The Lottery and The Postmaster

THE LOTTERY & THE POSTMASTER

Every year on June 27 in this small little village, a ritual is held to find out the winner of the lottery.

Mr. Graves is the village postmaster, he is the one who conducts, and manages the entire lottery ceremony.

Mr. Graves is a middle aged man in his early forties, never married, living in an old cottage barn and is totally obsessed with being the village postmaster.

Mr. Graves feels like he and he alone is the boss of the 300 villagers inside the village.

THE DAY BEFORE THE LOTTERY / JUNE 26

Mr. Graves was startled by a loud knock at his door way too early in the morning for him.

"Hello anybody home"?

"Are you in there"?

A man yelled from outside.

Maybe if I stay in the bed he'll just go away, said Mr. Graves. Seconds later there was another knock but this time it was much louder and harder than the first. Sluggishly Mr. Graves pulls himself out of bed, walks down the hallway to find out why in the hell is this idiot of a person knocking on his door so loud.

As he goes to open the door he notices that there are three well-dressed professional young men wearing suits and ties.

Now Mr. Graves really starts thinking to himself as he begins to wonder what is so damn important at six in the morning.

Mr. Graves rudely answers the door with an ugly attitude asking the three men. "How may I help you this morning?".

The three men introduced themselves by stating that they were the Knocks, and were there to do business about some deeds.

Mr. Graves let them in and started roasting a pot of coffee.

"So how long are you boys in town" stated Mr. Graves.

"Not long," one of them replies.

"Well you know every year on June 27 we hold a town lottery", said Mr. Graves being the condescending postmaster that he is, and "every year we hold a town celebration, I reckon that you boys gonna come by so I can show y'all young guns how us westerns really party. Cowboy style you know".

The three men Mr. Graves is talking to are some highly important businessmen far back east, in a village that is large and popular with eight-hundred people.

The three businessmen are brothers who sell and buy property deeds to open and run different types of businesses.

Their father Sir. William Knocks is a respectable successful businessman who owns just about seventy-five percent of the village businesses.

Jim Knocks was the oldest and smartest out of the brothers, standing at a height of six-two, perfectly built, dark shiny color skin and a freshly cut goatee.

"So how do we know if we can trust you, we're only here for two days looking to buy a few deeds and… Ahh I don't know, maybe check to see if this business opportunity pans out". Reported Jim Knocks.

"Business opportunity you say" quickly flew out of Mr. Graves mouth.

"Yea that's right" Jim stated.

"Well if it's business you're looking for then I am your man. See I'm the postmaster of this village and nothing goes-on in this village unless I say".

"So how much are you talking about?" asked Jim.

"Hold up", Zack Knocks interrupted...

"Just who in the bloody hell do he think he's talking to". Zack yelled.

Zack Knocks is the youngest brother but the toughest Zack was Angry, pacing back and forth red in the face yelling something about the statues of the Knocks family.

"Go ahead, curse, scream, yell, ahh hell bust a nut if u want to, why should I care. As a matter of fact I don't give a shit about your daddy, and I definitely don't give a shit about yall college snoot nose punks, I own this village and all the 300 people in it".

"Hell I'm the king, the emperor and god almighty all in one, you got that boy" said Mr. Graves.

"Ah what time did you say that lottery thing is tonight Mr. Graves", stated Porter Knocks.

Porter Knocks happens to be the middle brother, and is known to be the most logical and practical one out of the three brothers.

"I see we all got off to a wrong start, how bout we join in on tonight's fun festive. It sounds like fun. We never attended a lottery back home. What is a lottery by the way"? asked Porter Knocks.

"No not tonight the lottery is tomorrow, today's the twenty-six and I'm dreading every minute. I have been looking forward to this lottery for a year now. Yep it's gonna be a good one" said Mr. Graves.

Getting up from the chair he was sitting on full of excitement.

"The lottery drawings are at ten o'clock sharp, but trust me you might want to get there early to get a great seat". Mr. Graves spoke.

Porter stood up, shook Mr. Graves' hand and slightly bowed his head promising to go to the town's lottery tomorrow.

Mr. Graves turns Zack's way just staring at him for a full minute then mumbles the word jackass under his breath.

"Excuse me. what did you just say". Asked Zack.

