Page 125 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

The Billion Dollar Lottery

“This money’s going to be nothing but trouble,“ Larry said.

“You know, I always thought you were crazy,” Joey yelled,
looking at him suspiciously, “but now I know it. If you don’t
want the money, give it to me. I’ll put a little aside for you and
Rita for a rainy day, and Angie and I will take the rest.”

“You wouldn’t know what to do with it,” Larry said.

“Try me,” Joey pleaded. “I’ll know. I’ll know.” He was be-
ing Jewish again.

“So tell me what you’d do with it.”
“We had this discussion already,” Joey said, exasperated.

“Yeah, but you never really told me. All you said was that
you’d give some magical, biblical amount to some as yet un-
known charity, and something about a cabin out back.”

“Okay. What would I do? First thing, I’d pay up the mort-
gage on the house, or sell it. Maybe buy some big, old farm-
house in Vermont, far from everything.”

“Oh yeah,” Larry said, flicking an imaginary cigar, “the old
house in Vermont routine. Know it well. Know it well.” Then,
in his normal voice: “I’d like to be a fly on the wall when you
tell Angie and the kids that plan.”

“Oh, them,” he said, acting the part of their Minnesota
friend, who solved problems the way Paul Bunyan felled trees.
“They don’t want to go to Vermont. They’re off to private
school.”

“Of course. I forgot,” Larry said. “With money you have
options.”

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