Ha ha, I tricked you! I said “exposed” and what I meant was, “I took pictures.” Ha ha ha, I’m so clev– Whaddya mean, you figured it was something like that? “Lame”? “Lame”? That isn’t very sensitive of you. I prefer the term differently humored. All right then; apology accepted.

So anyway, when T. Lee Harris, Samantha Lopez, Dave Creek and I went to Context24 this year, we went on a used-book-store crawl in Columbus, Ohio, hitting three before we ran out of nooks and crannies into which to fit books in the already-loaded van. One of the places we went was The Book Loft of German Village. Some of the books were on super-duper sale and some were on not-much-sale-at-all. There are about four-hundred-million-billion volumes in there, in a maze that makes you think it was designed by M. C. Escher. I bought a book called LIFE IN A MEDIEVAL CASTLE for five bucks, and considered it a good deal. Not a kid book, heavy on color illustration but short on information and not an academic book, heavy on dust and short on humanity, this book is a real find. You can’t get it that cheap at Amazon. Ha!

But the real delight of the shop is the passage outside from the street where we parked to the parallel street. The Book Loft had thoughtfully provided benches and a soothing fountain.This was our last stop on the crawl, so we were more than ready to sit somewhere other than a car and feel some fresh breeze. Somewhere, a restaurant was pumping out delicious odors, and we were desolate to have eaten at a fast food place, not knowing we’d have such a chance. Next time, we’ll know.

So here is a picture of the fountain. It looks old and worn, but we don’t know if it was manufactured to look that way or if it actually was. Does it matter? We know Georgette Heyer’s Regency Romances weren’t written during the Regency period. We know science fiction wasn’t really written in the future or in an alternate universe. Fantasy, we maybe aren’t so sure about…. BUT MY POINT IS, charm is charm, and the only reason to question its veracity is if we’re buying it. To put it crassly, I say an actor is lookin’ good, my Mom says he probably isn’t as cute as he thinks he is and he’s probably full of himself, and I’m like, “I wasn’t planning on talking to him, I was planning on looking at him.”

And finally, my favorite picture of all. …It’s bricks. …No, there isn’t a lizard somewhere–not that I know of; it’s just bricks. BRICKS. Well, I’m sorry you find it dull, but I find old bricks endlessly fascinating. Why, yes, I am a cheap date! How did you know?

WRITING PROMPT: Write a character who is fascinated by an unlikely set of inanimate objects.

MA