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“These games only give you three tickets if you win.” He strode over to another version of a wheel, one that had random numbers along the outside edge that ranged from ten to one thousand. In order to win, the token had to line up with the number on the wheel to win the corresponding number of tickets. The odds sucked. But he was feeling lucky. Everything about this weekend so far had him feeling lucky. “I’m going to try my hand at this one.”
“Those games are a rip-off. You’ll never win.”
“Such a skeptic.” He dropped a token into the slot, then another, then one more. He wasn’t leaving until he’d won something. Anything.
Just as Veronica yelled out an answer to the puzzle, a loud bell sounded on his game. Had he…? He looked for his token on the wheel and finally spotted it sitting perfectly aligned with the number one thousand. Holy crap! He’d hit the jackpot. One thousand tickets.
Veronica squealed and rushed up to him. “I can’t believe it! You won.” She grabbed his shoulders and squeezed, a bright smile lighting up her face, which already glowed from the red light flashing on top of his game. “No one ever wins.”
“I told you. All you have to do is believe.”
If only it were that simple with Veronica. If only all he had to do was believe they could have their happily ever after and it would come true. But real life didn’t work that way. Real life wasn’t as easy as a game. It was even more random, even more tricky, and even more unpredictable.
She grabbed a bucket from the closest token machine and began to fold up the tickets, dropping them into the bucket in piles of fifty. When the tickets were tucked away, she grabbed his arm and led him to the prize counter.
“What are you going to get?” she asked, her eyes darting from one shelf to the next.
“I won those tickets for you. Choose anything you want.”
She squeaked and handed the bucket over to the young girl manning the counter, who immediately fed the tickets into the counting machine.
“How about a couple of shot glasses?” he asked.
“No, if I needed shot glasses that badly, I could steal them from your restaurant.” She winked and nudged him with her shoulder.
“But my glasses don’t have a picture of the Falls and they aren’t frosted.”
She giggled.
“How about a jewelry box?”
She shook her head.
“A glow-in-the-dark pen? A diary?”
A thousand tickets would get you a lot of little novelties—mugs, pens, and notepads. It was really geared for children.
“Over there. In the corner,” she said.
Finn focused his attention on the far side of the booth and noticed a stuffed cat.
Her face grew serious and she planted her palms on the glass counter. “That’s what I want.”
For only nine hundred and fifty tickets, that little cat was all hers.
“And so the lady shall have it.”
He motioned to the young girl who watched the counter and when she was satisfied the ticket number was over nine hundred and fifty, she reached for the tiny black cat on the shelf and handed it to Veronica.
“I’ve always wanted a kitten.” She brought it up to her face and caressed the soft fur against her cheek. “My foster parents were allergic, so a pet was out of the question.”
“There’s nothing stopping you from getting a real cat now.”
She shrugged. “Haven’t thought about it in ages.”
He smiled. “What do you say to that Ferris wheel ride?”
She tucked the cat under her arm and they walked hand in hand to the ride. Traffic and screaming children, not to mention the roar of the arcade, filled the autumn air. Despite the hour, the Hill was busy.
