My laundry basket wasn’t in my closet. The blood drained from my face, leaving it numb. “Mom! Have you seen my laundry?” I called down the hall.
“I started a load!”
“No. No no no no no.” I raced to the laundry room and lifted the lid of the already running washing machine. Whites. There were whites inside. I yanked open the door on the dryer. It was empty. I spun in a full circle, panicked.
“I’m sorry. I know you hate it when I do your laundry but I needed filler for half a load,” Mom said, standing in the doorway.
“No, it’s not that. Where are the darks?”
“What are you looking for?” She was wearing her scrubs, which meant she was probably seconds away from heading to work.
“The jeans I wore last night.”
She pointed to my laundry basket sitting behind me. Relief poured through me and I sorted through the basket until I found my jeans.
“They’re not dirty after all?” Mom asked as I tucked them under my arm and rushed back to my room.
“Nope.”
I heard her laughing to herself as I pulled my bedroom door shut behind me. I searched one pocket and then the other until I found the ticket. It was a bit crumpled but still completely legible. I powered up my laptop and was too nervous to sit in the chair but paced back and forth in front of my desk until the screen lit up.
I pulled up Google and stared at the blank bar, wondering what I should enter. I typed in “Powerball numbers.” A list dating back years came up. I entered last night’s date, followed by “Powerball.” The site came up in the results and I clicked on it. Then I was staring at the numbers drawn the night before.
The first number was 2. My ticket said 2 first as well. My heart was pounding in my throat now. The next number matched as well—15. My eyes went blurry for a moment and I blinked hard, clearing them. 23. 75. 33. All matched. There was one number left on the site. A red ball. The Powerball, it was called. It was a 7. Lucky number seven. I took a deep breath and looked at my ticket. 7. All six numbers matched.
I checked them again and then a third time, just to make sure. Was this really happening? Had I just won fifty million dollars? This felt like some sort of joke. I checked the heading of the site again—Powerball. And my ticket heading, same.
I won the lottery. I just won fifty million dollars.
A scream that started in my belly and traveled up my throat burst from my mouth. I almost didn’t recognize it as my own. It was a scream of pure joy.
“Maddie?” My mom was at my door, her shoes now on but untied. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
I jumped up and down, happy yelps coming out of my mouth.
She must’ve realized this was a celebration of sorts because her worried look disappeared, replaced by a smile. “What’s gotten into you? Oh!” She clasped her hands together. “Did you get into UCLA?” She jumped a couple times before I shook my head no. Then her jumping stopped. “This isn’t about college?”
“I won!” I managed to get out even though I was now breathless.
“You won?”
My dad appeared in the doorway behind her. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I won!”
My brother came wandering into my room looking like he had just rolled out of bed. “What’s going on?”
“She won something,” Dad said.
“You won what?” Mom asked.
“Powerball! I just won fifty million dollars!”
My mom’s smile slipped off her face and confusion took over. “What?”
My dad crossed his arms over his chest and his expression went hard, like I was playing some sort of unfunny joke on him. “But you’ve never played the lottery.”
“I’ve never been eighteen.”
Beau tilted his head and was the first to step forward. “You won? Really?”
“Yes!” I held up the ticket for him to see.
He grabbed it from me and went straight to my still-open laptop. It didn’t take him nearly as long as it took me to match the numbers. He whirled around and yelled, “She did! She won!”
Now my parents were crowded around my desk, checking out the site as well. Soon we were all in a tight circle jumping around.
“How did this happen?” Dad asked, and we stopped jumping for a minute. “When did you buy the ticket?”
“Last night. I thought it would be a fun rite of passage into adulthood.” I hadn’t really thought anything of the sort. I was actually trying to prove a point to the insulting cashier. No, the amazing cashier. I loved that cashier now. She was my favorite person ever. “I didn’t think I’d win.”
My dad let out a barking laugh. It sounded a bit manic but I knew exactly how he felt. “That’s incredible. This is incredible, Maddie!”
“I know!” I had to jump up and down a few more times because energy was building up in my body and needed to be released.
My dad laughed again.
“What do I do now? How do I collect?”
“I’m not sure,” Dad said. “We’re going to find out, though.”
“There are instructions here,” Beau said, sitting at my desk. He clicked several times on the trackpad. “You have to take your ticket to a lottery district office. It looks like there’s one in Santa Ana.”
“That’s close,” I said.
My mom just stood there nodding, over and over. Could people go into shock over good news? “Mom? You okay?”
She continued to nod.
My dad pulled her into a hug. “It’s good news, Lori.”
She smiled.
“Come here, sit down.” Dad took her by the arm and led her to sit on the edge of my bed. “Don’t hyperventilate on me.”
She still didn’t speak.
“I’ll get her some water,” I said. “Just keep breathing, Mom. We’re happy, right?”
She met my eyes and smiled.
In the kitchen, all by myself, I leaned against the counter and covered my face with my hands. I was a multimillionaire. All our problems were about to disappear. This was what true happiness felt like, I was sure of it. I was sure my mom was feeling it, too, there on my bed, unable to channel it into anything but shock. She’d be fine. We were all about to be fine … more than fine.