Chapter 37: Lottery Take-two
Wearing an N95 mask, dark sunglasses, and a Seagulls ballcap, Jack walked up to the counter and handed the scan card with his chosen lottery numbers to the young, attractive cashier. She was the same cashier that had complimented him on his disguise the last time he bought a lottery ticket.
"Ooh, it's tall, dark, and mysterious, back for round two," she asked playfully.
He nodded, but kept silent.
As the machine was printing his ticket, she grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled something on it. Then, when the machine finished, she put the scrap of paper together with the ticket and handed them to him.
As he turned to leave, she waved and said, "Good luck!"
As he got into his car, he looked at the scrap or paper. He didn't need to look at it to know that it was her name, phone number, and e-mail address, but he had looked at it in the simulation and he was determined to repeat everything as close as he could to what he did in the simulation.
While his parallel self was going through the simulation, his physical self was watching the clock and taking notes. And now, while his physical self was driving back home, his parallel self was watching the clock and reading the notes so he could hit every light at the same time, make every turn at the same time, adjust his speed so that he drove next to the same cars on the highway, and arrive home at the same time. Once inside, he did his best to repeat the same motions as well, and once he sat on the couch, T.V. on, waiting for the drawing to start, he sat still and did nothing.
After the longest twenty-three minutes of his life, the drawing started. Both in the simulation, and now he didn't move, didn't speak. And Madison, seated next to him, did the same, nothing. They couldn't see any way their actions in Stetle could possibly affect the drawing happening on the other side of the country, but they were not taking any chances.
"Sixty-two," called the official after the first ball dropped.