Nigel hasn’t published any posts.
Nigel hasn’t created any stuff.
Nigel’s contact information is private.
Have a bit of a thing about cryptic crosswords and anagrams, and it turns out my name is wonderfully "anagrammable"...
Charlie Bing is belching air after a delicious banger chili. Momentarily, his throat fills with bile; chagrin at having eaten the extra piece of cake fills his mind.
The TV is off, but he is considering hiring cable, finally. His thoughts are interrupted when his friend Gabriel Chin, a cab hireling who usually works the graveyard shift (and a man of a calibre nigh on that of a saint), stops by for a game of crib. “Healing is what crib does for me,” he says obliquely.
Charlie points him to the table: “Healing?” he says. “Try the cake, it’s got herbal icing.”
“Thanks,” he says and takes a slice. “I just dropped a rich Belgian off at Riling Beach. He had a real big chin, said he was taking a Chilean brig and heading south. He was rich, lean… big tipper, too. Must be nice, being rich. ‘La good life’, eh? Look, he gave me his card: nothing but his name, Brian C. Leigh. Odd name for a Belgian.”
Anyway, I thought I’d come over. Do you have any more of that Alberich gin you brought from Holland?”
Charlie shakes his head. “So whose deal is it?” he says, reaching for the cards.
Outside a single vulture rib, leaching just beyond the shade of a genial birch tree, lies glinting in the burning sun.
Inside, cards snap. On the mantel is a china gerbil.
Gabriel is dealing.
Nigel has no contacts. One is the loneliest number.
