“Achoo! Achoo!” Maria blows her red, running nose.

Her chest felt heavy from the mucus buildup in her lungs. After swimming in the icy cold ocean, while fighting white cap rough waves, a strong undertow, and having to swim a mile, in thirty-two-degree temperatures. She had caught pneumonia, along with several other passengers from the Spirit of Norfolk. Luckily, the cruise ship hadn’t lost any passengers, but several staff members had been seriously injured from the explosions that had gone off inside the ship.

The naval police and the investigators from the city had questioned her about what happened while she waited for her grandparents to show up. She had been taken aboard the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) to be treated by the medics, along with several other survivors from the Spirit of Norfolk.
The crew aboard the Kearsarge had been very kind and gentle with them.

Military Police escorted her grandfather and several other relatives belonging to the other passengers from the main gate. Cabs took everyone else back to downtown Norfolk to either pick up their cars or transport them home. By the time she got home from the hospital, it was six in the morning, and she had to let Tom know she wasn’t coming into work.

Over the next few days, she started feeling worse and worse. Her grandmother took her to the nearest Patient First and was informed she had pneumonia. The doctor who saw her prescribed some medicine and gave her a shot.

On the way home, her grandmother stopped at the Golden Peacock Chinese Restaurant and bought a quart of egg drop soup and a quart of wonton soup for Maria. Betty knew how much Maria loved those soups when she was sick.

Maria was lying in bed under her Pepé Le Pew sheets, under an electric blanket and a thick homemade quilt she made herself. She learned how to make it from watching a YouTube video. She was holding her Pepe Le Pew plushie close to her with a box of tissues on her nightstand. She was wearing a thick pair of socks that covered her feet.

Her tablet and cell phone were lying on the shelf behind her head. She hated being sick, and she hated feeling cold all the time. Her electric blanket was turned up to eight, and she was still feeling cold.

“Maria, I’m home.” Vincent heard what happened to Maria when he arrived home from his boyfriend’s apartment two days later.

“Okay.” Maria’s voice sounded hoarse and tired. She had been coughing all morning, making her voice sound sore and raw.

Vincent walks over to Maria’s bedroom door and notices she is buried under her blankets with her head covered, but with her face exposed. A smirk appears on his face as he looks at her.

“You look like a mummy.” Vincent knew better than to walk into Maria’s bedroom when she was feeling sick, especially since she had pneumonia.

“I feel like it. I hate being sick.” Maria hated being sick and feeling weak.

“Well, I’m sorry for what happened to you. Did you hear that the winning mega-million ticket from four weeks ago still hasn’t been claimed and that it was bought at the Seven/Eleven near your grandparents’ house?”

A thoughtful look appears on Maria’s face, “You don’t think that the ticket I bought for us is the winning ticket, do you?”

“Have you checked it yet?” Vincent knew Maria normally bought the lottery tickets and placed them on the refrigerator.

“No, I’ve been so busy with work and keeping our apartment clean, and getting ready for the Valentine's Day cruise, I haven’t even bought any
new lottery tickets.” Maria knew she hadn't bought any tickets since the last one she bought with her grandmother.

“Let me go and grab it off the refrigerator so you can check it with the app.” Vincent turns and leaves the doorway.

Maria reaches behind her stack of pillows and grabs her cellphone. It has the official lottery app to check lottery tickets to see if they have won or not. She scrolls through the screens until she finds the app.

“Here you go.” Vincent had grabbed a mask to cover his nose and mouth.

“I’m not that contagious.” Maria accepts the ticket.

“I’m not taking any chances. I have to work tomorrow, and I don’t want to spread your germs.” Vincent knew colds spread fast where he worked.

“Ha, ha.” Maria starts coughing again.

“See.” Vincent watches as Maria coughs up green-looking mucus and spits it into the trash can by her bed.

“Yuck!” Vincent couldn’t stand seeing something so disgusting.

Maria holds her cellphone in front of the lottery ticket and scans it. When the scan was complete, a cash tune started playing, letting them know the ticket was a winning one. Maria looked at the message on her cellphone screen and couldn’t believe it.

Vincent heard the tune and the reaction on Maria’s face.

“Did we just win?” Vincent looks at Maria as she sits up in bed. The PJ’s she was wearing were one of her favorites that had Pepe Le Pew on the
front of it with a giant heart for a background.

Her shoulder-length grey hair was messy from sleeping all day long. She shivers as she hands the ticket back to Vincent. Just before she hands the ticket to Vincent, “We'd better print out the agreement we wrote, so things go smoothly when we cash it in.

Vincent looks at the ticket. “So, are we still going with the lump sum option?”

“Yes, it would be smarter to do it that way, instead of the annuity.” Maria's figure would be better with a lump sum.

“So, how much are we looking at after taxes and such?” Vincent looks at the ticket he is now holding.

“After taxes and everything, it's going to be eighty million dollars. Since we both agreed to split the winnings. That’s forty million apiece.” Maria
already knew what she wanted to do with her half. She wanted to buy Cain Electronics from Mr. Cain. The business meant a lot to her.

“I can finally open my own restaurant.” Vincent has been wanting to open his own restaurant ever since he became a chef.

“You know running a restaurant is going to keep you busy.” Maria shivers and starts coughing.

“I know.” Vincent was thinking about where he wanted to set it up.

Maria coughs up some more greenish-looking phlegm. Her joints hurt when she coughs it up.

“We need to get a lawyer and make arrangements before we go and cash that ticket in.” Maria wanted to call Mr. Cain and make arrangements to buy the store from him. She wanted to do it before someone else did.

“I’ll start making some calls tomorrow, Maria. Just get better so we can cash this ticket in.”

“I will. Don’t tell anyone that we won yet, Vincent. Or we’ll have people bugging us and knocking on our door all the time.”

“Speaking of knocking on our door. Are we going to split, or do you mind if we stay together?” Vincent has been Maria’s roommate for a while.

“I’m staying here. If you want to stay together, that’s fine. Maybe we can buy this building and the other one and lower everyone’s rent.” Maria knew some of the tenants in both buildings had been having problems making rent for some months.

“I think that is a good idea, but we should keep it quiet so no one knows we own the buildings.” Vincent knew it would help the current tenants.

“I agree.”

“Oh, what do you want for dinner tonight?” Vincent knew there was another reason why he was checking on Maria, besides letting her know he was home.

“Can you make some chicken noodle soup, please?” Maria wanted a big bowl of homemade soup.

“No problem. I think we have everything I need to make it. I’ll let you know when it is ready.” Vincent turns and leaves.

“Thanks.” Maria buries herself under her covers.