I wish someone told me about the mucus before I entered the tent. Wherever I went for weeks afterwards the mucus was heavy without any chance of drying. Wet, wet mucus.

My name is Bud Lackey and I am a private eye. My father was a florist; my mother took to the booze and wound up in a mental institution. I was a sickly child and missed a lot of school.

When I was in my mid-twenties I lost a winning lottery ticket. $16,000,000 gone. Just like that. I gave the ticket to a little boy in a market for safekeeping. The boy slipped on a greasy patch of concrete and fell. He broke his neck and died before he got to the hospital. I ran towards him and scrambled around trying to find the ticket. I couldn’t find it. He must have put it somewhere not on his person. Too bad for the kid. Too bad for me too because I like luxury.

I have an old photograph. I think it is about 60 years old. It is a picture of three of my aunts at Sunnyside Beach. I keep the crumpled photo in my jacket pocket and look at it everyday. I really don’t know why. I just thought I would mention it.

I just remembered something. When I was about 13 years old I was in love with a classmate. She was beautiful to my eyes and I loved her long silky hair. One day she stopped coming to school. The teacher acted weird after that and would never answer any questions about what happened to her. That was my first experience of love. It was also my last. I am loyal.

I had a near death experience when I was 15. I don’t remember anything about it but it seemed like a big deal at the time. I had an anaphylactic shock resulting from a bee sting. I remember that after the episode I started drinking hard liquor. My mother started to get friendly with me then, maybe a little too friendly. That lasted about half a year and then she “went away”.

At 17 my drinking problem was in full swing and I was working at my Dad’s florist shop. I got into a disagreement with a customer. I pulled the scissors out and threatened him. He ran out of the shop. Then my father fired me. I could understand where he was coming from. I would have done the same or worse if it were my son.

I am the kind of man who plays the bassoon but I started late and I am not so good at it.

I have a little medical problem that makes it difficult to type right now. I fought in the underground, I am lean and tough but this problem just gets the better of me. So that is all for now.