Zoltan Kramer certainly didn't look or feel like a millionaire.1 The wool suit he bought last night was starting to itch2. He leaned on his aluminum cane and began fidgeting with his neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard as he waited for the State Police cruiser.3

The state trooper met the old man outside the front door of the Hebrew Home For The Aged.4 "Mr. Kramer, my name is Sergeant5 Warren D. McEnroe, Jr.", the young, spit-polished6 New Jersey trooper said. "I've come to drive you to the Lottery Ceremony in Trenton."

Though liberated from the concentration camp7 for more than fifty years, Zoltan still distrusted policemen, guns and police cars. The trooper helped Kramer slide into8 the back seat, and started driving toward Trenton.

"You're the third instant millionaire I've chauffeured,9" McEnroe said. "How does it feel to be an instant millionaire?" McEnroe asked.

"I'll tell you when I get the check," the old man said. "But what happens if I don't take the money?"

The officer glanced back at his passenger in disbelief. "Who doesn't want $27 million?"

"Winning the Lottery is nice," Kramer said, "but to me it's a joke. All I did was play my old lucky number. It didn't require skill or special intelligence. I didn't discover a cure for cancer. I just got lucky. Look, I'm 90 years old and I don't have much time left. I'm not going to buy a home or a car and I have no wife or family to buy presents for. What do I really need? At the assisted living, they feed me, give me my pills, change my sheets, let me play bingo10 and watch the big color television. Today I will have $27 million."

"I remember my years in the concentration camp. I was a limping, wheezing skeleton.11 I had nothing. I was totally penniless and alone. In my small village in Romania, I saw my parents herded into cattle cars and sent off to the ovens12. I saw a police officer draw his pistol and shoot my lame13 little brother dead ?in front of my eyes ?in the village square. It was a fast, cheap death. I didn't have a penny when I lost my family. Today I'll have $27 million and I cannot buy their lives back. It's a joke ?a sick, tragic joke."

"But I, myself, was lucky. The Americans saved me. And I eventually came to the United States. I went to night school, where I met Margaret. She was an American girl who taught me English ?and how to laugh again. I married her in 1950. For a living, I sewed piecework14 in a dress factory. It was my only job for 35 years. And Margaret was my only love. She died from cancer in 1975. And, I miss her very much."

"I'm sorry," McEnroe said as he changed the subject. "In one hour you're going to get $27 million," the trooper said. "You can still buy a lot of happiness and excitement with all that money."

"I found my great happiness with Margaret," Kramer said. "And I found excitement playing the numbers game."

"But that's against the law!" the trooper declared, staring at his passenger through his rear view mirror15.

"Yes, it was illegal when I placed my nickel-and-dime16 bets at Saltzman's candy store. I'd give Saltzman my spare change and he'd write my numbers on a paper. And we both hoped we wouldn't get caught by the cops17. Today you stand and wait in crowded lines by a computer at an official Lottery Agency. It's all high-tech and legal because the state gets its piece of the action18. That's life."

"Did you win often?" the sergeant asked.

"Not often, but when I won, I celebrated with Margaret. We'd take the train into the city and I'd hire a taxicab19 to take us to a fine restaurant. I'd order two steak dinners and a glass of French wine for Margaret and an ice-cold bottle of beer for me. Once, when I hit on a quarter bet20, I also bought her flowers. Margaret loved camellias21. She called me 'Diamond Jim Brady' and she called our feast 'our night of opulence'.22"

"You really miss her, don't you?"

"I miss her very much," Zoltan sighed. "I also miss the youth I could not enjoy. I'd give every nickel of that $27 million if I could spend one more day with my Margaret."

"What would you do? " the young trooper asked.

"First, I would hug and kiss her and watch her smile. She had a warm and beautiful and lovely smile. Then I would apologize for anything I ever said or did that hurt her. And then we would make love."

"At age 90?"

"Love is more than young bodies and genital contact," the old man lectured. "Love is an ongoing ageless affair of the heart and soul."

"Are you married?"

McEnroe said he married his Lori eighteen years ago. They have a 15-year-old son, Billy, and a nine-year-old daughter, Nancy. "But, Sergeant, you still haven't answered my original question: What will they do if I don't take the $27 million?"

"I don't know what they'll do with the money, but they'll probably lock you away in a nuthouse ?an insane asylum23. They'll say you're crazy. Turning back $27 million is very un-American."

Kramer smiled. "I guess you're right but I'll tell you what. Later, when they take pictures of me with that great big check, I want you to call Lori. Tell her and the kids that tonight 'Diamond Jim' is going to give them a 'night of opulence'. I'm going to buy us all steak dinners. And a glass of wine for Lori, two bottles of ice-cold beer ?one for you and one for me ?and a Coca-Cola for Billy and a Shirley Temple24 for Nancy. It's my treat.25 Believe me, tonight I can afford it."

Sergeant McEnroe changed the subject again. "You never did tell me what your lucky number was."

Zoltan Kramer laid his cane across the back seat, unbuckled26 his seat belt, slid his arm out of his suit jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeve and placed his arm over the front seat, revealing his concentration camp tattoo27. And both men continued their drive in silence.

1. 左尔泰·克莱默看上去不像，他自己也不觉得是个百万富翁。

2. itch: 使人发痒。

3. 他拄着他的铝制手杖，捋着他那修剪得整整齐齐的凡·戴克式胡子，等着州警察局派来接他的警车。
fidget: （不安或心不在焉地）摆弄，玩弄；Van Dyke beard: （下巴上的）短尖髯，因17世纪佛兰德斯画家凡·戴克肖像画中的人物常有此面貌特征，故名；cruiser: <美>警察巡逻车。

4. trooper: <美口>州警；Hebrew Home For The Aged: 老年犹太人之家。

5. sergeant: 中士。

6. spit-polished: 过分讲究整洁和打扮的。

7. concentration camp: 集中营。

8. slide into: 这里指很快地坐进车里。

9. 您是我接送过的第三个速成百万富翁。 chauffeur/#12%f2(r)/: 开汽车接送，为……开车。

10. bingo: 宾戈（一种赌博游戏）。

11. 我是跛着脚、喘着气的一副骨架子。

12. herd: 把……赶在一起；oven: （尤指1939-1945年二战时纳粹德国用以火化犹太人尸体的）火化室。

13. lame: 跛的，瘸的。

14. piecework: 计件工作。

15. rear view mirror: （汽车）后视镜。

16. nickel-and-dime:几分几毛小钱的。

17. cop: <口>警察。

18. a piece of the action: 一份好处；action: 利益，好处。

19. taxicab: 出租汽车。

20. 赢了25美分的注。

21. camellia: 山茶花。

22. Diamond Jim Brady: 钻石吉姆·布莱迪，美国金融家、慈善家、美食主义者，因收藏大量钻石珠宝及胃口奇大而出名；opulence: 富裕，财富。

23. nuthouse: <俚>疯人院，精神病院；insane asylum/2#sa!l2m/:疯人院，精神病院。

24. Shirley Temple: 秀兰邓波尔饮料，女孩饮料，用干姜水和石榴汁糖浆调制而成，状似鸡尾酒，常饰有一颗酒浸樱桃。（Shirley Temple为20世纪30年代美国著名电影童星。）

25. 我请客。

26. unbuckle: 解开。

27. tattoo: 文身。此处指纳粹分子在关押于集中营的犹太人身上所文的编号。