“It’s time!” Callie yelled, clapping her hands and straightening her posture on the sofa.
Lexi ran over to her bag, which was sitting by the dim lamp on Callie’s desk, and pulled out the three lottery tickets she had purchased the night before. She stared down at the numbers, hoping she got them right. Just as their monthly sister night was a tradition, so were the numbers they chose: two tickets of random digits generated by the computer and one with carefully chosen numbers they used every time they played. She shook her head and handed out the slips of paper. “I don’t know why we always get so excited about this. We never win anything.”
“That’s not true,” Callie corrected her. “We won four dollars last month.” She cinched the rubber band in her hair to make her thick ponytail tighter. “Anyway, don’t you remember Pastor Dave’s sermon last week? Miracles can happen.”
“True,” Lexi said, slouching back in the couch. “But I feel like God has more important miracles to oversee than making sure we win a boatload of money, don’t you think?”
Callie shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just saying, Pastor Dave told us not to lower our expectations.” She poured more wine into her glass. “Besides, if you never take chances, you never get rewarded.”
Lexi chuckled to herself, thinking about how ironic it was that Callie of all people was preaching to her about taking chances. Her sister played it safer than anyone she knew. She had lived in the same apartment and had the same job since college. She never even went out on dates on the off chance her heart would get broken. Instead of calling her out, Lexi teased, “Was that on your inspirational quote of the day calendar?”
Callie playfully hit her sister with one of the blue and white throw pillows on her couch. Lexi had been with her when she bought them five years ago. They had managed to furnish and decorate the entire six-hundred-square-foot space for less than five hundred dollars thanks to a day of estate sales and bargain shopping. Even though the space was small, it felt cozy and put-together. The only thing Lexi absolutely loathed was the twenty-dollar particle-board coffee table Callie had insisted on getting since it cost five times less than a real wooden one. It wobbled and barely fit a folded-up newspaper, but Callie was the kind of girl who loved a deal.
When it was time for the number drawing, the girls each held their ticket out in front of them. Lexi looked at hers and saw it was the nonrandom ticket. Printed in crisp black ink, the numbers read 02, 20, 22, 30, 38, and 03. She rolled her eyes thinking about how she had thrown away six dollars on the tickets—money that could have bought her a few extra gallons of gas. “Here goes nothing,” she muttered, looking at the screen.
“Across the country, it’s America’s favorite jackpot game!” the dapper man wearing a gray suit and blue tie announced.
“Get ready everybody.… This. Is. Powerball!” The sisters all shouted his trademark line with him and giggled. Lexi couldn’t remember exactly when they started doing that, but it had become tradition.
“Tonight’s jackpot is worth two hundred and four million dollars,” the man continued. “Get those tickets ready, and good luck!”
Lexi placed the ticket on the table in front of her and took a sip of wine. She had listened intently to the man’s spiel once a month for the past three years, and it was feeling redundant at this point. He stood next to the ball machine and began calling out the winning numbers: “Twenty—”
Lexi looked up at the TV. “Oh!” she said, seeing the number on the screen. She knew the number well since it was the one she had contributed to the ticket. It was how old she was when she started dating Seth. “We got one right.” Even though it meant nothing, it was always exciting when there was a match.
The man called out the next number in his deep voice. “Twenty-two—”
She looked back at the ticket, remembering that was one of their numbers, too. “Oh my gosh!” Lexi yelled to her sisters. “We got another one.” Her heart began beating faster, but she told herself to relax. It was nothing.
Hanna and Callie looked at each other and simultaneously tossed their already nonwinning tickets on the beige shag rug. They squished in closer to Lexi on the couch and stared at the screen as he announced the next number.
“Thirty-eight—”
“Holy shit!” Callie cried. The third number was also on their paper.
A rush of adrenaline pumped through Lexi. She stood up, her body tense with nerves as she awaited the next number. Hanna and Callie joined her in the middle of the floor on either side of her.
“Be a two… be a two!” Lexi whispered to the thirty-two-inch television set with authority, as if she had control over the number the man would call out next.
“Two—” he said, obeying her command.
“No freaking way!” Lexi screamed. Four numbers automatically meant one hundred dollars, the most they had ever won so far.
Hanna twirled with excitement. Callie shushed her sisters, focusing intently on the screen.
“And the last regular number…” The man paused as the three of them stared, glued to the television set. “Thirty!”
The girls erupted and began jumping up and down. Lexi’s heart was beating so fast she worried it might leap out of her chest. Five matching numbers meant a million-dollar prize. A million dollars! She felt like her breath was knocked out of her. Lexi squealed, not believing their luck.
“Shhhhhh!” Callie commanded, locking arms with her sisters as they waited for the final number—the Powerball—to be called. It would determine if they won the two-hundred-and-four-million-dollar jackpot.
Lexi knew there was no way they would win it all. That would be just too crazy. But a part of her, a small part of her, thought maybe Pastor Dave was right—a miracle could happen. She crossed her fingers so hard her knuckles began turning white, envisioning how different her life would be if he said “three.” She’d never have to worry about money or paychecks again. She and Seth could live in a mansion on a property so big they’d be able to rescue all the dogs at the shelter. She’d have anything she could ask for—designer clothes, a luxury car, a life that would impress even her mother-in-law.… Her entire future hinged on the anchorman’s next word.
“And the Powerball is…” the man began. He paused again for dramatic effect.
Lexi felt dizzy as she waited for him to say the number. “Three… three… three…” she softly said to herself, trying to will the number out of his mouth with her mind.
“Three!” he finally announced.
Lexi felt her entire body go limp. “Three!” she yelled to her sisters. “He said ‘three’!” Hanna and Callie jumped up and down and screamed, although everything seemed muffled to Lexi as her brain tried to process if the moment was real or not. She wondered if it was just a dream—that she was still sleeping in her faded Saints tee with the pillow over her ears, trying to drown out Seth’s snores. If it was a dream, she told herself, she never wanted to wake up. But the grips on her arms and back as her sisters held her tight convinced her it was really happening.
“We won!” Hanna screamed in Lexi’s ear. “We won two hundred and four million dollars!”