on easily for her and with her huge boobs, any additional weight just made her look dumpy.
“I’d buy that old Victorian house on the edge of town and get a dog,” she thought wistfully.
“A dog? That’s your dream? To have a dog?”
Marilee laughed. “Yeah. I’d love a dog. But also the house. Last week on my day off, I walked out to that house and went through it. It’s incredible inside! But everything looks old and dilapidated. It’s all covered in dirt and grime.”
“I know the place you’re thinking of. I’ve only seen it from a distance, but that’s the one that has the carriage house too, right? And those silly lions on pedestals outside of the long driveway?”
Marilee laughed. “Yeah, that’s the one. No idea why someone put those lions out there, but if I owned the house, I’d put Santa hats on them during the Christmas season, maybe costumes on them over Halloween. And silly Valentine’s outfits.”
They all laughed and tossed out more holiday costume ideas, ways to make the lions look funny instead of pretentious.
; “What about you, Daisy? You never said what you would do.”
She sighed. “I like Marilee’s idea, but on a smaller scale. I’d buy up the homes around town that have been abandoned and make them beautiful again. Maybe just give them away to people who needed them. I don’t know. I’ve always loved to decorate, so perhaps that would be my creative outlet.”
“That’s a nice idea,” Ivy laughed, shaking her head. “I think I’m the only one who has a selfish dream.”
“It isn’t selfish to want to travel,” Daisy assured her.
“Yeah, but you guys are all ready to spend your money saving the world. I just want to see it and take pictures of it.”
“There’s a lot of value to providing a glimpse into other ways of living,” Marilee pointed out. “I think it would be lovely to see the world through your camera.”
Ivy turned to face Marilee. “If you had the money, why wouldn’t you travel?”
Marilee sighed. “I guess I’m too much of a wimp to travel. I wouldn’t feel safe.”
“Even with your lucky crystal?” Daisy teased. Everyone laughed and Marilee rolled her eyes.
They finished off the box of wine, then laid back on the blanket. None were even slightly tipsy because, with four people and only one box of wine, there hadn’t been enough alcohol for more than a glass and a half for each person.
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Ivy exclaimed. She grabbed Daisy’s keys and hurried to the car. As the three of them watched, she pulled something out of the trunk, a box.
“What did you do?” Tony groaned.
She sat down with the box and opened the top. “Happy Birthday, Tony,” she said, smiling as she lifted the small cake out of the box.
They all sat up and looked at the cake warily. “You didn’t make it, did you?” Tony asked the question on everyone’s mind.
Ivy looked offended. “And what if I did?” she asked.
No one said a word and Ivy laughed. “Okay, so I can’t cook or bake. Sue me!”
“So…you didn’t bake it?” Marilee asked gently, wanting to be sure.
Ivy shook her head. “Nope. I got Jane to bake it,” referring to the daughter of the bakery owner in town. The mother daughter team was hanging on by a thread, making the business work by sending a lot of their baked goods to various small specialty stores and restaurants in Louisville. Jane was about their age and a fabulous baker! Her scones were so good, they literally melted in one’s mouth!
There was an audible sound of relief with the news that Ivy hadn’t baked the cake. “Give me a slice!” Tony announced.
Ivy produced four forks instead. “I forgot a knife, so we’ll just have to dig in together.”
And that’s exactly what they did, moaning over the delicious cake that had a tender texture and a zesty lemon flavor that burst in their mouths. “Oh, this is good!” Tony declared. “I don’t know how she does it.”
They all agreed that Jane was one of the best bakers, although they also knew that she wished she had a bit more freedom to bake specialty items. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a big demand for anything other than the basics in LowPoint, since most people couldn’t afford much.
“We should get back,” Marilee sighed what each of them were thinking, but none wanted to acknowledge.
Ivy sat up and started gathering the remnants of their celebration. “You’re right. We have an early start tomorrow. And we’re going to be hurting as it is.”
Daisy helped, handing Ivy the garbage, stuffing everything into the now-empty cake box. “I hate waking up so early for the breakfast shift,” she groaned. “When do we have our day off?” she asked.
“Two days,” Tony replied, and folded the blanket, carrying it along to the car.
“Two days!” Marilee groaned. “I’m going to sleep forever,” she vowed.
They trudged back to the car and, miracle of miracles, the engine turned over on the first try again. “Shocker!” Daisy muttered.
She dropped everyone off and drove home in silence because the mountain inhibited radio waves from reaching her decrepit radio. But she hummed along to a song in her head as she parked at the end of the parking lot in the old apartment complex. As she walked up the four flights to her apartment, she wondered what it would be like to win the lottery. She’d heard that many lottery winners go bankrupt after spending all of their money. What a pity, she thought.
Chapter 2
“Are you okay?” Marilee asked as she and Ivy picked up orders from Tony’s window.
“Barely,” she groaned, exhausted from lack of sleep since they’d been out late last night celebrating with Tony. “How about you?”
