harm to his pocket. In many ways, Saul Beckran developed this trait in his son. He was already in his seventy-second year. He was half a head shorter than Carter, with gray hair around a wide bald spot on his head, a beard that was never completely shaved, and a noticeable paunch that had begun to appear since Saul began to experience problems with his back and legs, which is why he stopped run the business, leaving everything to Carter. After retiring, Saul became interested in fishing and literature. His collection consisted of more than a thousand books in the field of history and philosophy. Saul also began to develop skills in assembling ships in glass bottles. But not all the time was spent on entertainment and hobbies. Saul was constantly looking for where and what to repair. When his youngest granddaughter had a flat tire on her bicycle, he was happy because there could be nothing better for him than restoring his granddaughter’s favorite toy. True, a week later Saul decided to buy a new bicycle for the girl. But over the years, the opportunity to work around the house began to narrow. The back and joints in the legs were making themselves felt more and more. He lost his wife at thirty-two to a cerebral hemorrhage. Saul endured the tragedy with difficulty. Having raised his only son, he considered his grandson and two granddaughters as a healthy compensation for separating from his wife too early. Carter’s wife, Giselle, became like a daughter to him. Sometimes Saul thought that his relationship with his daughter-in-law worked out from the first day due to the fact that Giselle practically did not know her father, who abandoned her mother when she was three and a half, and her mother was then still pregnant with her sister. This was partly true. Having met such a smiling and friendly father-in-law, who at every meeting hugged her like his own blood, Giselle highly appreciated this attitude and for the first time understood what paternal warmth was. The presence of her mother became something natural for her, but she never knew her father’s closeness and could hardly imagine what it was.
Since her student days, Giselle wore the same hairstyle, slightly shortening her hair, which fell about twenty centimeters below her shoulders. For all thirty-nine years, Giselle’s hair has not used a drop of dye, forever retaining its chestnut shade. She had large black irises, neat eyebrows with a graceful curve at the outer edge, slightly convex pinkish lips with small dimples on her cheeks and eyelashes so thick that if Giselle had become some kind of celebrity, the whole world would have forgotten about Elizabeth Taylor.
She perfectly mastered the entire list of her husband’s addictions and passions and therefore, until the last moment, she tried not to distract him from the lottery, but too many dishes had accumulated after dinner and she could no longer wait:
– Carter, – she called, being in the kitchen, – the sink is clogged.
Carefully monitoring the numbers popping up on the screen and their presence on the tickets, Carter answered without looking up from the tickets:
– Five minutes.
– Honey, the dishes have been waiting since dinner.
Completely immersed in the game, Carter did not really hear his wife’s words and muttered:
– Yes, sure.
There was a short pause between the spouses.
– Carter – Giselle called, but there was no response from Carter.
Then Giselle said:
– OK. Until he loses, it’s useless. – Then she turned to Ines: – I’ll go to the workroom. When the lottery ends, remind him about the sink.
– Okay – Ines answered.
Giselle was a professional painter, for which, after her marriage, Saul allocated for her one of the largest rooms in their three-story house, where she set up a workshop. Fifty-seven paintings that came out from under her hand left the walls of this house. Some were bought by private art connoisseurs; some paintings travel to various exhibitions. Six years ago, Giselle was first invited to an exhibition in San Francisco, where she was offered to exhibit her work. That day, to congratulate his wife, Carter went to a jewelry store and simply bought the most expensive ring, because he did not understand anything about the quality of jewelry, but saw only one criterion for determining the value of jewelry. Two years later, Giselle visited Los Angeles and New York. Another six months passed and she received an offer from Rome. After visiting Europe, she received an order for two dozen paintings from a private gallery. Giselle was already finishing work on the eighteenth canvas and was planning to go to Paris next year, and she was especially looking forward to this trip because she had made Carter promise that he would fly with her.
Ines was seventeen years old. She, and twelve-year-old Rebecca, were youthful versions of their mother, except that they did not have as thick eyelashes. For days on end she studied the works of Freud, Jung, Fromm, Le Bon and Bekhterev, preparing to enter the psych department at Princeton. Since childhood, Ines had an unhealthy interest in observing people, studying their manners, voices, gestures, facial expressions, and she was especially interested in how different people react to the same external stimuli. For her, a person has always been a certain object of research and an experimental sample, from whose behavior certain conclusions can be drawn. Ines was especially interested in cold reading based on a scientific basis. When meeting a new person, each time she tries to assess the person’s appearance as quickly as possible and from this make a description of the psychological portrait, so that later, as the acquaintance develops, she can compare her primary conclusions with verified facts.
Giselle had already climbed the stairs to the workshop, which was located on the third floor. As soon as she was out of sight, Ines immediately came up behind the chair in which Carter was sitting, leaned over, touching her father’s shoulder with her falling brown hair, and asked in a soft voice:
– Dad, can you clean the sink?
– Now, sweetie. I’m almost there.
Ines leaned even lower, hugged Carter’s neck with both hands, pressed her cheek to his and said:
– Please. I’ll play for you.
Sitting in another chair, which was a couple of meters away, Saul looked at his granddaughter from under his brows and said:
– Ines, it’s better for you not to start. God forbid you get hooked. Your father and I have suffered from gambling addiction all our lives. Cards, checkers, backgammon, chess, racing are our curse. Hands are reaching out to put something on something.
Carter added:
– Our happiness is that we are father and son. Otherwise, one of us would have been bankrupt a long time ago.
All three of them laughed, looking at each other.
– Well, I must inherit something from my dad – said Ines, which caused Saul to laugh out loud, and Carter proudly said:
– That’s my girl.
After a couple of seconds, another number appeared on the screen. Carter looked at the ticket and realized that he would not have time to cover all the numbers.
– Damn it – he said and got up from his chair, going to the basement to get some tools.
Ines approached Saul, kneeling down and folding her hands on the armrest. She asked, looking at the ticket:
– Grandpa, what do you have?
Staring tensely at the screen through half-closed glasses, Saul replied, maintaining his concentration:
– Let’s see.
The number flashed on the screen and Saul shouted:
– We won!
Ines hugged her grandfather tightly and kissed his bearded cheek. Without getting up from his chair, Saul hugged his granddaughter to him with both arms and added:
– Three hundred fourteen dollars. God, it’s been a while since I hit such a jackpot. – Then he handed the ticket to Ines and said: – Here, my dear. Share with Rebecca.
Then, hearing footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs,