Sunlight moved sideways while cicadas chirped out a summer heartbeat. Little breezes punctuated the monotony of heat, a promise of Fall somewhere in the mixture. Ellis moved with surprising grace for an arthritic old man. The squirrels had littered his walkway with pine cone hulls, making it difficult to walk barefoot, something he preferred to do. It was time for the mail to come, so he hobbled along, shoving debris out of the way with his cane.
The dog next door was fond of leaving a "calling card" right there to the right of his mailbox, so Ellis circled it from the left, hoping for the best. Today, he was lucky and successfully retrieved a handful of junk mail from his box without getting his feet dirty. As he was heading back inside, someone drove by with the radio on. ‘Tennessee Waltz’ faded as the car drove on, but it did not fade from Ellis’s mind. He could recall every word, every bit of the melody, in his own rhythm’s time.
When he got back home, the phone was ringing. “Mr. Ellis Odom?” inquired a deep, friendly voice.
“Yeah, it’s me,” replied Ellis, who was always annoyed at a phone call.
“Have you received your winning ticket in the mail?” the voice further inquired.
“I got a bunch of junk, if that’s what you mean!” Ellis answered, even more annoyed than ever.
“Check your mail! You are a winner!” the voice continued.
Sure enough, Ellis held a big red envelope addressed to him with the word WINNER on it.
“So what did I win?” he asked cautiously.
“Ten thousand dollars!” chortled the voice.
“When do I get it?” Ellis questioned.
“All you have to do is send me a five hundred dollar security deposit and I’ll mail you a check!” the voice went on.
“Check your brain. It doesn’t seem to be working properly,” Ellis responded.
At this, the phone went dead and Ellis tossed the red envelope into the garbage. He grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and took it out to the front porch, where he liked to sit. Squirrels were fussing with a big jay bird over a pear on Ellis’s tree. Dog fennel shot up in a last growth spurt before flowering. It smelled good.
Then Willy came walking by with his feisty little terrier, who growled at everything and everybody in its path. “When you gone get you a real dog, Willy?” hollered Ellis.
“Gimme one of those beers and we’ll get out the dominoes,” Willy said while the little terrier hiked his leg and watered a daylily.
“That dog is gone kill my last lilly!” Ellis fussed.
Willy went into the house to get a beer. When he came out, he had the red envelope in his hand. “I got one just like this the other day,” he remarked.
“Imagine that!” laughed Ellis. Willy put it back in the garbage can.
Pretty soon, Ellis’s nephew, Doug, came by with Ellis’s groceries. “Want me to put them up for you?” he asked.
Ellis nodded and Doug carried the bags into the house.
When he came out, he had the red envelope. “When did this come?” he asked.
“I don’t remember,” replied Ellis, who had forgotten the whole business.
“Well, I’ll just take it with me,” smiled Doug, who thought he had just gotten lucky.
“What’s that?” asked his brother, who was waiting in the car.
“It’s a winning ticket for ten thousand dollars!” Doug explained. “Uncle Ellis threw it in the garbage!” he went on.
“Old people are so dumb!” Laughed his brother.
