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“Ok Peter, why is there a purple elephant sitting next toMr. Schneider?”

Peter blinked and looked up from his bass guitar. He hadmeant to take his new find to his room before now, but he had gotten distractedby an idea for a new bass line. Thus, he had just spent the last thirty minutestweaking it with Mike having come back from the grocery store in the mean time.

“His name is Aloysius and why do you ask?” he replied.“Don’t you like him?”

“It’s not a matter of liking him or not,” Mike said, leaningagainst a wall. “I’m just wonderin’ where it came from. I thought you were justgoin’ to the library today.”

“Well, I was,” Peter said. “I mean, I did. I took my bookback. Couldn’t find the one on mushrooms I was looking for. And then I left. Itwas when I passed by the hot dog stand that I ran into the nice man who said hecould do me a favor.”

“A favor?” Mike echoed. “What did he mean by ‘a favor’?”

“He said that he needed to find a home for Aloysius and thathe’d sell him to me for only two dollars,” Peter answered.

“Two dolla—how is him selling you that stuffed animalhelping you out?” Mike said.

“Because he’s not just a stuffed animal,” Peter said. “He agood luck charm. He’ll bring us luck for ten years.”

“Uh-huh,” Mike said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Anduh, what about the guy you bought him from? Why was he selling him?”

“Well, he said he needed to raise money for bus fare so hecan go back to his hometown after the fire burned his home down and so he canget a job to replace the one he lost two weeks ago.”

Peter watched the Texan briefly close his eyes and pinch thebridge of his nose. He knew Mike well enough to know that this meant that alecture was soon to follow.

“Good luck charm, man, Pete, that’s just…didn’t you learnanything from the last time? That guy who tried to get you to help him breakinto that store late at night?”

“Well he said that he had forgotten to pay for something andwanted to make sure the owner wasn’t shorted,” Peter said. “How was I to knowthat he planned on stealing the cash register?”

“Or the time that guy offered to sell you a dance club?”

“That wasn’t a bad idea,” Peter insisted. “We could have hada place to play all the time and make money with the drinks and stuff too.”

“Yeah, sure,” Mike scoffed. “If it weren’t for the fact thatthe place had more rats than existed during the Black Plague….”

Mike let out a sigh. Peter though that he was about tomention something else, but instead the Texan walked over and patted hisshoulder.

“Look, Pete, I ain’t sayin’ that your heart isn’t in theright place,” he said. “I’m just sayin’ you need to be more careful is all. Don’let people sucker you in. Like this whole business with this elephant.”

“Oh, I know it’s not a real good luck charm,” Peter said. “Notthe kind that’ll make us rich or anything like that.”

“You do?!” Mike said, flabbergasted. “Then why…why did you…?”

“Well…I thought he was cute,” Peter shrugged. “And he neededa home. That guy said he couldn’t keep him anymore, and it seemed mean to justhave him thrown out. And….”

“And?”

“And…I think he’s still like a good luck charm,” the bassistadded “Sort of. I mean, he makes me think of the good luck we’ve had before.Times when we got money when we really needed it or got a really cool gig. Somaybe he doesn’t bring good luck…but he reminds me of it.”

Mike stared at him quietly in response. Peter wasn’t sure ifany of that made sense. Or more precisely, if it made sense to Mike. It hadmade perfect sense to him, but Peter had also noticed that others didn’t seemto share his version of perfect sense.

Suddenly, Mike smiled slightly and shook his head.

“Ok Shotgun, I get it,” he said. “But I don’ know abouthaving him out here next to Mr. Schneider.”

“Oh that’s just temporary,” Peter replied. “I plan on movinghim to the bedroom later. I think he’d enjoy looking out the window from upthere.”

“Whatever you say, Pete,” Mike said with a chuckle. “I’ll gomake us some sandwiches.”