On the way back they slowly walked side by side. That is – Richard walked and Nick rolled his wheelchair.

“Can you finally tell me what the hell happened there? What did you show her?” Richard asked.

Nick once again reached in the pocket and passed the paper strip to Richard.

“You bastard! You did win after all!” Richard seemed to be back in his good mood and loudly laughed.

Nick took back the lottery ticket, put in his front pocket and gave a silent sigh, “It’s just a trip – not like I won a multi-million jackpot.”

“But Cindy still was shocked!”

“Nah, she was just surprised that the trip around the world will be our honeymoon, darling.” Nick cheekily looked at Richard and started to laugh along with him.

When Richard calmed down, he got serious again, “Do you think she bought that story?”

“No way. She is calculative and manipulative, and may be licentious, but she is definitely not stupid. She simply got startled for a moment and then embarrassed because her dress was ruined by falling in those dishes.”

After a moment of silence Richard asked again, “The trip you won, trip around the world – when you will go?”

“Why would I go?” Nick gazed into distance, “I can’t really ‘go’ anywhere, I can not walk or run …”

“But such trip surely costs a lot of money, you have to use it!”

“Richard, the thing is ... please don’t tell anyone … but ... if I wanted, I could spend my whole life flying around the world and I still would be buried in a golden coffin. I am loaded! I have so much money, I don’t even know where to spend it.” Nick continued to look into distance with an empty gaze.

Richard, on the other hand, froze on the spot and was like a statue of a huge Greek god, only with stupefied expression, “W..wait, what do you mean? Are you trying to pull same sh*t on me like you did with Cindy earlier?”

Nick stopped his wheelchair, looked back, “Do you know who my father was?”

“Of course, everyone in Stanford knows. Olle Berglund, world’s leading scientist in the gene technology! … but scientists are never rich, they might be well off, but never Richie Rich rich.” Richard was still confused.

“True. But my father had a theory. You know, the corporations that were sponsoring his research did not do that out of good heart or for the good of mankind. They invested money in my father’s work, so they could use the results to milk more money out of the common populace. Imagine pharmaceutical company getting its hands on a cure for cancer or something similar. The whole world would be on their knees in front of such company. It is a dream for any investor. Thus, since the research in gene technology is really expensive, it required a lot of funding from, preferably, many moneybags, and my father just optimized the cash flow.” Smile returned on Nick’s face. He liked to talk about his parents, they were smart people.

“So your father stole money from the big investors?” Richard was still trying to understand.

“No. Wrong. Stealing is illegal. What my father did was absolutely legal.”

“I still don’t get it. You are the smart one here – please do explain it to this simple athlete.” Richard pretended to sound modest with a fake-serious expression on his face.

Nick pondered for a moment and then said, “Ok. Look at the US economy. The biggest multi-billion companies don’t pay almost anything in taxes in the USA. They use legal schemes to register businesses in other countries where they pay symbolic amount of taxes while still doing the main business in US. In addition to that, most of these companies get subsidies and financial support from our government that can be measured in hundreds of millions each year, probably even billions. Thus not only they don’t pay taxes, they even suck out money directly from the US treasury. And after all of that they have nerves to release financial results showing billions of profit and not pay taxes once again.”

Nick looked at Richard and continued, “This is a simplified example on how our world works. My father was no communist or socialist, so he did not try to fight or change the system to make everyone happy. He also was no Robin Hood and did not try to steal from the rich and give it to the poor. He had his pride as a Berglund and did not cheat money from the taxpayers. He just did what world’s largest companies do – legally earned money from those multi-billion monstrosities as a side hobby to his research.”

“How do you know all of this? Did your father teach you how to scam the large businesses since your childhood?” Richard was still digesting how this former football captain and language division student became multimillionaire a second ago.

Nick smiled and continued his lecture, “Most of it is just a common sense. You can easily find out about it just by doing some research. In fact, you might even find some socialist you-tubers online who speak of these problems. Of course, the details about our family funds father left me in his will. Even mother did not know that.”

