Today I opened The Last Drive randomly to page 207. With eyes closed, I pointed to the page. The word “yelling” was closest to my finger. That is our prompt today.

Yelling by John W. Howell © 2026

“Hey, hey, hey. What’s all the yelling?”

“Jimmy is not playing fair, Coach.”

“Tell me more, John.”

“We are having a game of hide and seek, and Jimmy does a short count.”

“Short count. What’s that?”

“He’s supposed to count to 100 by ones, but he does it by tens.”

“Did you guys state the rules up front?”

“Well, no. Everyone knows the rules, though. The way he counts is like counting to ten.”

“Jimmy is new here. Are you sure everyone knows the rules?”

“Hey Jimmy, do you know the rules?’

“Well, John, back home we always counted by tens.”

“See, John, everyone doesn’t know the rules.”

“Okay, Coach, my mistake. Tell me this, Jimmy, why do you count by tens?”

“All the kids I played with are very fast, so if we counted by ones, they would be miles away.”

“Fast? Who is faster than crows?”

“That’s just it. In the desert, all the guys are roadrunners. They are super fast.”

“You had no crows to play with?”

“None, Coach.”

“How about we count by ones. Is that okay, John? ”

“Sure. I can do that.”

“Okay, kids, back to playing.