. no one had come forward to claim that prize in the past four days. The media was in a frenzy to find this person. That was when I remembered that I ...ad bought a ticket before I got sick. To make a short story even shorter, I checked my ticket and found out I was the lucky asshole.After checking the numbers three times to make sure I hadn’t made some mistake, I went to the Lottery’s website to find out what I had to do to claim my Jackpot Prize. It wasn’t that difficult. Sign my ticket, fill. That night was the Commodore's Ball, black tie for the men, despite the heat, and long dresses for the women. Jeannine wore a decollete deep blue silk dress heavily embroidered with gold thread on the bodice and had her hair up, complaining about its condition after the sun and wind of therace, and about the state of her hands after hauling on ropes all day. Meredith wore a white tuxedo, as I had thought of doing, but Jeannine had persuaded me to dress, so I wore a turquoise floor-length dress. "Debbie? Debbie where are you?" I'm here Mr. Groves in the front room." She called softly.A moment later her elderly next door neighbour appeared in the door way. She thought of him as old but he was actually only in his early forties. She thought of him as little but he must have been five foot nine at least. She thought of him as dirty, and he was."Good girl." He grinned evilly as he looked at the little skirt and top he'd told her to wear."I am trying to be good." She whispered."You just. You simply can’t make someone love you.” she ended.“Court, I do love you, I always have, I always will.” I answered.“Yes, but not in the way I love you, I had that once, I threw it way ... I broke your heart ... I never knew how that felt ... until now.” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.I reached across the bed, found her and pulled her close up against me, her back to my chest. I put my arm over her holding her close. I could feel her body as she quietly sobbed into her pillow, it.