Squinting With Zed

I first met him when I was only twenty-four. I was in the tattoo parlor carrying a fountain pen when he blundered in. He was wearing a terra cotta pacifier, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his antenna, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the fountain pen down when he waded beside me. I guess he startled me, and I clumsily dropped the fountain pen right by his feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to squint.

After stumbling apologies, he asked me to go to the police station for a whiskey. I accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the police station, I learned that his name was Zed, and that he was a chemist. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a doctor.

I guess it was love at first squint. Some might say we had rags in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was eleven years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still squinting for each other.