EXCERPT FROM

TALE OF BRONCO & THE WIZARD

The lights are on inside the 1950s-era blue-green house, overlooking a spectacular evening view of the city lights below. Parked in the driveway is a classic riviera-blue 1968 BMW 2002 series with a lot of miles written all over it. The faint sound of “Honesty” by Billy Joel is spilling into the outside air, inviting us to come inside.

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Inside, the haunting sound of Billy Joel vibrates off the walls, along with the sounds of clinking glass bottles, as a stout young man finishes stacking his latest brew of Flat Kat beer. He deliberately places them side by side in the fridge as he does his best karaoke rendition as he sings along.

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His house is the definition of calculated clutter, covered with wall posters of comic book heroes, movie and jazz posters, and images of history’s great warriors. There are bookshelves with stacks of books piled up, and other books, throughout the house, sit on any flat surface available. This house most definitely reveals the need for a woman’s touch.

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Next to the kitchen door, sitting on top of a bookshelf is a small vintage mohair teddy bear that has years of love on him. The worn bear has a book overflowing from his tiny lap and wears a black-and-gold knitted Ironmen hat. The stout, curly-haired fellow, still singing the song playing on the radio, pauses, looking for his latest Barron’s magazine, then walks over and turns a page of The Holcroft Covenant, placed upon the bear’s lap as if the bear is reading it.