Page 51 of The Leaves In Autumn
Sam smiles confidently. Too confidently.
“Willing to put money on it?”
Van looks at me and I chuckle with the knowledge these kids are out of their depth. The Lyon boys have years of fucking around experience. I start low.
“How about a twenty?”
“How about a hundred?”
I do not answer. Instead, I accept with action.
“Deal! Go!”
The element of surprise is always how you start. Puts the opponent in an inferior position right away. Ha! Speed isn’t going to be the winning factor here. It’s the ability to surprise the opponent. The extra second gives me time to swerve in front and cut them off. It works beautifully. Their brakes slam, the cart tilts, and some clubs fall out. They regroup and come at us again, Teddy tries to steady his camera.
“Shit, Sam!!”
I holler a sarcastic message. “You want another lesson from the men, boys?”
My brother is loving every minute of our Indy 500 and flips them off for the hell of it.
This time, my superior driving skills are not what keeps us ahead. Their cart slows to a stall, and they end up leaning precariously over a bubbling fountain on the edge of the path. If the cart falls, it would be an anticlimactic Humpty Dumpty finish. For them anyway. We would laugh our asses off.
“That will be one hundred dollars,” I say, driving around them in continuous circles.
“We take cash only.”
The cell gets returned to Teddy’s pocket. Guess the TikTok filming is over.
“No way! Our cart died! We never finished the race!”
“Waa waa,” Van makes his crying baby sound. “Need a whambulance?”
“You finished alright. Just behind us.”
“Yeah, too bad you made some bad moves. And besides, you were up against the Lyon brothers. You lost before you started. Just didn’t know it.”
“Bye bye now!”
Slowly, I take off on the path, leaving Sam and Teddy behind.
“Have a good walk, boys!”
“Hope those clubs aren’t too heavy!”
Van points to the ground and yells over his shoulder.
“Hey! If you’re missing a couple of balls, here they are!”
* * *
All the way to the final hole, and now at the Clubhouse, Van and I have basked in our victory. The story was told in detail, not sparing any of the dialogue. David and Tyler find it particularly funny. Money has nothing to do with the pleasure we got beating the little shits.
It is about knowing age has not withered our will to win. No matter who is in the game with us. I blame the parents who passed the competitive gene to their children. Ours still love beating us. We love beating them. It is one of our love languages.
“You don’t have to pay. Just be more careful when you bet money. Not everyone is going to give you a pass.”
Teddy sets his Coke down. “Thanks, Dad. I don’t really have it. Not a dollar.”
