All the same it is not good for Charlie to get too euphoric so I make her come with me to rent bulldozers.

—

“Hello I wish to rent bulldozers. Also other heavy plant. Have you anything in purple I do not like the yellow.”

“We have a very little red and some green that is all.”

“If I was to arrange payment would you permit me to respray? I would of course reverse the process after my show—”

“Show?”

“Ah yes I am an artist—I work at scale which is why—”

“Oh, you are that Banjo Telemark yes of course how FABulous and what are you making—”

“Art of course ahahaha you see—”

—

Charlie hangs out with Frau Anton to discuss bulldozer regulatory blah blah blah and I am at a loose end so I go back to Eiger’s cigar shop and I buy another cigar. The little guy asks if I liked the first cigar and I tell him I haven’t smoked it yet. He asks me why I want another one and I say that I like the process of coming in here and buying cigars I don’t really like to smoke. But the smell of the place and the vibe and so on that just makes me feel comfortable and happy like there’s a good world somewhere under this one that I can find if I stand still.

Which is actually sort of true but I don’t know that when I start saying it only when I finish and then I am embarrassed and I still don’t know why Eiger comes in here because he also does not buy any cigars.

Maybe he also just likes to come in here and be with the little guy.

Maybe we have that much in common.

I do not ask the little guy about Eiger and we don’t talk about coffee this time we just—

We don’t talk about anything at all for an hour. We just stand there and do things in the quiet of the shop.

And then I leave and he does not say goodbye.

—

I see Volodya across the street just going into a shop. It is a hat shop. I run across the road and nearly get hit by a car. There is a lot of honking and shouting in Swiss. Swiss is a great language to be pissed off in.

I get to the hat shop and go inside but of course it is not Volodya it is a fat man from Sion.

I nearly kill him for having the nerve to be a fat man from Sion and not my friend.