CUP OF 80 ~ By Paul's Kid, Kate

CUP OF 80

~ By Paul's Kid, Kate

Full of LIFE

and robust 

and making you think

all the more,

all the more.

Warm and strong and when

sitting next to you, 

you always know what proximity like that does to possibilities you brew and perk and pour and stir and sip and think, a little more, a little more.

Look. Remember. Back there. There's a yellow legal pad with ideas all lined up to be activated and crossed off and turned into new ventures. There's a patio that calls your name and brings you on home and you're safe at home, no umpire needed. Kick back. Put your barefeet up on the rail. There are gardens to be viewed up by the big white fence rails at the edge of the acreage ~ heritage grapevines and tomato plants, peppers, strawberries on the sprawl, gladly seen gladiolas and zinnias soon on the scene. Tis all seasons for what's growing and throwing when golf balls or baseballs or pigskins fly. That's when a cup of coffee is more than a cup of coffee. That's when knowing how cheering on gets you by.

It's a gulp and a swallow and a thousand ways I think of my Dad, Paul Pilarcik, best man I know ... turning 80 this day, Yep. "Holy Mackerel Andy," he'd say, (unless he was calling you Mabel - he did that sometimes when he let his spirit go light past how his shoulders could've gone heavy, wondering how five lively kids would turn out or carrying supervisor details of a small empire of where 8'O'Clock coffee is ground ~ you know ~ at the end of the register, in your old local A&P store.), "Seems like only yesterday", his indomitable spirit would boom out . . . "You have a good one!"

Dad told me sensing the worth in another is what you saw and felt through their eyes and how their smile held on, really genuine. It's that genuine most of all that brings about thoughts of Paul. 

Well that, and a cup of coffee.

Happy *80* DAD!

You made my world happen and always showed strength and laughter and where bonds are formed and that people are the best folks to deal with in life. When you find good ones, invite 'em on over to your back patio for a good cup of coffee. I always will Dad, I always will.

Love you Dad,

~ You have a good one today.

~ Your Kate
  ( absolutely )

THE PRINTS AND THE POPPER ~ ~ Epic*sode 14 ~ "A WRINKLE IN TIME" ~ By Absolutely*Kate and Harry B. Sanderford of Harbinger*33

  EXTRA! EXTRA!

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

  
* MURDER*MYSTERY *

* MATINEE *

  
"THE PRINTS

 AND 

THE POPPER"

FROM WHERE WE LEFT OFF

 IN OUR LAST CLIFFHANGER

*AT THE BIJOU*

  

"I read
 the news
 today, 
 oh boy"

Saaaaay - 
CLIFFHANGER CATCHUPS?

> CLICK EPIC*SODES:

    

Epic'sode 13 ~ Lucky For You?

Epic'sode 12 ~ Midnight Cowboy

Epic'sode 11 ~ The Shadow Knows

Epic'sode 10 ~ The Pissing Match

 Epic'sode 9 ~ Chain, Chain, Chain 
Epic'sode 8 ~ Too Cool!

Epic'sode 7 ~ Meet Virginia
Epic'sode 6 ~ I See the Light

Epic'sode 5 ~ Lucky Shot
Epic'sode 4 ~ Hi Jinks

Epic'sode 3 ~ Groping Against Grope
Epic'sode 2 ~ The Clot Thickens
  
and the original mystery of it all ~  Epic'sode 1 ~

 THE PRINTS AND THE POPPER

 

 

 ~ ~ EPIC*SODE 14 ~ ~

"A WRINKLE IN TIME"

~ By Absolutely*Kate

and 

Harry B. Sanderford

"I read
 the news
 today,
 oh girl"

 

GABARDINE WRINKLE

IN BIJOU BLOODBATH!

The headline in Sunday's HAZELTOWN HOLLER was the largest typefont-size Max Jenkins had ever been asked to set. His editor was insistent. His editor was adamant. His editor was being a pain in the ass but -- this was a front page holler in the HOLLER and Nancy in the production department liked his idea to drip red ink down between two of the columns. He was going to ooze from the OO's. It was a gonna be a real gripper this dripper, an alarming edition

leading off with - - - 

GABARDINE WRINKLE

IN BIJOU BLOODBATH!

"What a lead off! Why there's a fresh wind blowing the cover off this cover-up! Penelope Payne is one uncanny investigative reporter. Indeed she is. How could it be otherwise? She'd never let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Wait, didn't I try to explain that to Lieutenant Stine -- that was an important clue for what he had to do . . . and all he had to do was save the BIJOU. That's all. Someone should've told Kate before it was too late about what was transpiring behind the scenes. Now it looks like it could be more than red velvet curtains coming down for her too. If only Harry would've listened to my plan, the noose in the news wouldn't be so taut now . . . and now, holy mackerel, now I have all these ethnicity readings to prepare for what is to be taught for the Yale European Summer Studies program so I must leave this Hazeltown Hospital, I must . . . but I wish I would've told Harry where I hid it. Sure as Lincoln, Roosevelt and Horace Mann that man would know what to do with it. That's a clue too. Nurse! Nurse! Can you send someone out for some back issues of The Economist, my discharge papers and will you please substitute a chocolate protein shake for this nutrition-forsaken jello concoction. What's that? More medication? No, no -- I have to talk to Harry about this alarming edition and his cue to the clue -- "

GABARDINE WRINKLE

IN BIJOU BLOODBATH!

Paul Caracas, InterNoir's hot shot hire in Hazeltown had a clue or two where the Payne dame's claim to fame was inking its thinking from. His thoughts rustled back to last night at the Lucky Shot Bar & Billiards almost as many times as he rustled the jump pages of the HAZELTOWN HOLLER's Sunday edition. He'd been outsourced as the unnamed source too many times. Was it wile or guile that let her press pass prowess garner intel from inside his psyche, or did he save face with headquarters by claiming excess Kozel beer and the good stuff the astute barkeep Anthony astutely kept pouring out?

GABARDINE WRINKLE

IN BIJOU BLOODBATH!

"Ooo! Ooo! Ms Payne sure meant what she said when she said to read her byline in the morning HOLLER! There is simply nothing hotter than the HOLLER when a sensation is hung out to dry. Well, can I pour you another cup of coffee while your uniform is getting dry Inspector Phillips? So kind and friendly of you to come by and bring this lovely brioche. How did you ever guess one of my favorites and that I'd certainly enjoy some company while Edgar was out of town covering the Baltimore Ravens training camp? Once again, I'm so very embarrassed for my coffee splash spill when I read the thrill of how clean that profound Ms Payne gives crime its rightful shame. It'll all come out in the wash. Oh, and your uniform will be dry now soon. Would you care to play Scrabble while we wait? -- "

GABARDINE WRINKLE

IN BIJOU BLOODBATH!

Waiting was what Boss Gabardine was doing. For some heads to roll. For some spin to misdirect. For news where this news leaked. For  plugging the leak, and plugging it so's nobody didn't know nothing about it no more. For a fall guy to take the fall. It wouldn't be long now. No, not long at all -- 

GABARDINE WRINKLE

IN BIJOU BLOODBATH!

All alleged drama in a theatre can come true. It can happen AT THE BIJOU. It did. Noted political philanthropist Avery Gould Gabardine named in corruption cover-up. Crime doesn't pay but it certainly buys the best lawyers. A crack legal team is convening counsel currently at the state capital. Missing hometown movie reviewer Frances Jeanette Cheezum's blood prints match the hunch and high agility in fingerprinting detection of BIJOU chief popcorn popper Eddie Cartwright to the B+positive type found in traces of several words scrawled on the BIJOU Ladies room wall. An unnamed source close to this reporter confirms the smear campaign to blur the bloody message. In addition for this edition, the aforementioned high-ranking not mentioned source holds firmly to the theory that Fast Frannie, the artist now known as Jeanette, was an unwilling but not unwitting accomplice in a frenzied frame-up gone foul by BIJOU projectionist Chester Hanks. Unfortunately the voltage went out instead for temporary replacement Sparky Denton in a misplaced hit. STRIKE ONE! 

Chester Hanks remains at large. With the Cheezum whereabouts still unknown, a sizable reward for any news relating to revelation and discovery has been offered by a source close to the lucrative publishing family who wishes to remain anonymous at this time.  

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

                 

The Hazeltown Holler surpassed daily circulation and printed an evening edition for the first time since Nixon was impeached. Chester Hanks nabbed the last one from a paper box outside of Murphy’s Mudcat, a beer joint and bait shop over in the town of Alice where he served his community service polishing a barstool with his back pockets. He ordered another can of Schlitz and smoothed the paper flat on the bar. He read no farther than the news about Sparky Denton and drained his beer in one long swallow. The fat cats that scavenged the ponds around Alice were not the only ones Chester had been angling for. He’d overheard a bit of information concerning Boss Gabardine and that film critic for the HOLLER. Being a man himself, he figured The Boss would rather his wife remained unaware of this particular information. He had also figured the Boss might want to hitch a new Ranger bass boat to the back of his truck. When it came to figuring, Chester’s calculating could be ponderous. Whereas another man might sum up it was time to cut his line, Chester Hook’em Hanks determined it was time to dangle bigger bait.

