Self-Perpetuating Ephemera…..

“If you want to dance but don’t know how,” he said, “play some Foghat.”

“I quite agree,” she said.

“But not now, thanks,” he said.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she said.

They were reclining, heads together, jaws chomping on popcorn, watching Dexter. Three logs blazed in the art deco hearth. Deer and antelope played in the yard.

Therefore, contextually, his opening sentence was incongruous; nevertheless, she lovingly agreed with it. He, of course, misconstrued her response and was rhetorically jabbed in the ribs for this absence of cognitive intervention.

“Stone Blue (1978) should be the opening salvo,” he said.

He was disappointed that she had focused on a passing reference meant only as an example of a peripheral portion of the whole, not as the whole itself. He also knew that that was probably the only information she had on the subject because he had not expounded further. He also knew that the subject did not merit more than a passing reference in the overall context of the investigation. Yes, the investigation.

He only blamed himself; he did not blame others. This was the defining factor in the investigation: He didn’t know why he was blaming himself, or for what.

He had to open up the watch, to see if he could figure out how it ran.

That’s where I, Nick Dogoda [Confidential Investigator], came into the picture and I succeeded in finding the impetus of the blame which was, of course, an ephemeral judgement, by one and all, of blame-worthiness as his defining character trait.