She shook her head. “I fell asleep pretty hard last night, but I’ll still be excited when we have our day off.”
“Hurry up!” Janice bellowed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you idiots this morning, but you’re all fired if you don’t fix it!”
Ivy and Marilee hurried away, delivering meals to the truckers who were lingering after the breakfast rush.
Daisy walked over to Tony, peering at him through the window. “You doing okay?”
He looked at her as if the question was silly. “I usually only get about five hours of sleep a night.”
She smiled, winking at him as she grabbed three platters of pancakes, delivering them to table four. “You guys need anything else?” she asked.
“I’d love the winning lottery ticket,” Joe chuckled as he snatched the syrup from the next table.
Daisy laughed. “Yeah, you and me both!” she agreed, thinking about the ticket they’d bought last night. It was in her purse, but she hadn’t even bothered to look at it. “Who won?” she asked.
Billy shrugged as he doused his own pancakes in syrup. “No clue. But it was someone in Louisville,” he stabbed his pancakes with his fork.
She stilled and looked up, catching Ivy’s look. “Someone in Louisville won?”
Joe swallowed down half his pancake. “Yep. The winning ticket was sold at that dump of a grocery store,” he said, pointing his finger at Mike across the table. “You know that one over off the highway?”
“You’re kidding!” Mike laughed. “I pass by there all the time.”
“Yeah, well, since the ticket was sold there, that jerk who owns the place gets a million bucks. Just for selling the ticket! Can you imagine? Getting a million bucks just for doing your job.”
All four men shook their heads. “I wish.”
“Ouch! What the hell, Marilee!” a voice shouted.
Daisy and Ivy looked over to where Marilee had spilled a whole tray of food. The three of them stood there staring at each other. No one moved.
As one, they looked over at Tony. He must have realized that they were looking at him because he looked up, his eyes conveying his confusion at their looks. He shrugged, not sure what they wanted.
Janice snapped them back to the present with her vicious braying. “What the hell, Marilee! Clean it up! And you’re paying for all that food!”
Tommy stood up immediately, helping Marilee clean up the mess. “It wasn’t her fault, Janice,” Tommy said. “I surprised her. It was my fault.”
Marilee bent down, tossing the broken plates onto her tray. “No, it was my fault,” she insisted, looking at Tommy to thank him for stepping in to help.
“Don’t matter who messed up,” Janice snapped, kicking one of the plates just out of Marilee’s reach, “You’re still paying for all of it.”
With that, Janice walked away. “I’ll leave an extra big tip,” Tommy whispered.
Marilee smiled at him, but shook her head. “You will not!” she whispered back. “You need every dime you have for diapers for that new baby of yours!”
He blushed, but nodded as he helped stack the dishes. “Do you know how much those things cost?” he whispered.
She laughed. “No clue, but you’d better get back to your table or Janice will do something mean to you too.”
“Don’t care,” he scoffed, bu
t he still stood up and sat back down. No one liked to be on Janice’s bad side. The woman was likely to spit in his food and her saliva was most likely poisonous.
Marilee dumped the food and plates into the trash bin, Daisy coming up behind her. “What happened?”
Marilee glanced behind her to ensure that Janice was far away. “Did you hear? There was one winning ticket!”
Daisy put a hand on Marilee’s arm. “I heard. But I’m sure it wasn’t our ticket.”
“What’s going on?” Tony asked, peering around the wall that separated the kitchen from the dining area.
Marilee and Daisy looked at each other, then at Tony. “One ticket had all the winning numbers last night.”
He smiled, but shrugged. “That’s great! So someone is a millionaire today!”
Marilee leaned forward. “The winning ticket was sold at that grocery store we were at last night!” she hissed.
Ivy came up behind them. “It wasn’t our ticket,” she insisted softly.
Daisy bit her lower lip, trying to hide the excitement that was building inside of her. “Let’s not get too overwhelmed by the possibility,” she said. “Tony, can you catch the news and find out what the winning numbers were? We’ll check it out at lunch.”
Marilee groaned. “That’s not for hours!”
Ivy laughed as well. “Yeah, well, it just means we have a few more hours to dream that it was our ticket, right?”
Tony winked. “Good way to look at it,” he agreed as he pushed away from the wall. “I’ll get you new orders on that one,” he added, tilting his head to the garbage can where Marilee had dumped the plates.
“Thanks Tony,” she pulled the cheap crystal necklace out of her polyester uniform, rubbing the crystal with her thumb.
“It wasn’t our ticket,” Daisy repeated, but she lifted her hand to touch the black cord where her own crystal hung.
“You’re wearing it!” Marilee gasped.
Daisy shrugged. “Yeah, well, Ivy and Tony are wearing theirs too. It isn’t that we believe in the magical qualities of the crystal. We believe in you, Marilee. You gave it to us, so the necklaces are special.”
The Lottery Winners_A Free Introduction Page 3