* C * L * I * F * F * H * A * N * G * E * R * !

* AT THE BIJOU * 

Mosey on over to next Sunday's Matinee

for the next gut-gripping epic'sode!

" The Prints and The Popper "

 (c) 2010 ~ Dashing Duet Authors

  Absolutely*Kate and Harry B. Sanderford

Exclusive  ~ AT THE BIJOU

THE WILL'S THE WAY ~ #Fiction on the Flash

THE WILL'S THE WAY

~ By Absolutely*Kate,

as gleaned from Detective Nelle Callahan

As we look back into our tale of two trenches trudging a tough night, the rain-washed streets are easing some pain-washed minds. So it seems, well, so it seems. It's not always as it seems, as they say. But it seems so here, on this street . . . on this night, doesn't it?

We left off with the telling of  ~ "THE DAMP FEDORA"

Earlier Intro to NELLE appears in ~ "GOT NOIR"? 

 

"Mean streets, Callahan? But aren't mean streets just yesterday's versions of chivalric forests? We all have to travel them. Immerse oneself in the destructive elements and become tougher, finer, more aware of what the world is handing out, dealing down. Sometimes the dealing's dirty. Sometimes it's aces up.  We travel them, the mean streets and bewildering forests to find where we're headed ourselves," reflectively sighed the tall man under a dampened fedora, pausing the tower of his shadow in what light flickered beneath an aging grey lamp post, to pull his deck, light his Lucky. His gaze took all the perimeters in. This was not a streetcorner of optimum desire. "Uh, it is Miss Callahan?"

 
"Interesting take there Mr Harry. You're a tough guy with a lotta learnin' under that soggy fedora. And yes. No miss on Miss. Proud of skirting some slippery slides down some pitfalls in matrimonial affairs. There are collisions that stop your heart and there are long lonesome highway crashes of the bad road variety. Why am I telling you this Buster? You're a guy who's been around, seen his way through forests and mean streets, and seems to be able to string together words with more than two syllables. There are days that's actually remarkable to come across in my line of work. Now, about this finding something you're looking for -- "
 
The 1949 dark DeSoto skidded in the puddle off the curb of the confab of the detective and her new client, a tall man itching, but quietly so, with something to tell, who preferred to be hailed by the moniker of Harry for the time being. No tellin' yet who he really was, how close he carried his story. No time to read those pages right now. An arm which meant business took a shot in the dark to stage a near miss near the Miss. No mistaking that miss. Warnings seldom are. Nelle stepped into the street, stooped low and plucked a slug from a 45 still spinning against the curb as the car spun speedy its getaway. No plates. She'd bet a berry it was a bent car on the lam. Looked like three goons with all the shoulders attached within.

"Friends of yours Callahan?"

"I've made a few along my way. Howzabout you? Anyone know of all the dick joints on all the streets in all the world you were gonna walk into mine tonight?"

"I was possibly pondering that point myself Nelle. I can call you Nelle now, right? We've just had our first share of lead squirt our way. In places like Bolivia that's as bonding as riffling romance. And, could this be our coffee shop?"

"Sure, sure, you got the right to call me Nelle, Wise Guy. Yep. This is it, Hill o'Beans. Best cup o'joe a dark rainy night can brew. You'll see. I like my coffee. Gives me pause to ruminate. You ruminate a lot instead of just bumping gums, don't you Harry?"
 
Albert DeFonse Magrudy heard the little silver bell tinkle yet again above the doorway where he brewed the best beans this town had ever sipped. Despite the drench of trenches creating new rivulets in his tired linoleum under the Hill o'Beans'  coat tree, he smiled up large when he realized it was Nelle. Never a dull encounter when Nelle was at the counter. This fellow with her though - some little tick at the back of his mind told him he'd seen him before. Couldn't place where. Couldn't place when. It'd come to him though. It always did. He ambled over, spiffing up the pale blue apron he favoured as the couple settled into their swivel stools.
  
"What's it all about Albie? World treating you jake?" As soon as she'd shot her customary greeting  to her customary coffee guy, Nelle winced at the stab even saying 'jake' still jabbed. The tall man who'd kept his damp fedora in place noticed. The coffee man with the twinkle to his eye and the jut to his chin noticed the notice.
  
