What made her stop and pick it up remained a complete mystery to her.
She had always been someone that was perfectly content with her own company. From her comfortable recliner, she looked out at a sparkling sea beneath a clear blue sky. Occasionally she’d watch small boats sail past. Sometimes she would watch as a cruise ship bring tourists to the island. Those who could afford it would spend a week in the five-star hotel, nine floors below her luxury apartment. There were swimmers and surfers, of course. Her window also provided a panoramic view of the sandy beach, with multi-coloured sun shelters, beach tents and umbrellas. She could look down at the idle rich soaking up the sun. She could see it all, content to while away her days, just doing this.
She would sometimes think back. She would bring back images of the peeling wallpaper, faded curtains and noisy water pipes. A rude landlord, noisy neighbours, along with a job that was mind-numbingly boring. A pittance of a wage that meant she was just scraping by from week to week. Filthy weather that was cold and miserable, and a boyfriend, if you could really call him that, and their rocky relationship, that was going nowhere. Then, the day in the shopping mall, passing by the kiosk that sold lottery tickets. Then there was the person she would never know who bought the winning ticket and dropped it as they walked away. There it was, the impulse to walk over and pick it up. To walk away with the winning ticket. Not just the winning ticket, but the unsigned jackpot prize winning ticket. Next, the anxious waiting period to cash it in.
Then… then this! She came back to the present, enjoying her view out through her window. She had never been able to figure out what it was that made her stop and pick the ticket up.
She could live with that.