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Business in a pickle

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[March 13, 2010]  Stopping in at the Read Me Now bookstore was really a spur-of-the-moment decision for Marvin Pincus. He actually hadn't thought about it until he looked from the sidewalk into the store and saw two things: Sarah McKinley's smiling face behind the counter and the sign on the shelves that said "Love and other Fiction."

InsuranceHe walked in, making the jingly on the door ring as he did so.

"Good morning, Marvin," Sarah said, brightly.

"And a fine morning it is, Sarah," Marvin said back.

"Help you find something today?"

"Actually, I stopped in to see if I couldn't do something for you, Dear," he said, kindly. "I've noticed you're ... well, single, I guess..."

"No secret about that, Marvin. But if you have a friend who is really nice, I'm not interested."

Exterminator

"Oh, no. I wasn't going to fix you up. It's just that I thought maybe you could use my fly tying love counseling to kind of help your love life."

Sarah smiled at her friend. "What kind of fly do you think I'd need, Marvin?"

"There's a lot to you that's just below the surface, so I'd be guessing we could start with a nice wet fly ... but pretty. So maybe a ... let's see ..."

He looked her over and held up his hands as if to frame her face.

"A Doctor Burke? No. Fergusun. Definitely a Fergusun. It has that quiet elegance that we need to help you."

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"You know I'm going to look it up, don't you, Marvin? And if a Fergusun turns out to be plug ugly, I'm coming after you."

"No problem. It's beautiful."

"So why me?"

Marvin looked at his old friend and sighed. "Sarah, it's because ... well, I need a woman client, and you are a friend and you're single, and I thought it would help."

She stared at him. He explained.

"Well, so far all I've had are men clients, you see. I guess Randy's a boy, really, but you know. And everyone knows women are really the ones who need fly tying. I thought you could be..."

"...the guinea pig."

Marvin smiled. "I thought of it more as the first pickle out of the jar."

[Text from file received from Slim Randles]

Brought to you by "The Long Dark, An Alaska Winter's Tale." Available at www.slimrandles.com.

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