"Same new same new Miss Nelle. Life be what you brew. And you?", with a glance to the fellow still giving him the once over under the soppy brim, "What's it for you Bub?"
  
"Cup o'your strongest and a piece of lemon pie. I like my pie when I take my time to talk to a delicious dame."

Nelle tugged a few tangles of damp tresses out of the back of her collar and mocked a Get-this-guy glance with ol' Albert. Swiveling into the now smug smile of the man still going by the moniker of Harry, she visibly relaxed into the familiar aromas of a fresh brew and an old strain -- Frankie Lane's Mule Train finishing up on the yellow Philco behind the battered counter. A good place to start in ~

"Why the smug smile? What d'you need me to find that a smart fellow like you can't find, that the cops can't find? Huh Harry?"

"Smile's cause I like your style. You don't flinch much. Knowing that comes in handy should I ever need a clear-thinker in a tight spot. You've known tight spots Callahan. You've come through."

"Fair enough. Now, what is it that you've lost or misplaced or cheesed in the wrong nook of the wrong cupboard?"
 

Strong black coffee in white porcelain mugs with a pungent piece of lemon pie on a chipped blue plate slid before the two main attractions at the battered cream counter. Only other customer was that guy in the back booth with the newspaper who'd come in just before these two. Albert slipped back to some sorting of spoons and rattling of forks while he took the jib jab jive of their conversation in. No grifter or button man was going to pull a flimflam on his niece, and that's what this slick bruno seemed. Unless he proved otherwise.

"I didn't lose it. I just can't find it."

"Is it there? Does it exist?"

"I wouldn't have come rapping on your door, Miss Goody Gumshoe and be gulping black coffee with you now -- HEY, THIS IS GOOD -- if I didn't know it was indeed there -- real, true, solid."

"You gonna tell me what it is so's I can find it all the better?" Nelle sipped, watching his eyes. There was something about his eyes. She'd never seen them stay in one place for too long.

"It's a will."

"Will? Duck soup Harry. Eggs in the coffee. No offense Albie. Easy solution to your convolution. You just need to find a lawyer's door for your rapping,  not a detective's."

"I did."

"Why d'you need me then Harry?"

"I went to his office. I found him behind his desk. A Mr Gerald Dunnigan, Esquire. With two holes plugged where his Esquire used to be his yap was closed. This mouthpiece just wasn't talkin' Callahan."

Across the Hill o'Beans Coffee Shoppe, way back in the corner booth, sports pages rustled more than just the news that Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus was shot in Chicago by deranged fan Ruth Ann Steinhagen.

The radio switched to a new tune, Evelyn Knight warbling "A Little Bird Told Me" . . . 

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

 Stay Tuned. 

There'll be more.

 

There's always more
brewing than a Hill o'Beans 

when trouble's on the scene

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

I'm Detective Nelle Callahan.

I've met some of you before and no doubt I'll run a lookover on some of youse when we meet up some dark rendezvous that spooks or sparks a soul. But for now I gotta case -- and a dead guy and something to find, as well as finding out why I should be finding it. I'll keep you posted ... You take care now. Don't take any wooden nickels, hear?

(c) 2010 ~ Author Absolutely*Kate

graced by HippyDream, KAGoldberg and Joel Emberson photos

Earlier Intro to NELLE appears in "GOT NOIR"? 

This case started off with  ~ "THE DAMP FEDORA"

*AT THE BIJOU* 

WRITERS' RAVES FOR READERS' FAVES

"EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED" ~ AT THE BIJOU AS ONE UNDER THE DESERT SUN

"Everything is connected."

                                                ~ Barry J. Northern,

                                                CHASING THE WIND

JOIN IN THE ENERGIES

*AT THE BIJOU*

as fellow authors,
and companions aboard 

HARBINGER*33

herald the finale ~

BARRY J. NORTHERN's
"Chasing the Wind"

Tis the stuff

magick

was made for.

~ Jeanette Cheezum ~

 

~ Anthony Venutolo ~ 
 

~ Absolutely*Kate

  

~ Matthew Magda ~

*AT THE BIJOU*

for Barry's finale.

"Everything   

is connected."

                                               

~ Barry J. Northern,

CHASING THE WIND 

PRELUDE BY CHUMS ~ HARBINGERING BARRY J. NORTHERN'S "CHASING THE WIND"

An Ode to Chasing the Wind

Barry, Aloethar, and Walfrid

strolling/riding through the

winds/sands of time.

