And Ununice Garfield told me something that changed the entire weight of the morning. She had been watching the lottery news. She had seen the announcement of the winning ticket, a local winner, Columbus area, numbers not yet confirmed to the public, but the prize amount already reported. And she had remembered me.
She had remembered my Thursday visit, my usual order, the particular set of numbers I had played for 11 years. She had gone back through the transaction records herself, not for any legal purpose, simply because she was the kind of woman who kept orderly records and trusted her own instincts.
She slid a piece of paper across the desk to me. It was a printed transaction record from their point of sale system. Date, March 6th. Time 2:47 p.m. Item multi-draw lottery ticket standard play customer account linked to Margaret Ellis Carver Street Columbus. The account linkage came from theiesy’s rewards program which I had been enrolled in for 9 years and which automatically logged my purchases.