A Good Stumbler Falleth Not

I was wearing my magic hat, the one I wore to come up with the good advertising bits; the great ones the super insidious make-you-buy-a-ton-for-shit-you-won’t-ever-need ones. I have to tell you, this is not a hat I would usually wear outdoors. I fear for the magic, oh heavens, do I fear for the magic. All that wind and rain and weather could wear the magic away like the ocean eroding a shore. But you know, super fast like.

But I couldn’t help myself today. I was wearing a two-piece thong and fishnet gloves, and nothing but nothing went with that get up except that velveteen top hat with an embroidered magenta ‘P’. Not even the magnifying glass earrings which were single-handedly responsible for the Great Bangkok Fire.

Outside the Come In Threes advertising agency – which I always thought sounded a little dirty – I was accosted by this old fool who often panhandled for neckties. He was building a rope bridge to cross the river and get the hell out of this city he said. Well, no fool like an old fool I’d often tell him. But there was something in the air that day that made me want to bash his head in with the enormous hat box I was carrying in my hand. Before I could get a decent swing in, I saw her.

Necessity was walking down the sidewalk in a slim dress that showered diamonds on the sidewalk. She held her young son’s hand. He was skipping slightly. She approached and pursed her lips slightly in a way that made it look like she might be having a petite mal seizure.

“I’d like you to meet my son,” she said.

“Ah, the prodigal son,” I said like a wise ass.

“I’m recklessly extravagant!” he said as he peeked up into my eyes. That was all it took, I had fallen.

“What’s your name little man?”

“Invention!”

“How would you like to come into the office with me, help me take advantage of other people’s fears and neurosis and boil it down to an easily digested and understood couple of words?”

“Birds of a feather,” he said. I couldn’t tell if he was responding or just throwing out words. Necessity smiled as I took the boy’s hand and we walked into the office together.

This kid was gonna be a freaking natural.