“So ... if you are rich ... why the hell did I just pay a small fortune for our dinner?!” Richard finally figured out the main problem of the evening.

Nick stopped his wheelchair, looked up at Richard and in soft voice whispered, “That is because it is our anniversary and you love me very, very much, darling!”

“Pfuu!” Richard jumped back as if he was struck by electricity, “F*ck you! Next time you are paying! No, not only next time – you are paying for the rest of the year!”

They laughed a bit and then continued the late walk towards campus.

“So you are not going? It is still free and, even if you are rich, it is not bad to use such opportunity.” Richard brought up the lottery subject again.

“Do you know why I started to study languages?” Nick stopped his wheelchair again. Looked at Richard and gave a sad smile, “Actually my mom made me learn French and Spanish when I was still a toddler. When I turned four I got miss Chen to teach me Mandarin … to this day I suspect at the time I was just a convenient test subject to my mother. Anyway. When I started to read, a whole new world opened to me. I started to dream about living in the jungle, diving on coral reefs, discovering ancient temples … when I told this to my parents, my mother said: but you will have to travel a lot then and meet different people. How will you speak to them if you don’t know their language? Obviously she tried to trick me and it worked – I have a talent for languages and love to learn them. But her plan kind of backfired. She wanted me to become doctor like her, but I did not really want to do anything else with my life than explore the world. It was my father who persuaded her to ‘let it be’. Only now I understand … he somehow knew I will never regress and drop my studies. That and, of course, he had made a fortune that could support the dreams of his beloved son.”

While speaking Nick became gloomier, “Well, now I know a bunch languages, have sh*t load of money, but can’t even walk to the restaurant on my own ... sigh, f*ck my life.”

Richard thought for a bit and tried to cheer him up, “You are rich and may be it will be possible recover your legs – science has gone really far these days. And you know what they say – money is power!”

“Right … power ... can that power bring my parents back?” Nick became even more gloomy.

“S..sorry …” Richard stuttered.

“No, no. I am sorry. I should not have said that.” Nick tried to forcefully change his own mood, “Thank you for the dinner!”

“No problem. You should roll by the stadium more often. Guys miss you and worry about you.” Richard quickly went in to his football captain persona again.

“Do you even hear yourself? Don’t you understand how weird it sounds?” Nick looked at Richard pretending to be upset. They stared at each other for a moment and then started laughing.

It was late evening on February 14th. Near the West entrance of the Sanford University hundreds of students were quietly trying to find their romance when the loud and impolite laughter sound rolled down the street. People looked at the weird laughing couple condescendingly, then moved on – Valentine’s day was only once a year and they had no time to worry about others.

“Need my help getting to the dorms?” Richard tried to be helpful.

“Nah. I’ll be fine. I want to clear my head anyway.” Nick slowly started to move his wheelchair towards his dormitory, “Thanks again for the dinner, although the dessert was a little snotty.”

“Any time. If you want more dessert like that – just call me.” Richard laughed as they bumped their fists to say ‘goodbye’, “Next time you are in the stadium – you have to bring pizza for everyone!” He jogged of, but Nick could still hear his laughter reverberating between the buildings in the distance.

Nick spent two more hours aimlessly rolling around the campus. He could not figure out what to do – not that day, but in life in general. A year or two ago, if he did not have any, he would have made some plans, consulted with his father, then made some corrections and proceeded to execute those plans. Methodical thinking way of his scientist parents was really convenient. But now not only he could not keep his emotions in check, he did not have anyone to ask advise from.

Many people were telling him how incredibly strong he was and how admirable his mentality is. Others might have long broken down, started drinking or using. But Nick never even thought in that direction. Probably a result of excellent parenting, or as Olle would have said – ‘perfect genes’.

