JACKPOTS

When Sky Fontaine Won the Lottery

When Sky Fontaine won the lottery, all the residual high school bullies shriveled but still stared. Before, they had yelled at her, but that never mattered. Sky's nose had always been in an upside-down book, and her upturned eyes followed fans or watched the wormhole tiles do nothing on the ceiling. Now she lived in a remodeled factory building, brought gardeners to plant trees, and danced about her fenced-in wonderland, wearing a different ball gown every day. The cleaners complained of pigeon shit stains on her dress hems. When asked, she said, she'd planned it that way to keep people out.

— SHANTI PEREZ