A thousand dollars!

"Ho-ly!" Bob exclaims, and you start hopping up and down and squealing even before he says anything else. You new that ticket was going to be lucky, you knew it!

"How much?" you ask, pressing up against him to see.

"A full thousand, girlie," he says, and your bouncing starts again, the men on either side giving you congratulatory smakcs on the back. Without you jumping up and down their hands miss their targets and land instead on your biouncing buttocks, where they latch on tight.

"A thousand!" you say breathily, eyes bright and mind far away from the pair of hands probing further between your firm globes. "I could... I could get....."

"All sorts of things, probably," jason says, popping the bubble as he adds, "Once you pay us our share."

"What?" you freeze. Their hands freeze two, which might be why you don't even notice them.

"Our share," Jason repeats slowly, like you're slow. "We paid a buck each for a ticket that's two-fifty. That means we own..."

"Eighty percent," the cashier privides with a monotone voice, pondering his cross-word puzzle again like someone winning here was a daily occurence.

"Yeah, and eightey percent of a thousand is..." you all look at the cashier, who sighs in a put-upon way.

"Eight-hundred."

"Right. eight-hundred."

"Eight-hundred!" you squawk. "That's robbery!"

The two men shrug. Well, we did pay two bucks of the..."

"Two-fifty. I know," you say huffily, your big win becoming small change. Still, you'll be able to pay for your laundry.

"Well let's cash it and...."

"No prizes above two-hundred," the cashier droned without looking up.

"What? Well... well how am I supposed to get my money?"

The man shrugs. "Go to one of the lotto offices. Or mail the ticket to 'em"

"Well that's all good, but I need my money now," Jason says.

"And I don't want to go to no lotto office. My ex'll find out and take half of it! Not to mention taxes!" Bob adds.

"Yeah, that's true. How about this. We'll sell you our shares," Jason says.

"Sell?" you frown.

"Yeah, for eight-hundred bucks you can have the ticket."

"For..."

"It's the same either way, really. This way you get a thousand bucks, and we get eight-hundred bucks of...." he looks you up and down, tdhen around the store, as if someone from the government might overhear. "pay-off, if you will."

"P... pay off? LIke....?"