by Ira Tabankin
2nd Edition August 2015
Copyright March 2015 Ira J. Tabankin
Sterling VA 20166
Dedication
This book, as all of mine are, is dedicated to the love of my life, my wife Patricia.
Thanks to everyone who’s provided feedback and support for my writing. A special thanks to Michael and “ConradCa” for proofreading and editing my words into something readable.
Cover design by Logotecture"
The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual names, persons, businesses, and incidents are strictly coincidental.
Prologue
The world’s economies collapsed one year ago this week. The collapse made the Depression of 1929 look like a mild recession. Like the ’29 crash, this one covered every developed country like a cold, wet blanket. The economic meltdown started small, as most disasters do, but quickly spread like a firestorm that engulfed the industrial world. Six months before the worldwide economic meltdown we won a Powerball lottery. Winning the lottery gave us the ability to survive and record the collapse of the old and the birth of the new world. A world that emerged from the ashes of the industrialized world. Edmund Burke said, “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” Mankind refused to learn history’s lessons. Every generation thought they knew more than any other generation. Nations voted for their leaders based on emotion versus logic. People went to the polls and voted for more freebies. They voted for socialism forgetting what Margret Thatcher said about socialism’s core problem, she said, “Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.” She was correct. History will record the number of workers and wealthy the governments’ taxed; to pay for the benefits of those who didn’t work shrank as the amount of taxes increased. Many governments discovered too late, when they increase taxes, collected tax revenues decreased. Governments continued to spend even as their revenues decreased which yielded higher debt. Governments learned that their debts became unpayable, they had to increase borrowing so they could make the interest payments on their existing debt. National debt quickly equaled and in some cases surpassed their net GNP, technically making the countries bankrupt. When borrowers refused to continue to buy bonds and extend additional credit, country’s learned they had to reduce benefits payments in order to keep their countries afloat. Citizens of these countries voted out the governments which cut their benefits. Citizens voted into office anyone who promised to restore their benefits. History records that one of the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire was Roman citizens realized they could vote themselves increased benefit. It was then only a matter of time before Rome ran out of money and the Roman Empire fell. Europe in the second decade of the twenty-first century was about to relive the errors of the Roman Empire.
Economists had long warned the world’s governments that all of their economies are interconnected. An example of how interconnected the world’s economies are, think of a placid lake where a single stone strikes the calm waters, the surface of the lake ripples from the single rock displacing the water. A second rock striking the water adds its waves to those of the first rock. The third rock striking the water adds to the waves of the first two, each additional rock increases the waves and turbulence in the lake until the waves have multiplied turning the placid lake into a rough sea. The lake is the world’s economy. There have been many debates about the first rock which started the waves in the world’s economies. Most people think the economies had been bubbling just under the surface of the calm lake. The surface tension of the lake kept the pressure which was building just under the surface from exploding. The economic pressure had been building for more than a quarter of a century, The pressure was waiting for the first rock to break the surface tension which violently released the built up pressure. The first rock to break the smooth surface releasing the pent up pressure was a vote for a new government in Greece.
The first rock that broke the placid economic lake occurred on January 26, 2015. “Yesterday the people of Greece elected the far left Syriza party and their young, charismatic leader Alexis Tsipras. Tsipras is forty years old. He ran on the promise to write off Greece’s 300 billion Euro debts. Greece’s current budget is 150% of their GNP. Tsipras promised the Greeks to return their pensions, increase their pay and bring good times back to the country. Greece has survived on a 240 billion-euro ($270 billion) bailout, which has kept the debt-ridden country afloat since mid-2010. To qualify for the bailout, Greece has had to impose deep and bitterly resented cuts in public spending, wages, and pensions, along with public sector layoffs and repeated tax increases. The lenders who loaned Greece the $270 billion are very concerned about Tsipras winning. One of the German bond managers told the consortium that it wasn’t possible for Greece to write off the debt, nor did he think Greece would default.”
Other countries stood on the lake’s shoreline watching the waves ripple in the world’s economy. Thinking they had a lifeline, other countries threw their own rocks into the financial lake. The additional rocks increased the turbulence until nothing could stop the financial waves which had built into tidal waves of destruction spread around the globe.
This is the story of a small group of surviving families whom ‘Lady Luck’ brought together shortly before the world’s economies collapsed. The group built and took refuge in a shelter when their homes were overrun by swarms of hungry, angry people. Exiting their shelter, they discovered the world was much different than the one they’d left behind when they locked the shelter door behind them.
Chapter 1
Irony is a cold hearted bitch. Its karma’s way of getting even with us. It’s buying lottery tickets for forty years and finally winning the big prize on the eve of the world’s economic implosion without getting a chance to spend the millions on foolish toys. Irony is going from living from pay check to pay check to becoming mega rich while the world collapses before you can be foolish and waste the winnings by indulging your daydreams. Everyone has daydreams. Dreams keep us going.
