Cigars for Sawyer, Page 2

  ***

  "Did you know him?" I said.

  "No, but I've heard of him for sure," he said as he finally put his brief case on the desk, and paused to look me in the eye. "Why?"

  I rolled the tobacco box over. "It's just that he was a thoughtful man," I said weighing the gift in my hands. "I'm just wondering why he would give me this."

  "I take it, then, that you're not a smoker" he said with a smirk. When I didn't laugh he continued. "Look, Ben, I don't know. I'm sorry. Perhaps a look inside will tell you more." He patted me on the shoulder, grabbed his brief case, and with a slight limp left the room.

  I sat down on his leather chair, placed the collector's box on top of the great big desk, and stared at it a while. It had never been opened. There was a great big wax seal on the side of the box with his initials embossed. Chuck was always doing oddities like that - using wax seals in a day and age where you could wipe clean the slighted thought. I chuckled at his memory, but couldn't bring myself to open it.