A PREDATOR’S TALE
The local cops had Tom on the front burner by Christmas, 2009.
12/26/09
Ron’s Carmel
Bruce: No, Nancy brought me some pea soup. Not Tom.
5 to 6
Borrowed a bowl and a spoon from Mundaka, the Tapas bar in the courtyard behind Ron’s. The yarn shop lady, Nancy, gave me some won ton soup from Tommy’s Wok, next door.
A waitress, Gabe, the owner, Miller, the chef, and two prep guys, 5 customers, from Mundaka.
6:00
Modelo woman: I’m drinking cokes, my sister is in town. I’m on my good behavior.
Me: Did you find Tortilla Flat? No, I forgot. I’ve got a Place Names of Monterey County. I’ll look it up, bring it in next week.
Not very busy.
7:00
Mundaka is full.
Tom calls: “Don’t close before 11:30.”
Detlief, the pen shop guy: I’m on the way to Big Bear tomorrow.
I told him: Raymond Chandler wrote a number of early stories about Big Bear. Detlief, a German, has never heard of Raymond Chandler.
7:45
The woman who survived a brain tumor, for a pack of Marlboros, and some matches.
8:40
The cable went out.
10:00
Conrad of Iceland, $26 in Scratchers.
10:15
Jimmy: My family’s a mess. Julie is falling apart. Lauri’s a mess. Ben’s ok. My Mom and Dad are screwed up.
Jimmy’s great uncle drove the boat to the Sea of Cortez for Steinbeck and Doc Ricketts.
10:40
Mundaka packed with young people looking for one another, profiling.
11:00
Somebody fell through the window in Nancy’s yarn shop. They’re cleaning it up in the rain.
Five years now today, 240,000 died in the Indonesian tsunami, seems like yesterday.
12/29/21
(To be continued at clernfimmel.wordpress.com, more likely than here.)