“Ex-lax, come here! Come here, Ex-lax.”
Not everyone would name their dog Ex-lax. But Jimmy Bob Delray wasn’t everyone. Far from it. His ex-wife Becky Lou called him, “the most difficult man on the planet earth.” It was probably an exaggeration. Becky Lou was a drama queen afterall.
Jimmy Bob broke off a piece of his beef jerky and gave it to Ex-lax. The brown, scruffy terrier cocked his head as if wondering when he would get another piece of the prefabricated meat treat. “Not unless you fetch me a beer.” Ex-lax turned and walked over to the couch. He jumped up on it and curled up and went to sleep. Even a dog named after a laxative had to have some pride.
Jimmy Bob Delray was a renaissance man. Too busy to work, he dabbled in the finer things in life. He could play a mean guitar and write incredible music. He was an excellent acrylic and watercolor painter. He spoke three languages and used to read voraciously. His poetry was the finest around. There was a bright, creative light that burned in his heart. But like the servant who buried his talents, Jimmy didn’t allow anyone else to see what was inside of him. Somewhere along the way, though, that creative light and had burned out.
His neighbors thought Jimmy Bob was a loser. Jimmy Bob could care less what his neighbors thought. He liked his beer. And he loved his dog.
Jimmy Bob once went to a fancy school for the arts in New York. He was, what his teachers called, a child prodigy. But something went wrong along the way. Like a massive hungry boa constrictor choking its prey, fear slithered into Jimmy Bob’s brain and asphyxiated his dreams. When he was 18, he dropped out and lived on the streets. He’d play guitar street corner and make enough to survive. The New York winters were cold. Jimmy Bob turning his back on his talent was even colder.
So Jimmy Bob came home. He packed his guitar, his few remaining things and bought a bus ticket to Mississippi Delta. When he arrived in the town of Greenwood, he picked up a copy of The Greenwood Commonwealth newspaper and saw an add for an old hunting trailer. He bought it and leased a few acres of land. Ex-lax was a stray Jimmy Bob found running along Highway 49 one fateful Tuesday afternoon. He met Becky Lou while working at the convenience store. Becky Lou saw something in Jimmy Bob and Jimmy Bob loved the plump cashier from Belzoni. But whatever Becky Lou saw in Jimmy Bob, Jimmy Bob wasn’t giving up enough of it to her. He came in from the bar one night and found trailer empty except for Ex-lax and his bowl.
But like the Honeybadger, Jimmy Bob didn’t care.
Jimmy Bob rubbed his gray whiskers on his chin. He graying way too early for a man of his age. He stumbled over to the fridge to snag a mid-morning beer.
He turned around to see an old man wearing white sitting on the couch next to Ex-lax. “Fine dog you have here, son.”
Jimmy Bob scrambled for the kitchen drawer to get his pistol.
“No need for guns, boy. I mean you no harm.”
“Who are you?”
“Oh, you can say, ‘a friend’ if you’d like.”
“I don’t like.”
“Jimmy Bob, I’m here to see what you’ve done with the talents I’ve given you.”
Jimmy Bob’s suspicion that a crazy guy was in his trailer was burning red hot in his mind. “Who are you again?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am. Or what I am. What matters is what you’re doing with your talents.”
“Becky Lou sent you. She wants more alimony.”
“Becky Lou,” the man sighed, “wanted what everyone wants. She wants you to live up to your potential.”
Ex-lax crawled up into the old man’s lap. The old man pulled a pack of bones out of his robe’s pocket and fed the little dog.
The old man then pulled a dusty book out of his other pocket and began to read.
“But his master answered, ‘Evil and lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I didn’t sow and gather where I didn’t scatter? 27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received my money back with interest! 28 Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. 29 For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’”
“Gnashing of teeth? Kind of harsh isn’t it?”
The old man looked at Jimmy Bob and said, ” Not using your talent is a pretty harsh, too, son. And a sin. The Parable of the Talents makes that pretty clear. You have been given incredible gifts. Your mind is as fertile as the Delta soil. But all that grown on it are weeds. Are you afraid of success? Of failure? Because whatever you’re afraid of, it is choking your life.”
Billy Bob opened the beer and took a long swig. Talking to some nut in a trailer wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time. “Um, ok. I get it. Now you can stay and watch the Mississippi State game or toodle on now.”
The old man’s face turned red with anger. He clapped his hands and the sky around the trailer went pitch black. Lightning struck the oak trees that shaded the trailer, causing luminescent fireballs to light the inside of the room. “Don’t be ungrateful of your gifts, son.”
Jimmy Bob Delray took a look at the can of beer in his hand and poured it out on the green shag carpet. “OK, you have my attention.”
The old man set Ex-lax to the side of the couch and stood up. He walked over to Jimmy Bob and put his hands on his shoulders. Jimmy Bob felt a warmth that was indescribable. “Use your art for good, Jimmy Bob. Give others what they need and you will be given what you need.”
Jimmy Bob, feeling peace he had not felt in his 44 years, looked at the strange old man and said all he could say, “Yes, sir.”
The Delta had never seen a more giving artist. Jimmy Bob lived to give. He donated paintings to the local library. He played at the local nursing homes. He painted a mural on the side of a building in downtown Greenwood. He read his poetry at the local diner and even was published in the statewide literary magazine. His dog Ex-lax became a local celebrity when he had a small part in a movie being filmed in town. Jimmy Bob turned his heart inside out and gave and gave and gave.
One day, Jimmy Bob was walking back up to his trailer when he noticed the old man was back on his porch. “Hello there, old man. Any more parlor tricks today?” Ex-lax was sitting in the old man’s lap wagging his tail.
The old man smiled and said to Jimmy Bob, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.”
Jimmy Bob and the old man laughed as Ex-lax barked loud enough to be heard in Jackson.
And on that hot Delta day, a Mississippi legend was born.
I feel like a father awaiting a new child. My newest book, Fried Chicken & Wine is about to hit the press and will ship on November 2nd. I’ll get lots of boxes a few days after that. And the books will be officially on sale.
