The Windfall Read Online Free PDF

the kitchen. At least we had coffee today. Mom was sitting at the table when I entered, her ever present steaming coffee mug in front of her as she watched the small TV positioned on the counter. She looked just as tired as I felt. “Morning, Mom.”
    “Good morning, Coop,” she answered, waving her hand for me to sit down. There was a plate with a sandwich on it, the smell of eggs and fried bacon filling the air. “I fixed you a breakfast sandwich.”
    “Thanks,” I replied, pouring myself a cup of coffee before I took a seat. “What are you watching?”
    She shook her head, a sad expression on her face. “Another shooting last night a few blocks over. Some kid who thought he was big with a gun. When is the senseless killing going to stop?”
    I shook my head as well, thinking about Felix or F-bomb, as I was supposed to call him now. He just didn’t understand how much trouble, how much danger, he could get into by running with a gang. It could easily be him one day laying in the street, dead.
    “Anyway,” she said, turning back to me. “How was work?”
    I swallowed the bite I had just taken and wiped my mouth. “It was good. A good tip night at least.” Craig tipping me very well at the end of the night as he stumbled out of the bar had made up my deficit and then some. But the tip that immediately came to mind was the one from the Cali girl. I smiled as I thought about her. All in all, it was a very good night.
    “That’s good,” she said, reaching for her notepad near the phone. “The school called. They don’t need you today. Something about a day off or something.”
    “Great,” I muttered, some of my earlier elation dwindling as I thought of the money I was going to lose because of them being closed today. There went a day on my paycheck; the extra tips I’d made last night would go to make up for that loss as well. That was the problem with flexible careers such as the ones I was trying to work. One day they needed you, the next they didn’t. The school was the worst. They took more days off than they taught sometimes.
    “Thanks, Kate. Now back to the breaking story of the day. The Sizzler Jackpot, worth three billion dollars, finally has a winner. One lucky person is the sole claimant of the entire amount. If you bought a ticket in the last three days, make sure you check those numbers scrolling across the bottom of the screen during our broadcast. According to the lottery commission, the claimant will have one year to claim this jackpot and must bring in the original ticket. Now, on to the weather.”
    “Lord have mercy, someone is having a good morning this morning,” Mom said, taking a sip of her coffee with a shake of her head. “I’m just glad it’s over now so people can go back to their normal lives. Everyone at work has been absolutely obsessed with that thing.”
    I sighed then, glad it was over but hating the fact that I was one of the people who’d contributed to it whether I wanted to or not. All because of that stupid line at the corner mart yesterday! It was still bothering me and while other people would think I was overreacting about it, I had my reasons, good reasons.
    “What’s wrong, son?”
    “What?” I asked, looking over at her. She gave me the look, a cross between unbelievable and yeah, right , tapping her fingers on the table. “I can see it written all over your face. What’s bothering you?”
    I swallowed and turned back to my sandwich, wondering if I should tell her about how I’d been banned from the store because of Felix’s antics or the lotto ticket shoved in my jean’s pocket in the bedroom. She was going to be disappointed either way. She had raised me to mind myself better and keep my nose clean, something that was very difficult in this neighborhood. It wasn’t uncommon for the residents to have a rap sheet with the cops around here and, so far, I had avoided it. I ran a hand over my face and went with the easier of the two.
    “I bought a