‘May be Richard is right. May be I should go? If I look at this as an experiment – if I manage to succeed this time, I could really travel the world.’ Nick looked at his legs and pinched thigh again. ‘It’s not like it could get any worse.’

Next day Nick arrived at the office of the lottery company. Seeing he was a young student and a disabled person at the same time, manager tried to make a big thing out this win, obviously getting a chance for a free promotion. Nick quickly calmed the situation: no cameras, no interviews, no publicity. Company wanted to arrange help and people for his travels as well, but he did not accept any extra assistance. He already made a decision – if he did this experiment – he would do it properly.

Turns out the rules of this ‘trip around the world’ win were very simple. Winner had to choose maximum of ten destinations across the globe he wanted to visit. Company, on the other hand, would provide and pay for all the necessary visas, flights and hotel reservations for two people. All the costs could not exceed fifty thousand per person, but since Nick was not planning to bring his plus one, he could double the amount. He would have to pay for his daily necessities himself though.

Nick was fine with the conditions – he would not be able to spend the hundred grand alone anyway.

Manager got another light shock when Nick picked the destinations. He chose all the seven new world wonders – Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Taj Mahal in India, Christ the Redeemer in Rio, Machu Picchu in Peru, Chitzen Itza in Mexico and Colliseum in Rome, Italy. In addition to these Nick decided to visit his parents birthplaces – Malmö in Sweden and Nice in France. These destinations were absolutely fine. What shocked the manager was the last pick – Nick wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef.

“B...but how are you going to do that?” manager looked at Nick’s legs with astonishment, “May I suggest Pyramids in Egypt or something else?” He tried to talk some common sense in to this youngster.

To what Nick calmly replied, “It’s fine. I am certified dive-master. If I will need any assistance, I will get it from the local PADI office.”

Since he had decided to do this experiment – there will be no shortcuts. He decided to not pay any attention to the weather seasons in each of the destinations, to make his ‘traveling experience’ more authentic. His only requirement was to be in Nice on July 14th.

When all the papers were signed, it was decided that the company will inform Nick on the exact departure date not later than on the first week of May. The trip would last around ten weeks and start right after the end of the spring quarter. Nick would miss few weeks of studies in the summer, but he told himself he could study on the road as well as catch up later if really necessary.

Theoretically Nick could manage to quickly rush around the chosen destinations in 3-4 weeks, but he really wanted to spend more time diving in Australia and do ‘extra research’ on pizza in Italy.

Pizza was the big love of his life. And, apart from football, it was the only thing his health nut mother didn’t approve of. If pizzas could have feelings, they would feel like young brides who are being hated by their mother-in-law and they never had a place at, in this case – on, the family table. Therefore Nick only secretly had pizza with his teammates from time to time and Marianne never found out.

Besides Italy, Nick planned to spend some time with his grandparents in France and in Sweden. He did call them on Skype every week, but they had not met in person since the funeral last year. No one can imagine what does it mean to loose a child, and Nick did not even try. He knew all four of his grandparents were still heartbroken and most likely it will be their emotional state till the end. All he could do was go there, hug them and spend some time together.

For a student three months can fly by very quickly. To not waste any time, Nick started to attend course of colloquial Italian. With a dreamy smile he imagined how that will help him in the ‘pizza research’ he was planning to do in Rome. With his knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese, Italian turned out to be an extremely easy language.

He also managed to organize few scuba diving sessions in Monterey bay. His father’s old diving buddies were delighted to help and, despite him being disabled for almost a year, it was not a big hindrance … apart from not being able to paddle with his legs and needing another person to do that for him, of course.

Nick was also preparing methodically for the other parts of his voyage – doing online research on specific tourism objects, contacting his parents acquaintances and friends in various countries. Also buying presents for his grandparents. That was until at the end of another shopping session when he realized that the destinations in France and Sweden were in the middle of his trip and he would need to carry a small mountain of presents with him for 4-5 weeks. The problem was quickly solved by visiting postal office and sending all the souvenirs ahead of time.