Flock of Seagulls. Chapter 542.
I was just sitting on a park bench minding my own business. I was in Jackson Square, daydreaming. Leather Tuscadero sat down next to me. Will wonders never cease? “Look at my watch, Mr. King,” Leather said.
This is the watch that we went to get the band fixed at the horologist the other day. Leather and I are watchband amigos.
I am going to milk that day’s adventure for all its narrative worth. Why not? Everything in New Orleans is just a little bit of history repeating. Every day is a variation on a theme.
I looked at Leather’s watch and I got an eyeful. She has ghost spot in the middle of her watch. It was very, very eerie, like a ghost. I am not talking about Casper the Friendly Ghost. I am talking about an incubus.
The watch in question is a real beauty. It is quite stylish, with or without the ghost spot.
What is better? A watch with a ghost spot or one without? It depends on what you like. It depends on what causes the ghost spot. Is the watch haunted because it was once owned by a murder victim, or does the watch just have a little moisture in it so that fog forms under the bezel, over the face and over the hands?
Like sands through an hourglass these are the days of our lives.
When we were at the horologist Leather was admiring the refurbished Rolexes. Her fancy-schmancy watch is not a Rolex but it is very nice. It is, alas, neither waterproof nor water resistant. It needs a gasket.
We diagnosed the cause of the ghost spot. When Leather washes dishes, water gets in the back. Her body heat causes the water to evaporate. The steam has nowhere to go, so it condenses on the glass, right in the middle, where the hands are. Why there? That is where there is a hole in the face.
It is elementary deduction.
“Where do I get a gasket for a watch?” Leather wondered aloud.
The future is impossible to predict but, if Leather does not get by a bus, she has a return visit to the horologist in her future. I am thinking of going with her. I have seen enough of the secret clock museum but I have a hankering to visit the lobby of the NOPSI Hotel.
Now, on to the next thing. I am looking at a flock of fledging seagulls.