NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Lark Bunlush’s umbrella is dripping rain water on the floor at the Elegant Ostrich Gift Shop. She has folded her huge colorful golf umbrella into its spiral with one yellow segment flapping. A small pool is spreading on the black and white tiles.
Lark is looking at Thanksgiving paraphernalia. She examines a life size orange cardboard turkey carved out of many laminated pieces. I walk over to her.
“How are you going to cook it?”
“Hi Fred…I think we’ll serve it as ‘Papier tartare’!”
There is a scuffle, and I hear an angry whisper.
“Muon get back here, you naughty boy!”
A small white dog, with terrier tendencies to take the initiative, is sampling the water under her still dripping umbrella. Muon has slipped his leash. He finishes with the puddle, bumps the bottom of the umbrella with his nose, and zooms around the displays to the back. The rhythmic click of his claws on the checkerboard floor is interrupted as he makes a sharp turn at the cash desk in the back and skids. The sales clerk seems happy to see him.
“Oh Muon! Hi Sweetie!”
One of the del Sarto twins picks him up and stands behind the counter with him. Muon struggles out of her arms and lands on the counter. She pets him and picks him up again. He settles, licking the side of her face.
I browse around the center display to the other side, leaving Lark contemplating the paper bird. There is Nadia Brazov, in her fitted red leather jacket with shiny silver zip running diagonally across the swell of her chest. She is looking at one of Rosalba’s portrait miniatures.
“Werner, darling, here is a portrait artist offering to do commissions. Shall we get one done?”
Werner is in the back. Nadia looks up and sees me, instead of Werner.
“Oh, excuse me!”
Werner is chatting with the young woman behind the counter.
“How are you doing Maria?”
“Oh, pretty good, I guess.”
“You, have quite an armful there.”
“Oh! he is so cute! Can I keep him Werner?”
“Ask Nadia.”
“Where is Meson?”
“He is at the groomer.”
“NADIA! Can I keep your dog?”
She doesn’t respond.
“Nadia is shopping. You can’t get through.”
“I know.”
She is not going to give him up you know.”
“Oh, I guess not.”
“Well, last time we talked, you had an office job…an intern or something.”
“I know, Andrea is still there but it was too boring…I like this better…you know, cute dogs and lots of people to meet.”
“So, you are having fun, huh?”
“And, I am getting paid. That intern thing sucks, you know, no money.”
“Yeah, that’s how it works. You are supposed to learn from the experience…
and something for your resume!”
“Yeah, right. I thought Lou was going to get us paid, but it didn’t work out.”
“I don’t think interns do get paid, not usually anyway.”
“Yeah, too bad… There was a creepy guy there too.”
“What do you mean?”
“He kept standing too close, you know Werner, and asking stuff.”
“Ah ha, I get the picture.”
“Like when he gave me some stuff to copy and the back of his hand kind of bumped my chest…I mean it wasn’t an accident. That was my last day!”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“Yeah, my sister… He kind of had a reputation at the office… and some friends…you know… …we were talking about creeps.”
“Well, you sound like you can deal with it.”
“Oh god! I shouldn’t be talking about it in front of everyone…but it really pissed me off!”
“Sure, Maria. I have known you two since you were little kids. I mean I am really sorry to hear it. You ought to talk to Lou, you know.”
“Well, maybe…I don’t know.”
“Okay, here, give me that dog, and I’ll get the leash back on him.”
Werner picks him up and carries him back to Nadia. They put his collar back on and affix the leash. I look around the center display to find a suitable gift.
A loud male voice calls from behind me.
“Lark! Lark! Hey! Come here…”
Lark has left the store. I can see her through the window wall, huge umbrella, with brilliant colored panels twirling, purple, white, yellow, green, and blue, with two thin legs beneath, crossing the parking lot under the thickening deluge. Werner Plank opens the door and shouts into the downpour for Lark. He steps out.
Nadia walks over to the door with Muon resisting, tugging hard on his leash, trying to go in the opposite direction, back to Maria. Nadia reaches out and calls Werner back in. Muon starts barking.
“You are going to get soaked darling!”
Werner steps back in.
“Shut up whitey!”
“Don’t be so rude!”
“The dog doesn’t know!”
Muon’s tail is wagging fast and he is standing back from, facing Werner, keeping up his constant bark.
Nadia bends down to pick him up and the straps of her hand bag slide down her arm.
Muon seizes one of the red straps in his mouth. She picks him up.
“Hush Muon, hush!”
“That peace of leather ought to keep him quiet. Nice and chewy! Huh big guy!”
