Chapter 1

Jack held his lottery ticket in one trembling hand as he scrolled through the Powerball web page with the other. He looked back and forth, comparing the numbers. 36 - 12 - 44 - 6 - 22 - 39. He checked them once, twice, three times. He just couldn't believe it. All six numbers matched. Meaning that he had just won the Powerball lottery. He looked at the dollar figure by it. One hundred and sixty-seven million dollars. The number was overwhelming. It was too big for Jack to wrap his brain around. One million was more than he would make in 20 years, working as an assistant manager at the local Mega-Mart on the east side of Corpus Christi, Texas. This was 167 times that. He was rich beyond his dreams.

Jack told himself to calm down. Keep his cool. Don't take it seriously until the money was safely in his account. He didn't know how that worked but the website told him the office to call in downtown Corpus Christi. He also decided to keep this news to himself. He'd read about lottery winners becoming miserable because friends and family came out of the woodwork with sad stories and hands out hoping for money. As far as Jack was concerned, this was his and his alone.

Jack didn't have many friends. A few guys at the local brewpub that he hung out with. He hadn't dated much, either. He was a little socially awkward and never seemed to know what to say to a girl. Especially in a bar, since he was sure that whatever line he came up with, she'd have heard it a hundred times before. Also, he didn't like to try to pick up girls in front of his friends, because he was afraid they'd make fun of him. Jack's taste ran to chubby girls, if not downright fat. He liked girls with fat round bellies, and big butts. He didn't want to admit that to the guys. There were a couple of strip joints that he went to, but not too often because he couldn't afford to spend too much there. Also, a lot of the girls were skinny, which did nothing for him. Fortunately, he would sometimes find a girl with a cute little belly, and he could fantasize about it being bigger. Much bigger. The girls there were nice to him and always told him what a great guy he was, but he knew that would last only as long as his money did. It's not that Jack was bad looking, really. Just nothing remarkable. Thirty-one years old, average height, average build, brown hair, brown eyes, average, average, average.

It was his day off, and a Wednesday, so Jack called the Powerball phone number. After fighting through the damn computer answering system for a while, he got to a live human being. He told her that he had the winning number, and she gave him the address to come downtown. Jack didn't waste a moment. He grabbed his keys, grabbed the ticket, locked his apartment door, got in his 10-year old average sedan, and drove downtown. He found the office readily enough, went in and asked the receptionist who could handle his lottery winnings. She lit up at the news, called to the back, and very quickly a middle-aged man came rushing out. "Well, let's see what you've got there, young man! Come with me back to my office." Jack followed him back and they sat down. The man took his ticket and used a scanner on his PC to scan the bar code on the ticket. The computer chirped and beeped, and the official exclaimed, "Congratulations! Your ticket has been validated. You've won a five state lottery! $167 million dollars! How does it feel?"

Jack swallowed. "A little unreal, I guess. I never thought it would happen to me." They went through some business to process the winnings. He offered Jack a photo session with the Mayor, which Jack turned down. He wanted no publicity at all. The official didn't seem to mind that and went on to how Jack wanted to be paid. Jack turned down the monthly payment plan. He wanted the lump sum. The official didn't seem to mind that either, but warned him that the tax bite was going to be painful.

"Let's see," he said, punching numbers on his PC. "With a lump sum of $167 million, and Uncle Sam taxing that at 28%, you'll get a one-time payment of 120 million, 240 thousand dollars. Think you can live on that?" he grinned. They did some paperwork, arranging for Jack to receive a bank draft to his checking account. He had to sign some legal documents, and he was done. "It'll take about two weeks for this to process, and then it'll show up in your account. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, young man." Jack heartily agreed.