By Zary Fekete
“I just remember I bought a lottery ticket today,” she said.
“But you said there would be no more of that,” he said.
“Yes, that’s right. Except there was this offer today,” she said. “It came with the price of gas.
Look up today’s drawing, would you?”
He pulled out his phone.
“Here it is,” he said. “Read me your ticket.”
She fished it out of her purse and read the first four digits of the series number. Each ticket began
with four for the series, then there was a dash, and then two more for the ticket number.
“Series 2938, number 43,” she read.
“Hold on,” he said.
There was a pause; long enough for her to notice.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“That’s your series,” he said. “That’s it completely. 2938.”
She looked up, her skin had gone all cold. “Really?”
He looked at her.
“Well,” she said. “Finish. Find the last two.”
He didn’t answer her, a magnificent smile slowly playing out across his face. What he said next
he spoke slowly with a touch of dazed amazement, “$340 million. It’s a great deal. I imagine that
the fear of college fees would be gone. The kids would be well-positioned for God knows what
they might need. You could study. I might stop this infernal work at the market. There would be
no need to bicker over the lawn-care. Think. All those past moments of brisk wrestling which
tied us down for so long… Gone.”
As he spoke she slowly stood from her knitting chair and crossed to the window. She fingered a
strand of her hair as she breathed a few times deeply. Then she said, “Yes. If we had it…I
suppose I could find reasons to hate you.”
He paused.
“Let’s just not know,” he said.
“What do you mean?” she said.
“We need not know, after all,” he said. “Isn’t that right?”
After a moment she understood him. “Alright,” she said. Falling leaves blew across the lawn.
One caught and fluttered. Then it too was gone.
Zary Fekete lives and works as a writer in Minnesota. He has been featured in various publications including Zoetic Press, Bag of Bones Press, and Mangoprism, and has a debut chapbook of short stories coming in February 2023 from Alien Buddha Press and a novelette (In the Beginning) coming out in May from ELJ Publications. He enjoys books, podcasts, and long, slow films. Twitter: @ZaryFekete
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