Space Witches 1: The Book of Witches

18. Winner

The Lottery Van drove into the shuttle station and straight into a waiting cargo shuttle. Without further ado the shuttle left the Nordic Plate and headed for the Palace Plate. We did not even leave the limousine.

"Oh how tired I am!" Miss Lottery's voice announced from behind the curtain. "Bring me a glass of champagne!"

A pop revealed a bottle being opened.

"If you would like to follow me...?" a genuine butler appeared seemingly out of nowhere and bowed to us.

"Is he for real?" I whispered to Miro.

"Yes. He is from our palace," he answered.

"Thank you, Burt," Sara said.

We followed him to where Miss Lottery was lying on a divan, a glass of bubbly in one hand, and a yellow and gold lace-fan waving lazily in the other.

"So what made you so tired," Miro asked "the whole ten minutes of publicity?"

"You have no idea how much concentration it takes to produce your very, very best for your fans!" Miss Lottery sighed dramatically.

"I'm sure we don't... just be careful you don't sprain your wrist lifting that heavy glass..." Miro said.

Burt was approaching with a tray. A delicious smell of freshly brewed coffee and pastries made my mouth water. I had eaten nothing after breakfast, waiting to dig into the sphinx cake.

For a while I concentrated on eating. Then I noticed something odd. My phone wasn't ringing. I dug it out of my pocket. Nothing.

"Strange, Tina should be calling me non-stop by now... I'm sure she has done nothing but sit by her screen, choosing things to buy."

"She probably is, but you cannot call anyone from inside this limousine. The reason is the appearance of the Great Lottery Van is to remain secret at all times. So no one can phone out and reveal where the van is going, nor use any kind of phone tracking. The effect would be lost otherwise. Surprised looks and extreme reactions are what they want to air to the waiting masses," Miro said.

"Ha! Would you mind if I stayed in here for a few days? I can't even begin to imagine what my sister has put on her shopping list for me to order..."

"You will receive a new phone, with an answering service from now on," Sara brushed the remains of her Danish pastry from her clothes. "Delicious, but impossible to eat..." she mumbled.

"As in... a secretary?" I asked.

"As in a secretary, yes. This is normal procedure with jackpot winners. The secretary answers, and if the caller is on the list of permitted callers, she will then connect the phone call using a secure line. Without this service your phone would be ringing non-stop with people asking for donations, as long as you had any money. Which should be a long time, if you can manage to avoid the world and his cousin trying to get it from you."

"So you were serious about this whole thing being real? That somehow I have actually won the jackpot?"

Sara lifted her finger to her lips and silently formed the word "later", nodding slightly towards Miss Lottery.

"Yes, I know it feels unbelievable," she said. "Trust me, we went through exactly the same emotions ourselves, didn't we Miro? I know I did. I had forgotten I had even bought a ticket." She glanced across at Miro.

"Hmmm? What? Yes, yes of course," Miro had settled down onto another divan and appeared to be reading something on his phone.

Reaching the Palace Plate took two hours. I could not relax and kept walking around, going through the all the bling in the limousine. There were expensive crystal vases with exotic flower arrangements in them, everything was gilded and there were lots of books, real antique books. Sara tried to keep up a conversation, and Miss Lottery tried to get Miro's attention. She smiled at him, clearly wanting to talk and flirt with him, but he just mumbled something in reply without looking at her. Boy was she persistent, though! She wouldn't give up – here she was with Miro, a potential rich boyfriend in her sights and her year as Miss Lottery was moving towards its close. At one point a swarm of flies appeared out of nowhere and landed on her champagne glass. She waved her hands about in the air, trying to get rid of the creatures, and managed to lose some of her cool in the process.