There it was. The lottery ticket I'd hidden behind it.
"Finally!" She clutched it like a lifeline.
Her daughter shouldered in immediately. "Wait—check the numbers. Make sure she didn't pull a fast one."
They verified it three times, four, their laughter growing louder with each confirmation.
"It's real. This is the one."
I stared at them, my voice hollow.
"Can we take my mother to the hospital now?"
Abner moved instantly, lifting my mom with exaggerated care. "Let's go. I'll drive."
The whole way there, my mother-in-law kept the ticket clutched in her fist like it was her own beating heart.
I held my mother's ice-cold hand. The tears wouldn't stop.
In the rearview mirror, Abner's face was blank. Empty. Like he'd already checked out.
Behind me, they were already dividing the spoils.
"Twenty people," my mother-in-law counted. "Fifty thousand each..."
Her son piped up. "Can I get my share now? There's this phone I've been wanting—"
"What's the rush? We'll cash it together tomorrow!"
I closed my eyes.
All I could hear was the clicking of their mental abacuses.
They wheeled my mother into surgery.
My father sat in the hallway, Rosemary curled in his lap. His face was gray.