Melvin, bearded and rosy-cheeked, sat on the porch with a glass of water perched on his rocking chair, condensation staining the wood. The sleepy rays of the sun split the yard, catching in a patch of gold the yellowing leaves of the chestnut tree as they chased each other to the ground and obscuring into shadow the noisy chickens. The black lab at Melvin's feet barked as a man approached the house.

"Oh hush, Eclipse, it's just Tom."

The neighbor, a towering man with an egg-shaped bald spot and a stoop to his shoulders, grunted as he ascended the stone steps, favoring left leg and then right, weaving back and forth like a snake. He plopped onto a rocking chair, the one with Mrs. engraved on it. "Beautiful afternoon, eh?"

"Nice weather. Could use a little rain though." Melvin squinted towards the cotton candy sky in accusation. "What brings you here?"

"I told you Clare's out of town this weekend."

"Oh, you'll be leeching off us, then?"

"What else would I do? Cook?" Tom scoffed.

"You're hopeless. Does Sandy know you're joining us?" Melvin pulled out his wallet and set it on his left knee.

"I told her. What's she fixin'?"

"No clue. She's not here."

"Where's she at?" Tom's stomach rumbled. "I told her to expect me."

"She wasn't here when I got home from work."

"Aren't you worried?"

"She probably just ran to the store."

"I meant worried about our supper." Tom groaned.

Melvin chuckled and shook his head. "How are you still married, Tom?"

"It's funny, Clare asks the same thing."

 

The two men rocked in silence.

"Work decent?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, pretty good. You?"

Tom groaned. "I would've retired by now if life wasn't so expensive."

"Do you ever wonder what you'd do if you won the lottery?" Melvin asked.

"I don't wonder! I'd be skipping out of Lou's Garage like a young buck, especially after a day like today. Might even snag a few tools, after all I've done for them."

"That would be a sight. Lou'd laugh so hard at the skipping he might forgive you."

"He'd have to forgive me from thousands of miles away because I'd be tanning on a beach with a margarita. You got anything to drink?"

"You act as if you don't know where the fridge is."

 

Tom ambled into the house and attempted conversation through the screen door, which Melvin ignored, focusing instead on his wallet. Tom returned with a beer. "Man, I hope she'll be here soon. My stomach is a-growling."

"You'd really just skip town like that? What about everything you two have invested here?"

"No need to be invested when you have investments." Tom let out a shrill laugh. Eclipse, who had been chasing a rabbit in his dreams, awoke and glared at Tom.

Melvin shook his head. "We're not young men. If some punk kid won, it could change his life, but maybe our lives are set? My father-in-law helped build this house, the neighbors are almost decent," he said, waving his hand at Tom. "Money can't buy that."

"Okay, if I win with the ticket I haven't bought, then I'll stay here and be the richest on the road. Lord it over you."

Melvin grunted. "You'd certainly make it known. I guess I'd stay and keep my simple life."

"Yeah, but Sandy seems the type who would want a do-over. And if you won, all your wise words would fly out the window and you'd be cruisin' out of town in an El Camino."

Melvin laughed. "We used to play the lottery."

"Wouldn't have taken y'all as the type."

"Yeah, when we were newlyweds. We bought a ticket with the same numbers every week. Never won, of course, but we didn't care. It was $2 to dream for a day, Sandy used to say. It gave us something to talk about other than work and weather."

"And now it's giving us something to talk about." Tom placed a hand on Melvin's shoulder. "What a full circle moment."

Melvin snorted. "While you're sitting in my wife's chair."

"Just waiting for her to come home and feed us." Tom sighed. "You know what, I'm going to see if Lou wants to grab a bite at the diner." He stood up.

"Giving up on us?"

"Oh, I'll be here tomorrow."

"Tell Lou I said hi."

"Will do," Tom said before leaving.

 

Melvin examined the wallet, turning it this way and that in the sun to highlight the cracks in the leather, and then he pulled out a lottery ticket that had been creased in half and shoved in between the ones and fives. He took a lighter from his pocket. After a few tries due to shaky hands, the igniter lit, the ticket caught fire, and Melvin observed it until the fire nipped his fingernails, at which point he dropped the flaming ticket, allowing it to flutter to the porch. He stomped his heel against the smoldering paper, extinguishing it into unrecognizable char. He cackled. "And you're the only witness," he said to Eclipse, who sniffed at the charred timber.

 

Melvin fetched a rag to clean up the mess he had created, and when he returned, Sandy's van was home. She got out of the car with a huge smile, her grey-blonde hair swishing against her freckled face as she ran up the steps.

"I hope you had a good last day at work," Sandy sang, pecking his cheek.

"Fridays are always nice. I was about to call. Where've you been?"

"Shopping!"

"I figured you must've been out of some ingredient. Tom came by, intending to steal our supper."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to put that rascal on the calendar. Has he left already? Maybe we could go out, the two of us. Try that new place the Carters mentioned."

"Why?"

"Is there something wrong with going on a date every now and then?" Sandy asked, hands on her hips.

Melvin stared morosely at the porch boards, rag in one hand. "I think whatever the Carters eat is out of our price range, honey."

"Good Lord, what did you do to the porch? Never mind, no matter, as long as you're not smoking again." Sandy waggled her finger at him. "Can you get my bags out of the car?"

"So we are, or we are not, taking out a loan for supper?" Melvin said, stooping down to erase his crime.

"You should sit down."

"Is this not close enough?"

"Fine, just try not to fall off the porch."

"I'll manage."

Sandy stood a foot taller and smiled at him again, that smile he had fallen in love with decades ago. One of the few things between them that hadn't changed. "Melvin, we won the lottery."

"How-ho-how do you know?" Melvin fell back against the porch.

"Because I bought a ticket and it had the winning numbers, silly."

"Didn't someone else win?"

"You know there can be multiple winners. Plenty left for us even with the split. I used our lucky numbers. Guess I was feeling nostalgic."

"Two dollars to dream," Melvin muttered.

"Yes, except now it's not a dream! I was thinking we could go away for the weekend, just take a moment to soak it in and figure out where we want to go next."

"Tom was planning on coming over for supper tomorrow. Go next? What do you mean?"

"Tom can find another neighbor, or better yet, he can learn to cook. We can finally move! We've been in this house for decades."

 

Melvin looked at the woods, the tops of the trees tinged red from the descending sun. On the edge of the forest was a sprawling magnolia tree with their initials. How many dogs had they laid to rest underneath the sweet pine needles? How many decisions had been made on this porch?

"I like our life."

"It will still be our life, just better. Aren't you happy, Mel? I thought your reaction would be different."

Melvin smiled at her, reminded again of the dreamer he had met in school. "Of course I'm happy, honey."