Werner stands next to them petting Muon’s head with a wet hand and soggy sleeve.
“Darling don’t you have any doggy treats?”
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Dearest, check your pockets before he ruins my bag!”
Werner stuffs his hands into the pockets of his brown fleece jacket and pulls out a scrunched up five-dollar bill. He offers it to Muon, who ignores it.
“Oh, come on dear, you know he doesn’t eat paper.”
“No but it might distract him.”
“Oh! darling you are so helpless! Would you be a dear, and look in my bag for a treat.
I don’t have a free hand.”
“Are you kidding me? Look in there?”
Werner opens Nadia’s bag as it hangs from her forearm, under the dog. He pulls the free strap away while Muon pulls back on his strap growling quietly. Werner rummages through the contents.
“Excuse me please.”
Maria steps past between me and the display case.
“Nadia! Nadia! Here’s a treat for Muon.”
She offers it, but Muon doesn’t let go. He just looks at it.
Werner closes the purse and watches Muon.
“Well, make a decision buddy!”
Maria picks up Muon’s forepaw paw which makes him bark, and then she grabs the strap from him and gives him a bone shaped treat.
“Oh, clever girl!”
Nadia pulls her handbag straps up to her elbow, out of reach.
“He hates any one to touch his paws.”
“I know, it works every time.”
“You have a customer waiting.”
A short stocky man in tweed cap standing at the cash desk looks around as Maria hurries over.
Werner turns to me.
“Hi Fred, have you met Nadia?”
Nadia looks at me again.
“Oh! how do you do? Please excuse me just now!”
“Of course.”
Werner steps closer to me with his back to Nadia, as if looking out the window behind me.
He speaks softly close to my ear.
“Fred, did you see that guy who just went out?”
“I noticed his cap, that’s about all.”
”Okay, something about him…”
“He sure left in a hurry. I wonder if he paid.”
“Darling, come over here, and look at this little portrait.”
Nadia comes over and tugs on his arm.
“Excuse me Fred darling.”
He resists, and she lets go. She is drawn back to the small painting.
“Did you come in with Lark?”
“No, I bumped into her manhandling a paper turkey over there, by the window.”
“I mean, how is she doing?”
“Okay, I guess.”
“Well, we had to get over to Bulgaria in a hurry. Something about the divorce from Brazov. You know…I know it wasn’t right for Lark…”
“No, she was very shaken.”
“Well, any way Nadia’s marriage broke up the day after they got married in London, and it has taken a while for her to get out of it…I mean it just wasn’t safe for her after she walked out.”
Werner steps away, unzips his SnazE jacket to get out his phone, and walks back over by the door.
Nadia comes over to me with a bright yellow card in her hand.
“How do you like this Fred, darling?”
She shows me the card with a photo of an enormously fat bulldog sitting in a luxurious wine-red wingback chair next to a small white kitten lying on one arm.
“Quite a contrast! What does it say inside?”
“Oh, it’s blank my dear, I shall write something later.”
She walks back to the rack of greeting cards and picks out another.
Tries to turn the display rack, which has jammed.
“Werner, where are you?”
“Here, right here. He has put his phone away and steps to her side.
“Can you fix this thing darling?”
“Oh maybe, but let me get the boss.”
He walks back to Maria leaving Nadia bending over to look for the obstruction at the bottom of the mechanism.
Maria comes over, and starts petting Muon.
“Muon, honey, can you fix it sweetie?”
“Dearest girl, that dog can’t possibly do the repair.”
Nadia has straightened up with Muon in her arms and her bag out of his reach. She keeps a firm hold on Muon, as he struggles to get down on the floor, where Maria is examining the base of the greeting card rack.
“Thank you dear. Can you fix it?”
Maria gets up and pulls the whole thing away from the wall revealing an extension cord caught in it half way up.
“What’s that doing there?”
“Nadia, we are getting setup for Christmas, you know, it will be for the lights.”
“Christmas already? Darling, it isn’t Thanksgiving yet.”
“I know.”
Werner is on the phone again by the door. Maria is distracted, petting Muon.
“Do put this rack back my dear, so I can finish looking.”
Maria, still cooing at Muon, gets the rack back in place.
Werner and Nadia come behind me as I wait to pay Maria for a greeting card.
Muon sniffs my shoes and bumps my ankles with his nose.
“Are you trying to call that woman dear?”
“You mean Lark?”
“You know perfectly well darling.”
Werner puts his phone away.
“No, Meson is ready for pickup.”
