"Say, now, just hold on a second," said Ernie, pulling hard at his chin. "Seems to me there was somethin' here for you. Out back. A box. Just a second now." He rushed off to a door at the end of the counter and reappeared a few seconds later carrying a large cardboard box, which he placed on the counter in front of Josh. He tore off a strip of paper that was taped to the top and read it: "Josh Wright. I believe this is for you."

It was the same size as the boxes that Ned had brought on his visits. Josh lifted one of the flaps and saw the glossy cover of a comic book. Inside, there were four more comics, a box of book matches, a bag of flour, cornmeal — all the things that Ned used to bring for him — placed tightly, carefully, in the box.

"I was gonna drive this out to you this week," said Ernie. "Had no chance so far, with just takin' over the store, gettin' settled into things. Hope you didn't need any of that stuff too urgent." He thought a moment, and added: "Ned an' your daddy were pretty close friends."

"They was," said Josh, shifting his eyes down the counter. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at a clear plastic container with coins and a few bills in it. A small, black and white picture attached to the top showed two children who looked as though they were in pain.

"Oh, that's a donation box for muscular dystrophy victims."

"Donation?"

"Sure, like the one out to the junction, sort of."

Josh looked at the coin still tucked in his left hand. He picked it up with his right hand and dropped it into the slot of the plastic box. The nickel landed with a clink and settled in its place among the other coins.

"Say, Josh," said Ernie, "things are usually pretty slow 'round here this time of day, an' I wouldn't mind a break from the store. How 'bout if I drive you home. It's a long walk to the junction an' it looks to be another scorcher today."

Josh accepted the offer, and Ernie, untying his smock, said: "Fine. Let's head out there right now." He hung the smock on a nail and took two bottles of orange pop from the cooler. "These'll take some of the bite out of the heat on our way there. You want to grab onto your box of goodies?"

As they pulled away from the store in Ernie's green van, Josh fingered the key that hung from his neck. He was grateful for the ride home as he listened to Ernie talking about the store. He wondered if Ernie played checkers. But most of all, he was glad that he would be home soon to open the weathered old box by the road and gaze into its splendid emptiness.

Biff Mitchell (in his own words)

I live somewhere close to the edge of civilization, and I've been twenty-nine for more years than I can remember. Somewhere in those years I was married and divorced, had children, went to college, survived the 60's (barely), survived five years of government work, and worked at just about every type of writing there is, including journalism, business writing, advertising writing, public relations writing, marketing writing, technical writing, fiction writing, educational writing, poetry writing and lots of resume writing.

I've been working in the IT industry for the last 15 or so years and my novel, Team Player, was inspired by the insanity of working in an industry that is still in its infancy, but on which everybody is pinning their hopes for the future. Personally, I think we'd be better off forgetting about making computers smarter, and try for a change to make people smarter.

The work that was most helpful in terms of my writing themes was the six years I worked as a bartender/bouncer in one of the roughest bars in the area. I met people at their best, at their worst, and at all those picky areas in between. In terms of the mechanics of writing: definitely the three years of copywriting for a radio station - getting as much as possible into thirty seconds without making it sound rushed.

I've had three novels published: Heavy Load (A laundromance) (Jacobyte Books), Team Player (Jacobyte Books, to be republished late 2004 or early 2005 by Double Dragon Publishing) and The War Bug (Double Dragon Publishing).

I had a book of short stories, Clearings, published by ShortStuffBooks in Arkansas. The book received a four-star review the same day the publisher announced she was closing shop. Too bad, ShortStuff was about a year shy of what many ebook companies are doing now — making short works available for busy people for a buck or less a read. An expanded version of Clearings is now available as a free download at my web site and at Memoware.com.

I've had two novellas published by Echelon Press, Smoke Break (about a man trying to explain to a giant spider what it means to be human) and The Baton (about a serial killer who kills people he deems to be assholes and then comes face-to-face the ultimate effect this has on himself).

I'm about sixty pages into my fourth novel. It's a satirical mystery set in the fast food industry about fifty years in the future. It's my only novel to date set in Canada, which is a country just north of Maine where you can marry somebody of the same sex, pay the highest taxes in the world, and be smug about your beer being stronger as you sip on your Corona.

I also have a book of poetry and several short stories available free on my web site (www.biffmitchell.com) and at Memoware.com (in palm formats).