Farewell to the Phoenix

            On Thursday I was tidying up my kitchen and thinking about vacuuming. For the last year and a half I've had my old, bike leaning against the credenza on the south side of my kitchen and I’ve always had to clean around it. It was given to me in the late 90s by my then girlfriend, Dorita but I wasn’t holding onto it for sentimental reasons. It's just difficult for me to throw away anything mechanical. The old Phoenix hybrid had salvageable parts but none of them were transferable to the road bike that I built last year. I suddenly had the urge to get rid of it and since Bike Pirates was open I walked it over on the one wheel it had left. The shop was not busy at all. Tom, one of the nicer and more knowledgeable volunteers was there with his impressively waxed moustache and discussing with someone the prospect the shop providing bicycles for a TV show. The man who he represented a production based on a work by Margaret Atwood. I didn’t catch which show, but I guess it would be either The Handmaid’s Tale or Madd Adam, since Alias Grace is a period piece from a pre-bicycle era. Tom told him that they could provide functional bicycles but they wouldn’t be tuned up. The man said that most of them would be seen and not used but sometimes they might want to have background actors ride through a scene. Tom said they could do it and the man said they could pay $700. Tom said he knew these shows have big budgets and since Bike Pirates is a non-profit he wondered if they could pay $800. The guy said he’d put down “$700 plus" and see what happens but he let Tom know that there is another bike shop they are talking with.

I stood there for about ten minutes trying to practice being patient before the TV guy left. Tom asked, “What happened to your bike?” I explained it was my old one and he remembered it. I offered to donate it for parts and he said they’d be glad to take it. So now there’s a little more space in my kitchen and the Phoenix is gone. Although there was no name on it but Phoenix, apparently it was also known as a “Ditch Pig" and my ex had bought it for herself from Cyclepath where it was the house brand. It was pretty heavy compared to the bike I built.

I didn’t vacuum in the kitchen because I figured I’d done enough just to get rid of the bike.

I recently downloaded the Sadé discography. I've listened to the first two albums and so far the first; "Diamond Life" is the best from a musical standpoint but Sadé always sounds sexy on every song.

That night I watched Perry Mason. A private investigator goes to see a down and out old drunk in a flophouse and tells him he wants the $50,000 he embezzled from the Texas National Bank with a partner named Ned. That was ten years ago. Ned went on to become wealthy while Stanley fell on hard times. West proposes that they blackmail Ned. West gets Stanley to call Ned and they talk about what they did while West secretly records the conversation. West plays the tape for Ned’s daughter Harriet. Harriet goes to Mason. Mason goes to hear the tape but under the pretence of wanting to check to see if the tape has been doctored he erases it with a hidden magnet. The tape is only a copy though. West has rented Stanley an apartment across from his. Ned goes to see Stanley with a briefcase and leaves without it. Mason and Della go to West’s apartment to hear the original tape and from inside they hear a scream. Harriet comes out and says she’s found Stanley’s body in the kitchen. Mason makes it look like they haven’t been inside and they wait for West. He looks surprised to find the body. The police discern that Stanley was killed around 3:00 with an ice pick. Harriet is arrested on suspicion of murder because her fingerprints were all over the ice pick. Mason goes to see Harriet’s fiancé Addison, who is supposed to be a writer. He says that the label “writer” has certain value for someone like him with little talent and champagne tastes. He adds that a few sheets of paper, a battered typewriter and a beard work wonders with the impressionable sex. He doesn’t really care about Harriet and now that she’s in jail he says he’ll make a play for her sister Sylvia. In court Mason questions the doctor who’d determined the time of Stanley’s death. He admits that a change in room temperature could have changed that determination but assures Mason that there was no change. Mason points out that in Stanley’s apartment there was a deep freeze and that the killer placed the body in that freezer before the determined time of death. The judge decides to adjourn the court to Stanley’s apartment to inspect the deep freeze. Blood stains are found at the bottom of the freezer. Harriet could not have lifted Stanley into the deep freeze but West is held on suspicion of murder. Later at the bus station, Addison opens a locker and removes the suitcase that Ned had taken to Stanley. Inside is $25,000. He heads for the bus but Mason and the police are there to arrest him. He takes it very calmly.

Harriet was played by Virginia Vincent.

Sylvia was played by Tina Carver.

Addison was played by Robin Hughes, who during WWII was supposed to have shipped out on the HMS Hood on May 24, 1941 but on May 23 he received his officer’s papers and so he was shipped for officer’s training instead. The Hood was sunk by the Bismarck and there were only three survivors.