Yellow Mama E zine

I Run Into My Cousin Who’s Out Panhandling

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by Louella Lester

 

         I say hello and she says: Hey, you know what happened to me last night when I was out having a bit of supper using that gift card your mom gave me for my birthday, well, a guy let me borrow his newspaper to check the lottery numbers even though I didn’t have the actual ticket with me, left it home to keep it safe, you know, but I always use the same numbers, so I knew right away that I’d won it, the big one, the 14.6 million dollar one, can you believe it—I see you raising your eyebrows—but that was such a big surprise I thought I was going to faint, so I sat down at the guy’s table, and I was feeling so shaky that I asked him to walk me to my rooming house to get the ticket and he was kind enough to agree right away, so helpful, and I asked him inside to help me search and we looked around and then, well, the bed is right there and I was in the mood for a celebration, so we . . . you know, and after that we searched more, but couldn’t find that damn ticket and he got huffy, swearing, telling me I’d tricked him, I don’t know what that meant, he never hit me at least, he just took off, but that’s enough about me though, you look like you are doing okay, okay enough to buy me lunch, eh?

 

      Louella Lester is a writer/photographer in Winnipeg, Canada, author of the CNF book Glass Bricks (At Bay Press 2021), contributing editor at New Flash Fiction Review, and is included in Best Microfiction 2024 & 2026.  Her writing/photos appear in variety of journals and anthologies.    http://louellalesterblog.wordpress.com

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        Luke Lester is an artist and writer from Victoria, Canada. He has recently been published in Absolute Underground, Black Petals, Flash Fiction North, Paragraph Planet, Ultramarine Literary Review, and Yellow Mama. More of his art and writing can be found on his blog: The Other Place.