Tinsky Cabernet Bulldog

 

(1pm) Hal O'The Wynd in Tinsky Cabernet Bulldog
(5pm) LNF in Tinsky Tanblast Rhodesian
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Based on a true story:

This is the most valued, valuable, and one of the few pipes I've received as a gift. It came by mail with an unsigned note attached that said only "Congratulations" in a careful, feminine script. The post mark located it coming from Wisconsin, but I couldn't think of anyone I knew who lived there. Odd. While I appreciated the gift and was excited about the pipe, I was a bit trepidatious. Very few people even knew I smoked a pipe, so who could this be?

An email arrived a few days later asking if I'd gotten the pipe. Love, Ilona.

I hadn't talked with Ilona since high school. In my senior year, her junior, she moved away with her family. It was kind of a crisis moment for her for a lot of reasons and we talked through some of it together. I thought of her rarely, but always with a certain sadness. She was a beautiful girl who hadn't known her own beauty, hadn't known how to wear it. She found no comfort in her own skin. Awkward and self-conscious. Full of undirected intense sexual energy. To me, she seemed young and morose. But she would mature and gain perspective on it all. So whenever I thought of her it was with mild curiosity, warm affection, and the pang of nostalgia. [An elided scene I regret of abandonment and a porch.]

So now I knew. But still...there were gaps in this story. How did she know about the pipe habit? It was an enormously generous gift just to say hello.

She had done some internet research and found my few comments on ASP, found out what I liked and commissioned a pipe from Mark. In an serendipitous coincidence, I had commissioned a set of rhodesians that were in the same Days Work and had already admired this pipe when I saw it there.

Shortly thereafter she came to town and we spent an evening out together. She is a stunning, sharp woman and we had a nice time. We have not talked for a couple years. But I am still grateful for her gift, which was/is a friendship unique, strange, and special. The pipe is a generous reminder of that. So thank you Ilona. I hope in this sketch I haven't misrepresented you too much, though I know I have altered a few details and left out many others.