Page 152 - Psychoceramics and the Test of Fire

Operation Belshazzar

News and the Gospel of Salvation by Plastic Surgery. I knew my suit
was right, because I had purchased it at a thrift store run by the
ladies’ auxiliary of a local church.
After a bit of stirring within, of which each subsidiary impact
induced audible vibrations in the dwelling, I heard the mellifluous
tones of Cyrus Lee for the first time.
“Yeah? Whaddya want?”
I cleared my throat to demonstrate awkwardness, therefore
unfamiliarity with knocking on strangers’ doors.
“Sir? Mr. Cyrus Lee? May I speak with you? My name is Eric Jenn.
I’m with the Mesopotamian Revelation Society.”
“The what?” I had little chance of sneaking that past him.
“The Mesopotamian Revelation Society. We are very interested in
your Biblical research.”
A greasy curtain over the window next to the door swept aside
and a pair of bloodshot eyes regarded me with suspicion. I
maintained my composure. I’m very good at that: you can’t act if you
can’t stay in character.
He muttered something and opened the door. A wave of unkempt
bachelor housekeeping smells rolled over me and kept right on
going—I devoutly prayed. Mr. Lee was not doing well with
asceticism, self-imposed or, more likely, not. His cheeks were hollow
and his belt could barely hold up his pants. I could see behind him
stacks of books and papers: a one-room firetrap waiting for another
Act of God in the form of an ill-fitting butane tank gasket.
He peered at me through spectacles joined at the bridge with duct
tape. “You know my work?”
“We certainly do, sir. And we’d like to give it a wider audience.” I
handed him my card. Its uniqueness might have made it a collector’s
item, had he but known; he chose to give it a squint and cram it into
a crevice on the doorframe. Lee then returned to scrutinizing me; me:
Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected.
I didn’t know if I wanted him to invite me in or not. But we had
nothing to discuss that was top-secret, or so I thought. Eager to
mother an invention, I suddenly remembered a diner about a block
away.

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