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"Because I’m cuddly?"
"Because Pooh’s head is full of stuffin’"
Our life together isn’t always a New Wave Abbott and Costello rou­tine Sometimes she’s Rocky and I’m Bullwinkle
I went to the counter in Burke &Bailey’s and said, "I need so hot and sweet"
"We specialize in cold," Storood I’ll bring you soh busy, the parlor offered a few empty tables; however, Stormy prefers not to chat on the premises She is an object of
fascination for soive theossip
I understand precisely how they feel about her She’s an object of fascination for me, too
Therefore I stepped out of Burke & Bailey’s, into the public prome­nade, and sat with the fish
Retail sales and theater have joined forces in America: Movies are full of product placened with drama in mind At one end of Green Moon Mall, a forty-foot waterfall tumbled down a cliff of th of the building, over a series of di spree, if you realized that you had bankrupted yourself in Nordstro yourself into this water feature and drown
Outside Burke &Bailey’s, the stream ended in a tropical pond sur­rounded by palm trees and lush ferns Great care had been taken to nette look real Faint recorded bird calls echoed hauntingly through the greenery
Except for the lack of enor in death throes, poisonous vipers as thick astheir own feet, you would have sworn you were in the Ahtly colored koi Many were large enough to serve as a hearty dinner According to the h as four thousand dollars each; tasty or not, they weren’t within everyone’s grocery budget
I sat on a bench with my back to the koi, unimpressed by their flashy fins and precious scales
In five minutes, Stormy came out of Burke & Bailey’s with two cones of ice crea her walk toward me
Her uniform included pink shoes, white socks, a hot-pink skirt, a
pink-and-white blouse, and a perky pink cap With her Mediterranean complexion, jet-black hair, and ent who had gone undercover as a hospital candy striper
Sensing hts, as usual, she sat beside me on the bench and said, "When I have my own shop, the employees wont have to wear stupid uniforet"
Storave one of the cones toshoppers stroll past, enjoying our ice crearease," she said, "I can still sht"
"Maybe one day when I have ether and smell the same"
"The ice-creauess it’s true," she said
"What?"
"Opposites attract"
"Is this the new flavor came in last week?" I asked
"Yeah"
"Cherry chocolate coconut chunk?"
"Coconut cherry chocolate chunk," she corrected "You’ve got to get the proper adjective in front of chunk or you’re screwed"
"I didn’t realize the graid"
"Describe it your way, and so and then ask for their money back because there weren’t chunks of coconut in it And don’t ever call ain Pup­pies are adorable"
"As you were coht you looked sultry"
"The s for you would be to stay away froether"
"Good ice cream," I said "Is this the first taste you’ve had?"
"Everyone’s been raving about it But I didn’t want to rush the ex­perience"
"Delayed gratification"
"Yeah, it , and eet and creamy can turn sour"
"Move over Socrates Odd Thomas takes the podiuun to crack I changed the subject "Sitting with my back to all those koi creeps ?" she asked
"They’re too flashy for fish I don’t trust thelanced over her shoulder, at the pond, then turned her atten­tion once "
"How can you tell?"
"The only thing fish ever do is eat, excrete, and fornicate"
"The good life"
"They excrete in the same water where they eat, and they eat in the se"
"I never thought so until now," I said
"How’d you get out here?"
"Terri’s Mustang"
"You beenfor sous Man "This is where ht me"