"Number .....29!"
My eyes darted to the ticket I held in my hand as the ball rolled out of the officially regulated machine now depicted on my TV screen. I ticked off the number.
"Second number.." the disembodied voice continued, "12...."
Again I ticked the number off on my ticket.
The lottery. A Saturday evening ritual for the overly optimistic all over the world. And for Jenny and I and our neighbours Bill and Sonia also. But after several years of weekly disappointment, the excitement had most certainly waned; every Saturday the ticket that we had pinned our hopes and dreams on would be ritually screwed up and thrown with a sigh towards the waste basket. But not for me - not this Saturday at least.
I glanced over at my wife Jenny. She was sitting, blissfully unaware that our ticket had correctly recorded the first two numbers of the draw, next to Bill on the sofa. As usual, the two of them were flirting outrageously. My eyes flitted over the room and alighted on Sonia, Bill's gorgeous blonde wife. I often wondered why Bill was so unfaithful. I knew the rumours about his excessive womanising were true - he had never tried to hide the fact. But with a wife as lovely as Sonia - why?
"The third number is....21"
My attention was immediately drawn back to the TV screen as, again, I ticked off the third matching number on my ticket. I was starting to pay attention now, it had been a while since we had managed to match three numbers.
"Fourth number.....35"
I could feel the sweat begin to break out across my forehead as I studied the ticket and found to my astonishment that I also had the fourth number. My eyes were now rivetted to the screen. My throat was dry as the machine, agonisingly slow, churned out the fifth ball.
"Number 4"
I hardly dared look, but I knew it was there almost instinctively. Five numbers! Images of fast cars and yachts bobbing lazily on clear blue oceans began to form in my mind.
"And the final number is.....27!"
The two matching digits stared out at me from the winning ticket. I exhaled sharply not realising that I had been holding my breath or for how long. My mind raced. All external thoughts and images had been erased; all that was left was the ticket.
Sonia was the first to notice that something had happened.
"What's wrong, Paul?" Her voice sounded as if it came from a thousand miles distant.
Eventually, I managed to raise my eyes and stared at her. I tried to speak but my mouth was dry, the words sticking like glue in my throat.
"I...I...We...We....I think we...." I stuttered.
"What on earth is the matter, Paul?" laughed Jenny. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
I gave up trying to speak. Wordlessly and with trembling fingers I handed her the lottery ticket and pointed to the matching numbers displayed on the TV. Jenny's smile faded instantly. She took the ticket and read. I was slightly irked to see that Bill's arm was around her shoulders but, it didn't seem important. Right then nothing seemed real.
For a long moment all four of us were silent as my wife double checked the numbers. Suddenly she let out a piercing cry of joy. The sound reverberated around the room and startled us all. I waited for her to leap up and embrace me, to confirm that we had indeed won, but my wife's next action surprised even me.
With a second squeal of joy, Jenny immediately turned towards Bill. Her arms wrapped lavishly around his neck and she pulled him to her in a hard, lustful embrace. I assumed that this was just a shocked display of affection and that as soon as she realised what was happening she would break the kiss and come to me. I was wrong. For a second time in the space of a few minutes I was rendered speechless. I knew that I should do or say something but there was some morbid, voyeuristic fascination in watching my wife kissing another man. I looked over at Sonia expecting to see the same shocked expression that I knew must currently be adorning my own face but again I was wrong. Sonia's face was a picture of passive acceptance. I immediately got the impression that this was not the first time she had witnessed her husband in an intimate embrace with another woman.