William was a nobody. William didn't even know what his last name was. For as long as his could remember William had lived as a homeless person. He had been living in homeless shelters with his mother since he was a baby and not having a home of his own or a normal childhood was all he ever knew.

His grandmother had kicked out his mother when she was pregnant with William, and back in the late seventies, being a teen mom was not a normal thing and it was frowned upon amongst "normal" people. William wasn't even born in a proper hospital, according to his mother's memory. He was born behind the back of a restaurant while his mother was scrounging for food out of the dumpster. Her water broke and within a few hours William was born into the world.

Now William was at least forty, give or take a few years, but he couldn't even tell you how old he was since his mother changed his age all the time growing up, so she could always find a place to stay in a homeless shelter. She developed a drinking problem throughout the years, which added to her reason for staying homeless. She could never get or keep a stable enough job to afford a place of her own as she would always go and spend her money on alcohol and cigarettes. While his mother had tried other drugs, nothing appealed to her more than vodka and whiskey. Which was why William's mother had died from alcohol poisoning just four years ago.

William never really strived to get out of the life he was used to. Even after his mother died. He enjoyed his daily routine, and he did the same thing almost every day. He would wake up either on the streets or at a homeless shelter, gather all his belongings and walk to the nearest train station. He would sit near the entrance and hold up his worn-down cardboard that read "ANYTHING HELPS". He would sit there for most of the day, except when he had to use the bathroom. The one manner his mother taught him, was to not urinate in public. He would always leave his belongings and find a secluded spot or empty alley way to relieve himself in some form of privacy.

By the end of his day, he would usually end up with at least a few dollars in change if he was lucky. Surprisingly, William taught himself to save his change until his money reached at least $6.00 before spending it all on alcohol or food. Another tip he learned from his mother.

One day William started his day as usual by rolling up his sleeping bag, which he had received as a donation from one of the homeless shelters one Christmas when they were too crowded and couldn't accept any more people into the building. William figured it was really a way the homeless shelter cleared their conscious for having to turn away people on one of the coldest nights of the year in Chicago. Then he packed the rest of his belongings into his very worn and torn backpack. Once everything was stored away and secured to his body, he made his way from the back of an alley to the entrance of the train station just around the corner. He pulled out his little piece of cardboard and held it in one hand and an empty coffee cup in his other hand that he used to collect the spare change in. Then he just stood there quietly. He'd say hello only to the people who greeted him and recognized his existence. More often than not, no one spoke to him, not even the ones who threw their spare change into his cup.

As the day ended, William returned to the same resting spot that he spent the prior night, as he didn't have to share the space with anyone. He unrolled his sleeping bag, sat down and dumped out all the contents of the cup onto the sleeping bag. There were several quarters, dimes, nickels, and lots of pennies, as well as some chewed up gum, and a crumpled piece of paper. He uncrumbled the piece of paper and saw that it was a lottery ticket for the Mega Millions Lottery that was going to be drawn that night. William considered throwing it away but figured it couldn't hurt to wait and see if he won anything. William stored all his coins and his lottery ticket away in his sock, which he then stuffed into the bottom of his sleeping bag before he climbed into it himself for the night.

The next morning William was walking past a newsstand where he saw that one of the major headlines was that one person had won the entire Mega Millions Lottery jackpot, which was $1 billion dollars. The highest it has ever gotten in history. William recalled in that moment that he had a Mega Millions lottery ticket and his heart raced. He pulled it out and compared it to the numbers on the newspaper. William stumbled back, weak in the knees, when he realized that his ticket was THE TICKET. He won the $1 Billion Mega Millions Lottery.

William didn't know what do to at that moment. He stepped forward towards the newsstand and approached the middle-aged man behind the stall, "Excuse me."

"I have nothing for you! No food or scraps or money for you. Go away." The man responded in broken English immediately.

"I don't want any food or money." William stated finding the situation rather funny that very moment. "I was wondering,"

"Go away! You're scaring away my customers." The man cut him off and gestured William to move back.

William took only a step back and asked, "Could you please read this for me? I don't know how to read." Stepping forward again to hand the man the lottery ticket and pointed at the back where the lottery instructions were written.

