could use super fast?”
“Yes. Right through that door.”
I walk quickly toward where the restroom is and hope she doesn’t give my spot inside the room to Eric while I’m gone. I don’t wait to get into a stall when I open the plastic bag with the gloves inside and take them out, folding them inside the bust of my dress, desperately hoping I don’t mess them up.
I rush out and leave my bag on the chair I was sitting in before and then follow Marjorie out of the room.
We’re joined by two other women from the gaming commission. When all are accounted for, Marjorie opens the door, and we walk inside.
“We conduct four drawings a day, six days a week, but these machines are specially allocated for tonight’s Mega Ball drawing,” she tells me.
“You use all of them?” I ask as I look at four machines concealed in gray covers.
“Just one. Selected at random. That’s what you’re here for.”
“The third from the right,” I say too quickly. “Three is my lucky number.”
“Three it is,” she says, and the other two people move the machine out of the room.
“Where is it going?” I ask as I follow them and the machine into the hallway.
“Testing.” She opens the door to where DeLuca, Eric, and Sarah are sitting and asks them to join her.
A television studio, where the lotto will be drawn live, is at the end of the hall. The flashy blue background with the Mega State Jackpot logo is the backdrop on a small stage with a blue carpet. Three television cameras are aimed at the set while a control room sits behind a pane of glass on the side.
“High tech,” Eric says with anticipation.
A set of balls is brought into the room. Marjorie explains these aren’t the balls that will be used for the drawing, but the ones that are used to make sure the machine is “tip-top.” Sarah and Eric act as the independent auditors to make sure the balls work in the machine.
My foot taps, and I watch in hopes that machine three doesn’t falter. It can’t. It’s the only one I was instructed to use, and if it fails and they go with another machine, I don’t know if the rest of the plan will work. If I had to choose machine three, it’s because someone here rigged it.
Anxiously, I look around the room for any suspicious characters. Eric and Sarah are with the staff. While they do mock drawings, the cameramen test check the camera angles.
When they declare the machine is good to go, I let out a sigh.
The machine is wheeled back down the hall, and I follow. I don’t know if I’m supposed to, but I take the initiative, and DeLuca follows me.
In the room, the machine is rolled to the center, and two boxes are brought out. When they open them and I see the balls, my heart pounds out of my chest, and my ears start to ring.
A box is passed around, and I realize everyone is taking out a pair of cloth gloves. When it’s my turn, I hold the box to my chest, and while everyone else is busy putting theirs on, I pretend I’m taking gloves out of the box when, really, I’m pulling them out of my chest.
“We’re going to need you to load the balls,” Marjorie says to me, and I could kiss her with how easy she’s making this for me. “We aren’t allowed to touch them. Only an outside auditor.”
“Right,” I say and put my gloves on while walking up to the balls.
“Unless, of course, Mr. DeLuca, would you like to do the honors?” she asks him, and I almost trip over my seat.
“Happy to watch,” he says and takes a place near me.
I’m told to place the white balls into the machine. Before I do so, I stare at them and mentally go over the rules to tonight’s game.
“Load every ball with your right hand, except for numbers seventeen, twenty-three, twenty-seven, forty-nine, fifty-three, and sixty-four. Those you’ll load with your left hand.”
I grab each ball with my right hand as I recite mine, my mother’s, and my father’s cell phone numbers in my head. If it’s one that I need, I use my left hand.
If I’m showing how nervous I am, they’re not letting on. Maybe everyone’s a little anxious when they’re doing an important task like this.
Two of the staff make small talk about what they plan to have for dinner while Marjorie