The name's Brain. I'm a detective. I dig around in peoples' lives and pull out the stuff they don't want but can't get rid of by themselves. Why? Guess I think it'll make 'em feel better. Never saw a guilty man die happy.
Tonight's episode: The Case of The Missing Dagger
It was early. I was stuffing the last bit of oatmeal in my mouth when I read the headline on the box:
Five Times More Omega 3's Than Regular Oatmeal!
I didn't really know what all the excitement was about. I was never good at math or Greek. I don't know why all those extra 3's are five times better at the end, but it's more than I could say for regular oatmeal.
Then I saw the little dagger symbol.
In my business that means someone has more to say but they don't want you to know what it is. So they make a footnote and stick it somewhere else, thinking you either won't care or won't have enough time to go snooping around.
I've seen a lot of daggers in my day, I even used a couple myself once. But I never saw anyone tag one on that didn't lead somewhere else. Whatever else this guy had to say, he thought he could bury it on a simple 6-sided box.
Not with me on the case. He'd have a better chance of winning the lottery with a parking ticket.
I pulled the box closer and felt the adrenaline hit me as I snooped around, weaving in and out of eye-popping graphics and exclamation points, I could smell that footnote, it was close. But every time the lead got hot I'd stumble over a nutrition label or a drawing of a heart with wheat coming out of it.
This guy was good, a real pro. It took a full minute for me to realize that I'd been staring at a sign that said "Enhanced with barley and ground flaxseed." What the hell does that even mean?
By now I knew I'd be late for the number ten downtown, so I dropped the box and hoofed it down the street.
The distance seemed to make it worse. I spent the whole day stirring it over in my head. They always say not to dwell on things, but I'm already a snooper, and snoopers can't not be dwellers.
By the time I got back home my curiosity was higher than a cat on nip, I couldn't wait to get back to the chase. I picked up the box, found the headline...
Then it hit me. I was looking right at it.
That was the footnote.
The dagger was at the beginning of the headline, not the end.
The adrenaline burned off like a match under a faucet. I felt like a two-cent stamp on a trash bag.
They say that losing is like winning, it just doesn't feel like it yet. I don't know what that means, but if it's true, then I'd just won the lousiest game against the best loser of all time, but somehow I'd feel better about it later.
It doesn't matter. I'll never meet him anyway. And tomorrow I'll be hungry all over again.
The name's Brain. I'm a detective...
2 comments:
awesome. a man once said that losing is to winning, like meat is to its own reward. love it.
What? Dave....?
m&d
Post a Comment