"Fine, but then you must leave at once." The man said slightly agitated. He grabbed the ticket from William's fingers and read the instructions out loud about mailing in the ticket for prizes over $600 but less than $1 Million or call the Lottery Claims Department if the prize is over $1 Million. After the man read it, he handed it back to William and urged him to leave.

"Excuse me, but may I ask you one more thing?" William asked. The man just looked at him and waited for William to continue. "May I borrow your phone?"

********

From that moment everything in William's world changed. The Lottery Claims Department spoke to their lawyers about the fact that William was a homeless person and didn't have any real form of identification. When William had to explain to the lawyers why he didn't have a birth certificate and that he has always been homeless because of his mother, they were going to have a tough time getting him his funds.

In the meantime, William was still going to be presented with the check at a press conference out of formality. The Director of the Lottery of Illinois booked William a room at a hotel near the State Lottery building and encouraged William to get cleaned up.

First the Director of the Lottery had a professional hair dresser come to William's hotel room. His hair was beyond repair as it had dreaded up over his lifetime. William agreed to allowing the hairdresser to shave his head and beard off. It took him over an hour for all his hair to be buzzed off his head and face clean shaved. William barely recognized himself when the hairdresser showed him his new look proudly.

Then it was time for William to have a shower. From his memory, William had a hot shower only once in his life. It was the time he was squatting in an abandoned apartment with some other homeless people. Back then he only had a few minutes of hot water as he had to fight for the use of the shower. This time he enjoyed every moment of it that he could. For forty-five glorious minutes William enjoyed the water and washed himself with a loofah and bodywash that he was given. He could see his skin coming through the dirt that had built up over time. Pieces of dirt cracked off and washed down the drain with the water.

When he stepped out of the shower, he admired himself in the mirror even more. His skin, though worn from living outside was clean and his face looked like a new person. He was ready to face the world as a new suddenly rich man. William put on a new pair of boxers and undershirt that the director had given him, along with a suit that the director gave him as a loaner outfit for the press conference. Then William sat down and looked outside his hotel room window admiring the view of the city from above, until it was time to get to the press conference.

********

The press conference went better than expected and everyone loved the fact that William was a homeless man who struck gold out of sheer luck. After the conference ended, the lottery connected William to a top-notch lawyer who worked tirelessly to get him proper identification and all the paperwork in order to set up the payment of his lottery win.

His lawyer encouraged William to take the thirty-year payout, calculating that he'd be in his 60s or 70s by the time all his winnings would be paid to him. His lawyer explained that it would be 30 years he wouldn't have to worry about living on the streets. While that was an appealing thought, the thought of living in a house or an apartment scared William as he would never know what to do with so much space. He also did not like the idea of being stuck in one place forever. He enjoyed the option of movement, since that was how he was raised.

"Would it possible for me to buy a car without a license?" William asked his lawyer with the thought in his mind.

"You could, but it isn't recommended. If you get pulled over driving without a license it would result in a hefty fine and possible jail time."

"What if I didn't drive it?" William asked.

"What would be the point of having a car if you didn't plan on driving it?" The lawyer looked confused.

"I would like to live in it." He responded simply.

The lawyer stared at William in disbelief for a moment then burst out chuckling. "That's a good one." He said and continued laughing.

"It's not a joke. I believe living in a car would get a step up from living on the streets."

"But with the money you're about to get, you could live in an entire five story building in the heart of downtown Chicago and still have change for a twenty Royals Royces."

"I don't want a building and a fleet of cars. All I want is one very comfortable car that I can call home." William insisted.

His lawyer now understood William completely. He worked with William over the next several weeks in getting him the perfect car. After all, he wanted to make his client happy. Once they had settled on the perfect car, which was a very spacious extended Infiniti SUV, his lawyer suggested that William hire a driver that could drive him around when he wanted to move his car. William agreed and from that moment on William would call a driver to move his car from point A to point B whenever he wanted a different view. William became known in the city as the only billionaire who lived in a car on purpose and everyone loved and respected him for it!

William also used his winnings to buy several worn down lots and rebuild bigger and better homeless shelters as well as a charity program for homeless mother's and children who needed assistance with getting reestablished into the world. Through his established charity programs and organizations, William became richer and richer over the years and through his wealth he was able to help so many people in his community. All the while, he always went home at the end of the day to his car. He loved that his new life was still connected to his old life and he wouldn't change anything for the world.

THE END