said object

Fourth in the “Fish Stories” Series.
Title: Barnum
Owner: Bernard M. Woof
Purchased: At the Hayward Bookshop on Bog Street for $1.25.

Bernard was looking for a misadventure because a real, good adventure seemed too rosy and sunny for his disposition that day. His face was the color of an old worn dishtowel and Larky told him if he didn’t leave the house at once and get some good industrial air, she would roll him up in the old Turkoman and send him off on a steamer to the South. So, he trod down …

What is it about ceramic birds that I find so fascinating? Not sure, I just find them soothing and charming, I suppose. They tend to go well with everything surrounding them: books, plants, portraits, whatever. They have to be old–’40s preferably and the color vivid, the shape interesting; a bit soft, meaning no sharp edges  and certainly not new (please no ’70s birds!)

When the girl walked in and sat to be photographed, Herman knew immediately his day was to be miserable–the studio was boiling hot due to his furnace overheating and the girl was mousy and unkempt and sure to photograph terribly. She might as well have been a wet dog that was lugged into from the sea by its owner; wet, smelly and disheveled and loved only for its temperament.

Third in the “Fish Stories” Series.
Title: The Crime in Car 13
Owner: H. Vincent Wright

Purchased: Borrowed from his brother Terrance’s house. Found under the red velvet cushion that Audrey, Terrance’s wife uses to rest her feet.

H. Vincent wasn’t sure if he should read another mystery, after all the last time he ended up shivering in the bathroom, his wife coaxing him out with  a cup of Heather tea. H. Vincent, please I don’t want any more stains on the mattress, she told him when she saw the book. And after you …

Sean Penn rose from his sofa and debated. Debated if he should smoke more or read more of the script a new filmmaker on the scene had sent over. He sighed and read more of the script and disliked it immediately; the part they were offering was of a man hitting middle age who has a breakdown while driving a horse and buggy. The breakdown is the the result of his losing his wife to a flood.