Page 130 of Dancing Fools and All That Jazz
‘Yes, my sister came home. Eventually. She is helping me sort out the house. It got into a bit of a state…’
‘That is good news that your sister is helping you,’ Asha says into the phone.
‘Yes. Angela’s been very supportive. Helped me clearup and put things in order. It’s why I am phoning.’
Asha looks at me and raises her eyebrows.
‘Go on,’ she says.
I think to myself perhaps Janine will say she is very sorry about our Paris money, but I do not think she will say she has our money to give back to us. I listen with much care when she speaks.
‘We… well, we cleared the house and then I found it. I found the slip. It was with all the others. I had not checked any of them. Just bought them and stored them. I forgot about them. But Angela checked and, well… there it was.’
I do not understand, but Asha pulls the phone close to her head and says, ‘Which slip?’
I do not hear Janine and can only see Asha as she puts a hand to her mouth and her eyes go very wide.
‘Janine, are you sure? I mean, are you absolutely sure?’
I wait and watch Asha’s face as she listens.
‘Oh, my word, I do not know what to say.’
Asha’s eyes they shine, and she flaps her hand and mouth to me the words, ‘Tell you in a minute’.
Ruby taps me on the shoulder.
‘What’s going on? Is that Janine Asha’s talking to?’
I nod and put my finger to my lips.
Asha says, ‘Yes,’ and ‘No,’ and nods many times as she stares out of the window. Finally, she finishes her call. She puts her phone in her bag and squeezes her eyes shut very tight. Then she opens them wide and jumps up and down. She pulls Ruby and me across to hold hands.
‘What? What the hell is it, Asha?’ Ruby, she smiles as we watch Asha leap up and down as she takes our hands with hers.
‘You are not going to believe this.’
‘Try us.’
‘Janine has found the winning lottery ticket. The one that is about to expire. It is ours. We have won.’
‘What?’
‘We have won.’ Asha shouts at the top of her voice and the other passengers look round to see who makes this noise.
Ruby puts her hands on Asha’s shoulders. ‘Shh. Now, slowly, calmly, quietly… tell us what you mean. Start at the beginning.’
‘OK, OK. I am just so excited.’ Asha takes a deep breath and pulls us both close to her.
‘Janine said she had got into debt. Something about a betting app. She borrowed the Paris money, thinking she would be able to win it all back in time to book our flights and hotel, but everything got out of hand. She basically lost the plot. Could not bring herself to tell us and at the same time she was being hounded by debt collectors. Anyway, her mother died, and I think she shut herself away until the police turned up and managed to contact her sister. Her sister has been helping her sort out her affairs and they came across all the lottery tickets stuffed into a jar and left unchecked. It was Janine’s sister who discovered one of them was the winning ticket from almost six months ago and she is helping Janine claim the money for our syndicate.’
‘This is like fairy tale,’ I say.
‘Bloody hell. How much have we won?’
Ruby has a very loud voice and other passengers again look at us.
Max he is also listening, and he say, ‘Ladies, let’s keep this to ourselves, shall we?’
