Calliope Contemplates, Throntle Intimidates
It was very cold last night, leaves and grass hidden in shade crunch a bit in their Indian Winter blanket. Our Overseas weather supplier is shipping early to avoid the holiday rush. Yup, cold to the bone. Followed by rain, rinse, and repeat with clear evening skies. This is fine, handcrafted early winter. Kudo’s to our Overseas supplier: we wish you could have given us the same service with Summer.
I’m sitting with Calliope and Enkidu at Slim’s on a Sunday morning, they are playing Gin Rummy. It’s obvious both are master players. They ask if Southwick wants to play, He replies: “I’m not so good: I keep losing track of why I need to win."– Sometimes I think that SouthwickisGin Rummy, he seems to get away with it, though.
Calliope thumbs through her book of Naval Contemplations, and says “The five questions you always need to ask before you step into the field:”
- Why should I win?
- Do I want to play?
- Do I have to play?
- How do I play?
- What are the rules?
(Thanks Calliope! Respect and Reason to you.)
> Southwick has gotten the low-down on the giant amoeba thing at the Food Carts — (Author’s note: It’s Southwick and Sandy with the fabulous break in this story.> This pisses me off, cause now I’ll owe them more favors for stringing me these things> . Hell, I can’t make this stuff up as fast as Southwick and Sandy can come up with the real poop. )
> Sandy has first hand information on these grossly deformed blobs. As if a blob could be deformed. According to Sandy it’s Gospel. (Sandy is very observant — even a detail like shapelessness does not escape his bleary eye.)
> Southwick has been eating mountains of salt with Sandy: Says it has something to do with Street Cred. I think it has more to do with training for the upchucking contests at the Hope for Health bar. In any event, Southwick is following Sandy’s every twitch. He also mentions that salt takes the edge off Sandy’s breath. It’s now a blunt weapon.
> This is all good news for Southwick: his> Paper Plate Wash> at the Food Carts was a business disaster in the Portland rain, so he decided to “get real” and find out from the grass roots. And Sandy roots like a hog. He has a complete image of the contents of every trashcan in St. John’s and how it all got there.
> Sandy says: “It’s true, Tommy stops at the Rent-a-Storage across from the Food Carts and pulls out a bunch of these five foot nasties and leaves them there at 4AM. Nobrow comes by like the Pied Piper leading Throntle and the other hookers. These street ladies quickly intimidate the bejesus out of the Amoebas (“What are YOU looking at… Hell no, I’m not washing it, It’s good enough as it is… Hey, blobby, you got a light?” ) The blobs quickly scatter and the hookers move on, muttering about how these amoebas are such dickless wads.
> Who would have thought it? Hookers keeping St. John’s free from Amoebas! Tommy won’t confront Nobrow’s army; he knows the hookers would tell all their secrets — Like Tommy sleeps with an anatomically correct rubber ducky. And that’s not the worst of it! Southwick now has the complete picture of who, how and why.
But what next? I’m wondering what kind of trick Tommy will come up with?
Todays Story is based on the Tarot reading:
Seven of Pentacles– entrepreneurial spirit connected to earth — well grounded (Connect with the people who know, in this case Sandy)
The Lovers VI- intimacy — know your subject thoroughly (Southwick even pukes in sync with Sandy)
Temperance XIV— Emotional balance and clarity. — Key to getting results: you make decisions adaptively, with care and balance, staying on the path to your goal. (It’s hard to imagine that Southwick really believes Sandy, but hey, at the St. John’s Lighthouse it just might be true, and that’s good enough for this story!)