Are now near their oasis.

Only time will tell if it’s

Jewels or rocks, Liquid

or sawdust, or

Heaven or hell.

~ By Jeanette Cheezum

 Harbingering . . . Barry J. Northern's mystical desert finale

 ~  CHASING THE WIND  ~

CHANGE OF VENUE

Based on the big cornfed barkeep galoot

from my BIJOU story ...  AN UNLIKELY PARTNER <

I made a bunch of loot helping out some Clyde in my bar back in Naked City. You see, his chick shot a few holes in him and I, protecting my joint, shot a few holes in her.

As a thanks, he threw me half of the take from their big fix on a crooked boxing match. I naturally accepted and thought it was the perfect opportunity to get out of Dodge and set up shop somewhere warm.

I turned to the want ads from my local daily rag and snatched up some cheap land smack dab in the middle of the desert.

But there's a sucker born every minute.

 I thought I was buying 40 acres and a mule in Vegas. I was ready to settle down with palm trees, drinks with umbrellas and a slinky dame on my arm feeding my olives and fanning me with feathers.

Instead, I wound up in this sand trap and this rundown bar filled with all sorts of Green Street hooligans. Apparently some guy Barry  knows them all and I'm gonna have to figure out a way to get him in here so he can calm them all down. Apparently, he's their leader.

I mean, there's only so many times I can un-tilt my pinball machine...

~ By Anthony Venutolo

 Harbingering . . . Barry J. Northern's mystical desert finale

 ~  CHASING THE WIND  ~

THE BIG "O" IN OASIS

 There may have seemed a desert between them as years went by, but across a crowded room on an unexpected Thursday evening, heat still shimmered the way a hovering glaze does above surfaces deemed too hot to touch. He was the one that got away. She knew that, and it bothered her in a place too hard to comfortably scratch beneath a green silk sheath. It bothered her that he'd been the only one to do the walk-out first, to grab his hat from its hook, whistle his happy tune and let the screen door screech a sound effect in the night they'd used to be fond of ~ well, when they were together, when they were the big One.

And here he was, just another badge in a sea of Desert Inn conference attendees until that quirk above his left eye let on that game was on. Comeback time. Her time. Not a chance of a clean getaway tonight. She led off with feigned indifference. When he glided testosterone towards her, shifted his weight, struck his stance, she let her eyes linger over his "HELLO MY NAME IS". That got to him - she caught the old twitch at the side of his now fizzled grin. Her fingertip threw a curve, rounded first base in a side trip up the corner of his mouth, tracing lips, slower than slow motion shows a desert classic cameo so you know you're not seeing a mirage. She was no mirage. She held her ground with level challenge until she became the most integral part of that grin. He gripped her elbow. She drawled, "Is it really you Alfredo? Why where have you been all these years?"

He always held charismatic on center stage or pitcher's mound and took full count of her grandstanding. Halfway through his snazzy monologue on farm teams to the majors, four seamers with spin, and velocity records broken like a heart with no trajectory, she stifled a yawn. He caught its strike coming just across the corner of his zone and elicited a slider pitch which still had heat, "You wanta blow this joint Sweetness? Put something up on the scoreboard?"

"Not hearing anything here I haven't before. Might as well."

"You're referring to me or the franchise conference?"

"What were you thinking Big Al? That you'd lost your touch to get under my skin?"

His thumb tendered a remembered tempo as it eroticized her wrist. They were in the cool night air now. Resorty deco. All the cabana props in place for tomorrow's desert classic sponsors'  shoot. His gaze burned a hole in the gauze of facade he saw until he sensed her edges raw. When he backed her up against a large plaster camel, she held her mirth tight but shook her strap loose -- one glitzy strap of green silk sliding askance along cleavage's way. He knew that trail. He liked that trail that way. He answered her askance, pulled her towards a maroon striped cabana.

"Wait -- scene change?" Green glitz on the unzip. One liquid move and she became the cool temptation an oasis holds in legendary promise and quench. He met her under water offer and she held him there. And she held him there. Her head lifted twice for air, but she held him there.

~ By Absolutely*Kate

 Harbingering  . . . Barry J. Northern's mystical desert finale

 ~  CHASING THE WIND  ~

ETERNAL LOVE

The infinite sands of time blanketed the desert like an eternal shifting beige sea. Though the sun daily caressed the sand it was the starry night that the desert loved. 

~ By Matthew Magda,

 Harbingering . . . Barry J. Northern's mystical desert finale

 ~  CHASING THE WIND  ~