Chapter 1

It's just throwing your money away, that's what most people say. But the lottery is just so people can have hope for a short time. At least, that's what I think. I'm usually not so introspective but the cute blonde at the checkout counter asked if I would like a lottery ticket. I don't usually buy them at the Quick Trip, but I decided I might as well.

"How much is it up to?" I ask her, curious.

"290 Million."

"Damn, what I wouldn't do with that much money." I told her and laughed at the possibility.

I took the ticket and bid the girl good bye. I would like to say that I have important things to do but that is a lie. I don't even have a job at the age of twenty five. I'm on disability after my time with the Navy SEALs. The bullet blew my knee to the point that I would need a cane for the rest of my life.

I live in a single wide trailer and just have enough money to get the bills paid, that's it. I live in a trailer park and I think that everyone there has bought lotto tickets at one point or another. They all wanted that brief moment of hope before it was dashed.

When I got home I just sat the keys to my '79 Ford pickup on the table. The place I lived wasn't much but it was clean. The computer in my trailer was worth more than the trailer was worth. It was the computer that I walked over to and sat down at.

I took the ticket out of my wallet and looked at the internet address on it. It was something that I always done when I buy tickets. I typed in the address then pushed enter. When the page came up I looked at the ticket then at the page again. My hands were shaking. Each and every fucking number matched up.

I fucking won.

I couldn't believe it but the proof was in front of my eyes.

The website was nice enough to give the address of the lottery office and I quickly memorized it. It wasn't long before I grabbed my cane and hobbled off to my beat up pickup.

I walked out of the bank with what had to be a shit eating grin on my face. I chose to take the lump sum and after taxes it came to a hundred million and some change. It had been three days since I won and the check finally cleared. I was now a multimillionaire.

Unfortunately three reporters and cameras were at the bank three days ago and converged on me. I was on the five, six and ten o'clock news. That meant one thing. My phone was being wrung off the hook. I was getting calls from every charity known to man. I was also getting calls from every single and married woman I knew wanting to get to know me better. It was enough to make me sick. Why didn't they call before?

I had to get away so after I left the bank I got into my pickup truck and drove straight to the nearest car dealership. It was a Ford dealership. I parked in the lot and wouldn't you know it, the salesman converged on me right away. He recognized me from the TV.

"I was wondering if you would be this way, Mr. Bachmann. I saw you on TV a few days ago." He said sticking out his hand to shake.

That's my name by the way. Shawn Bachmann. I stuck out my hand to be polite and we shook. "I already know what I want to get. An extended cab pick up with all the extras. Can you show me some?"

"I surely can."

"Well, let's get to it."

Thus we started walking all over the lot. It was hard on my knee. I know I could have bought a sports car but I am not that type of guy. I wanted what I wanted.

We looked for over an hour and I finally made my choice. It was a black one with an extended cab and it had a CD player. That was all that interested me. I then had to go in to sign a shit load of papers. With a cramp in my hand I walked back out to the truck and climbed in. I traded my old one in for this. I started her up and pulled out of the lot.

Now I wondered what the hell I was going to do. Everyone in this city knew I had won the lottery and it seemed like they all wanted a piece of me. Then it came to me. I always wished I had a farm in an out of the way rural area. Since this was Oklahoma there were a lot of areas like that. I just didn't want one in Oklahoma, I wanted one in Arkansas. Since I was on the state line it wouldn't be hard to get what I wanted.

I had a good idea of how to find out though.

I didn't have anything else to do so I decided to go to a realtor in Arkansas and find out what was for sale. It has always been my dream to have my own house out in the country. It was now going to come true. After growing up in the city all my life I was most certainly ready for the country.

I had to go through two weeks of waiting after I picked the place I wanted. It was right in the middle of Arkansas. The place I chose was not a mansion but it wasn't normal either. It had six bedrooms and six bathrooms. It was a beautiful house that was only about ten years old. The people that owned it, along with the bank, had to sell it because they were behind on payments.

There were two things that made me buy it. The first was that it was in the middle of nowhere. I was about ten miles from the town of Brackett. I call it a town but it wasn't much of one. It had a post office, General store, gas station and a diner. That was the only things that were in town and I fucking loved it.

The second thing I loved was that there was a thousand acres of land and I owned it all. I had plans for that land. The first thing that I was going to do was get a herd of cattle and then a herd of horses. I knew that I would have to have them already trained because I didn't know the first thing about them.

I watched as the delivery truck for the new furniture drove down the dirt road that lead down to my house. I let out a sigh. It was a lot of fucking work to get all the stuff situated but with the help of the movers we got them into the correct places.

God, my knee was killing me.

I walked back inside the house and went to the kitchen. I got a beer out of the fridge and popped the tab. I took a very healthy swig and then walked to the living room. I sat down on my new leather couch with a sigh. It was a sectional so I pulled the lever and the foot rest came up. I just sat there and tried not to think of my fucking knee.