10.

Precise

There’s an old, sparkly-eyed man who is always at Bentley’s. Some days he’s reading and other days he’s slowly writing on binder paper with perfect penmanship, always double-spaced and on one side of the page. He writes pages and pages and pages. I think he’s writing a book and I want so badly to know what it’s about.

We had a moment of silent connection last week when I overhead him talking about the picture of Saturn’s hexagonal north pole that was in the day’s newspaper. Apparently we had both been drawn to and strangely inspired by the photo. I think he wrote about it. I just did my thoughtful nod and moved on.

After weeks of wondering about him, he suddenly leaned over and started talking to me today. He has studied Latin (why not?) and was intrigued by my book of emblems, which is half English, half Latin. He was entirely thrilled by the book. I wished that I knew something, anything, about Latin. I started skimming through the book I was reading, looking for Latin words so that I could keep the conversation going. With no Latin and very limited knowledge of emblems, I just asked if I could borrow his pen. Turns out, he really likes Latin and the emblematic tradition, but he loooooooves the Precise V5 Extra Fine Point Pen in purple, pink, and turquoise. At this point, I know everything there is to know about purchasing the Precise V5 Extra Fine Point Pen in the Tucson area. I don’t know the guy’s name or what he spends all that time writing, but I do know where he stands on pen tips and ink flow, so that’s something.