Continue The Tale - Part 2

Dale's ruby red Miata slunk through the baked Tampa air, his newly washed hair blowing back like gold streamers on a party boat bound for Trouble Island. Bossa Nova rhythms bounced off satellites in space and reverberated through his car's stereo. He was taking the side roads downtown to the Booken Hausen to try to locate a copy "Paris Knights" by Sheldon DeLume and the Miata took the road's curves like a pinball set loose in the bumpers.

"Remember that red haired business lady I sat behind on the flight back from Dallas" he said to his stick shift as he pushed it into third around a hairpin turn. "She smelled like chamomile and life savers and I just got this vibe off of her. You know, like when your universe collapses and expands at the very same instant. Like if you could be in first and fifth gear at the same time."

The stick shift looked up at him and sighed "Is that where this quest for a copy of 'Paris Knights' comes from? Not your usual sports bio or business manual is it Dale?"

"She was reading it on the plane. I heard her tell the old man in the seat next to her that she'd picked up a copy in Paris. In Paris! Can you dig that? She's flown the coop man, she has been in the world, with a capital "W." That's the kind of lady I need. I may not know her name, but I can share the same fictional world with her, and that's something, isn't it?"

"Oh, it's something all right" the shifter said as Dale rolled up in front of the Booken Hausen and pulled it into reverse. "Just don't let Tina catch you sharing anyone's world - real or fictional - or it will be hello YMCA. Don't fool yourself into thinking her father would keep you on at The Royal Bugle after you two split up. Sportswriters are as common as a cold, and I don't think you could cover your mortgage on what they used to pay you at Butterman's Bagels.

"It's just fantasy right now, that's all... and there's nothing wrong with fantasy." Dale kept repeating those words to himself as he locked the Miata and headed through the revolving doors of the Booken Hausen and towards something more real than fantasy, but just left of reality...