In The Black

Shall I insist, like the mandarins of CHINA, that every LIFE depends on a button which an unknown being can press?  And you yourselves—how many times have you wondered about mankind’s destiny, or asked the old questions?  “Where are we going?  Like the unheard music that lies latent in a phonograph record. --Adolfo Bioy Casares, THE INVENTION OF MOREL 
Alan left with Lauren for London.  What a perfect gift for Lauren.  She’ll have a great time.  I’m in envy but I’m happy they’re having this time together.  It makes me wonder about my own daughter—out there somewhere.  She’ll be age 18 in 2003, so maybe I’ll hear from her in nine years.  Who knows? 

Alan kept to his word and did send three postcards.  I loved each one of them.  He knows how to push my buttons.  He mailed all three of them on the same date, April 25, 1994, so it was great to receive all three of them on the same day:  Mike, 
Does this place look familiar (Camden High Street)?  They didn’t have my shirt!  It was cold.   
We have pounds!   
London is quite fine.  We miss you.  Lauren and I didn’t lose each other in Camden. 
Love, Alan 
Michael, Tower, Bridge, LONDON  Le Pont de la Tour...We saw the Crown Jewels.  I want some of them!   
I saw a great punch bowl!  
We didn’t walk over the Tower Bridge but we have spent every day using the UNDERGROUND subway. 
Love, Alan 
Mike, 
Lauren and I spent today at Chelsea.  We must go...antiques, outdoor market, restaurants, etc. Will PRET A MANGER make it...or not?  WE will see! Love, Alan
Alan said that PRET A MANGER is still too small to expand but they do want to expand to the USA at some point.  It’s too early in the game.  I know Alan likes the idea of this franchise.  All remains to be seen.   Meanwhile, I’m happy with my growing portfolio at Charles Schwab and Co.  At least I’m ‘in the black’.  It’s horrible to be ‘in the red’.   
“That’s it man!  I personally need that.  Everybody doesn’t--but I do.  I need someone that I can talk with about Nabokov and Leon Forrest but also Stephen King.  Someone who can leave a museum and go see a karate film.  I want partnership, man---someone that’s wired for me outta the box, someone with the same intellectual and spiritual vocabulary.” --Colin Channer, WAITING IN VAIN, a novel