Do you believe in lady luck? Do you gamble? Do you ever daydream of hitting the ‘Big-One’? Do you ever daydream how your life would be different if you didn’t have to work? Almost everyone gambles on something, sporting events, on the outcome of elections, small bets between friends, a weekly poker game or a friendly golf match. Most people gamble on something, millions spend their hard earned money every week on the dream of winning the lottery. Billboards along highways display the large prizes for the Powerball and the Mega Millions lottery. The billboards encourage you daydream what it would be like to win. It's natural, everyone driving past the billboards daydreams what their life would be like after winning. The lottery counts on us having the daydreams, their advertising plays to our daydreams. When the lottery prize breaks $100 million, people wait in lines for their chance to pick six numbers which will change their lives. When the lottery prize exceeds $200 million, people stand in lines for hours to buy a ticket, even though, the odds of being struck by lightning is higher than winning the lottery.
I admit I daydreamed what I would do if I won. It wasn’t just the $200 million plus lotteries that got me daydreaming, my mind drifted with thoughts how I would spend even the base lottery prize of $12 million. I was hooked on the dream. My wife, Lacy, used to laugh at me, she told me I’d never win as long as I was married to her because she was bad luck. I laughed, telling her that I was lucky because she was my wife. I purchased lottery tickets every week. I figured I couldn’t win if I didn’t play. $15 a week was a small amount of money to risk for the chance of winning millions. I knew I had no chance of winning if I didn’t get into the game. I know I’m the typical sucker the lottery targets their adve
rtising to. I was the average ‘Joe’ who dreams of winning the big one. I knew and ignored the odds which said I had a better chance of being struck by lightning than I did of winning the lottery.
The lottery is an addiction. I typically won small prizes every couple of weeks, the more $5.00 and $10.00 prizes I won, the more I was driven to buy more lottery tickets. I always thought, I won something, so there’s a chance I can win the big one. Every ticket I purchased was a potential dream waiting to come true. I typically purchased my lottery tickets when I finished food shopping. I went from the cashier to the customer service desk with the money burning a hole in my wallet, my dreams ready to kick into high gear. I passed my lottery tickets to the clerk and I held my breath when the clerk straightened my tickets before sliding them into the lottery machine. I didn’t even know I was holding my breath as I waited for the bells to ring which meant I won. Today was no different from any other late January day in Northern Virginia.
Wednesday, January 27th was a cold clear winter day. In a way, it was a funny day. It was the day after the massive blizzard that didn’t happen. For three days, the weather people screamed the blizzard of the century was bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic and North East states. Food stores were swamped with people buying enough food to hold them over until the many feet of snow we were supposed to get melted. Looking at people’s overflowing shopping carts, one would have assumed they didn’t think the snow would melt until May. January 27th was the day after the Mayor of New York City closed the city. I wondered if a mayor could close a city before a disaster. The storm never materialized. The weather people actually apologized for blowing the forecast. News reports placed the loss to New York City alone at over $700 million because of the Mayor’s closure. Central Park received only 5 inches of snow. I tried to explain to my friends this was a perfect example of how the government isn’t prepared to handle a real emergency. If they weren’t prepared for a January snowstorm in the North East when it always snows in January, how can they handle a real emergency? This was a perfect example of how the government gets things wrong. I tried to explain to my friends they had to be prepared to take care of their own families because the government wasn’t going to be there when we’d need them the most. I reminded my friends of Katrina and Sandy, how so many families are still waiting for help to arrive years after the hurricanes. Our typical liberal government worker looked for someone to blame for their error versus taking responsibility. The Mayor never explained how he could order the city closed, he ordered people arrested for walking on the streets. Another example of the mess we’d voted into office occurred in New Jersey, where two teenagers decided to earn some extra money. They went to their neighbor’s homes offering to shovel the snow from their driveways. Their town has laws on the books mandating snow removable within 48 hours, the teens were stopped by the police for being outside in an emergency. The emergency being, it snowed. The teens were ordered to go home, leaving many elderly unable to clear their sidewalks within 48 hours. Like many government rules, the left and right hands didn’t talk to each other. Perfect examples of why, when the shit really hit the fan, the only people we can count on are ourselves. Most of my friends and one of my sons-in-law thought I was ‘chicken little’ always crying the sky was going to fall.
My wife Lacy and I had a routine, we jointly went grocery shopping on Saturdays, By midweek, we’d usually used up our fresh veggies and salad. Since I was semi-retired one of my ‘jobs’ was to hit the food store on Wednesdays to pick up the items we either forgot or used up. Today I had a small list of five items to pick up. I think the total cost was only $12.00. After paying I walked over to the customer service desk and I handed the clerk my lottery tickets. I looked at the electronic display, which showed the Powerball was back to the basic prize. My hopes went up, someone had won last week's prize. My mind started to wander and daydream we were the winners. I daydreamed how we would live with the winnings. I smiled at the clerk while she ran my tickets through the lottery machine.
