A history of the American Railroad that I had never been able to move. On the third day, they found out. I don’t know exactly how James suspected that the commission sent a routine notification to Derek’s filed claim. He had, as we had guessed, already submitted paperwork claiming the ticket as his own, though the claim had not yet been processed.
When that notification arrived indicating a dispute had been filed, Derek’s name was on the claim and mine was on the dispute. And the gap between those two facts apparently produced something combustible in my son. He came to my bedroom door at 7 in the morning. He knocked once, then opened it without waiting.
‘What did you do?’ he asked. ‘I was sitting at my writing desk. I turned in my chair and looked at him the way I had looked at him when he was 12 years old and had broken a neighbor’s window and tried to claim a bird had done it. I filed a dispute with the lottery commission.’ I said the ticket was purchased in my name.