Mr. Graves shakes his head and answers "oh nothing I just asked if you boys would like to be entered into the lottery tomorrow, hay the merrier. I heard there's gonna be more than one winner this year, this should be interesting".

Before Zack could even reply Jim interrupts him by asking Mr. Graves if they could get three Tickets for the village's yearly lottery.

Mr. Graves devilishly smiles, turns quickly then races into the bedroom to scour up three extra lottery tickets.

In the bedroom Mr. Graves's heart was racing very fast, a tingling sensation of nerves twitched throughout his entire body just envisioning tomorrow's lottery of extreme torture, retribution and humiliation.

Mr. Graves chuckles, grabs the tickets, shuts the bedroom door behind him then scurries back into the barn to give Jim the tickets.

The three business men were waiting patiently when Mr. Graves returns, he hands Jim the tickets and tells them that they all have been entered into the drawing and their names will be added to a slit of paper and placed into the village's old black tradition box.

"Well I hate to spoil the surprise, so I'm just gonna let you boys find out tomorrow. Take my word for it, it's to die for". Mr. Graves says maliciously.

"Have you ever won?" Zack spoke with authority and attitude.

"You got a problem with me boy" interjected Mr Graves.

Zack had a little smirk now and crossed his arms, clearly stating" yes I do, my problem is how you can get a fifty percent cut out of our money, our business and our hard work just because you are the damn Postmaster.

I demand we be treated fairly around here or you will live to regret it, I promise you that". Zack Knocks hollered.

An abrupt laughter came from Mr Graves, while he replied ordering Zack to "shut the hell up" coming from a harsh tone.

Mr. Graves bent towards Zack's ear and calmly told him" it's either fifty percent or a hundred percent you pick." "Now I reckon that you boys don't have any more concerns or problems about my fifty percent now do you". Mr. Graves stated harshly to the Knock's brothers.

The three brothers shook their heads no.

Mr. Graves replies, "Good I say, you boys are a long way from home I wouldn't want anything to happen to one of you, if not all of you".

The three men began leaving the barn, while upon leaving Mr Graves yelled to them saying "the lottery starts tomorrow at ten o'clock sharp, y’all don't wanna miss it, you here".

LOTTERY DAY JUNE 27

The Knock brothers arrived at the village traditional gathering hall by nine o clock, they wanted to get there early remembering Mr. Graves told them to be there early to get a good seat.

Bill Hutchinson, one of the villagers, was setting up the gathering hall and noticed the three men, he walked towards them with an astonished look on his face.

As he reaches the brothers he introduces himself as Bill Hutchinson.

Jim Knocks stares at Bill and states "you're the man we're here to do business with, our father is Sir William Knocks.

"Ah yes, well now's not a good time, you see I really want to do business but today is our yearly gathering and plus like I told your father the village postmaster won't let me sell". Says Bill.

"We already took care of that, we had a talk with Mr. Graves yesterday". Replied Jim.

"you did". Ask Bill.

"yeah we did". Jim interject's.

"Well great, I just wish you guys would have come a few days earlier, hopefully everything works out o.k." Bill Hutchinson stated.

"It will," Jim replied.

The village church bell rang loudly at ten o clock, the whole village now is in The gathering hall talking among themselves.

Mr. Graves walks on stage, clears his throat and speaks into the microphone.

He started the village yearly lottery with the traditional song, followed by the traditional prayer.

"Now lets get to the fun, the lottery" stated Mr Graves. He reached his hand inside the traditional box and grabbed two slits of paper.

Mr. Graves' eyes lit up and returned back to the microphone and told the village that in this year's lottery the village will have two winners.

The village looked amazed.

Mr. Graves continued while laughing and reading the names Tess Hutchinson and Zack Knocks.

"Kill em" screams Mr. Graves.

The hall roars and turns towards Bill Hutchinson and his wife Tess Hutchinson. Tess' son picks up a rock and throws it at her head. Bill turns to his left, looks at Tess, saying sorry and hits her across the head with a boulder.

Tess laid there dead, blood oozing out her body. The brothers looked terrified, backing away trying to leave.

Mr. Graves yells over the microphone "get them, they're getting away". The villagers turned towards the Knock brothers and rushed to get them.

The Knock brother screamed, turning to run. Mr. Graves smiled watching everything saying to himself this is the best time of year...

THE END…

WRITTEN BY:

MICHAEL ANTHONY NEIL JR.