She smiled at me while inserting my ticket into the lottery machine. The lottery machine sucks down my ticket, it does down, back up and down again, the machine pauses a minute, the next instant the bells sound. I won something. Knowing my luck, it must be a dollar or two. I raise my head to look at the list of prizes, last week's grand prize was $42 million. The clerk is staring at me smiling and nodding, I look at her, clearly not understanding what she’s trying to tell me. The store manager came over slapping me on the back, other shoppers gather around. It still hadn’t registered on me. Slowly the fog lifted from my mind. The clerk was saying, “Sir, congratulations, you WON!”
“I won? How much did I win?”
“Sir, you won the big one, you won $42 million!”
“What? No bullshit. I won?”
The store’s general manager smiled, saying, “Sir, may I offer you my congratulations too. You won the grand prize! You’re the first grand prize winner the store’s ever had!”
“You’re going to give me $42 million?”
The general manager laughed, saying, “No, we only pay up to $500.00. Any prize larger than $500.00 is paid by the lottery commission.”
“How much did I win?”
Laughing the General Manager said, “Why don’t you come with me to my office? We’ll call the lottery office together.”
I followed the manager to his office in a daze. His office is the size of a large closet, he has a steel desk and one visitor chair which I dropped down into. His desk is covered with piles of paper, there’s a bulletin board on the wall covered in notices from corporate. The office looks like a cave made from paper memos. It smells of old paper. I wonder is this real or some joke? Have I entered the Twilight Zone? I remember I left the bags with the five items I bought at the customer service desk. I started to look around, the manager smiled saying, “I think you’re looking for your bags, here they are. I had a feeling you might forget them.”
“Thank you, if I didn’t bring them home, I’d have to come back and buy them again.”
“You’ll certainly be able to afford them. Let’s see, according to the lottery, you won $42 million, which is spread over 26 years. You will receive a yearly deposit of $1,6115,384. Of course, you’ll be responsible for paying all of the taxes on your winnings as regular income. You can also take a one-time cash payment, which, of course, is discounted. After tax you’ll receive $28,770,000. You don’t have to decide now. In fact, the lottery suggests you contact a tax advisor and a lawyer before you make your decision. You have one year from last Saturday to cash in your ticket. There are no exceptions. If you miss the date by even one day, you’ll lose the prize. I had a customer who once won $5,000, he lost his ticket, by the time he found it, the time had expired, he was out of the $5,000. Be very careful with that ticket.”
“Trust me, I’m not going to lose the ticket.”
“If you want, we can scan a copy of the ticket and your driver’s license which I’ll be happy to send to lottery’s office for you. We can call them to verify your winnings.”
“Thanks, that’s very kind of you.” I still don’t believe this is happening.
“Don’t worry about me, the store wins a nice prize for selling you the ticket. This certifies we sold it and validates our claim. As the manager, I’ll get a small part of the store’s prize, so my family thanks you for buying your ticket in our store.”
I nod my head, still not believing what’s going on.
He scanned my license and the lottery ticket while I’m sitting in his office in a daze. He emailed it to the lottery, then he called them to confirm they received my information. He told me the manager at the lottery office would like to speak with me. The general manager handed me the phone, “Hello, this is Jay Tolson.”
“Mr. Tolson, congratulations, we’re happy to confirm you hold the winning ticket to the January 24th winning Powerball lottery of $42 million dollars. Please bring the winning ticket and two photo ID’s to our office in Ric
hmond in order to claim your prize. Do you have any questions for me at this time?”
“Not really, I’m still in shock.”
“I’m sure you are. If I can give you a little bit of advice, try to contact a lawyer and an accountant before you start spending your winnings. We’ve seen many people go through huge amounts very quickly.”
“Thank you. I think I’m going to need a few days to get my head screwed on straight. How much notice do you need before we claim our prize?”
“Twenty-four hours would be great.”
“I can do that.”
“Jay, again, congratulations. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you soon.”
The store manager padded me on the back saying, “don’t lose that ticket, keep it in a safe place.”
“I will,” I said, walking out of the store with the manager chasing me with my two bags. I smile, shaking my head and thanking him. Getting in my car I call my wife, thinking, I can’t wait to tell her. Damn it, we WON, I can’t believe it! We won, we really won! I still can’t believe it. People are honking behind me, they want my parking spot. I pull out of the parking lot while dialing my wife. “Honey, you’ll never guess what...”
“Hon, I’m really very busy right now. Can I call you back?”
“Sure, but don’t you have even one moment?”
