Overheard Starbuck

"He's got this knife obsession. I'll come in from the office or yoga class and he'll be at the work-table in the garage or sitting in the den in the light of our muted television and I'll hear the snick-snick-snick of a knife-blade on stone."
---"What does he say he's doing?."
"He told me it's his way of meditating, like a Japanese tea ceremony. He's fascinated with the razor-thin glint of silver his hands hone- his words- from the metal, the sound of steel on stone."
---"Glint? ... So he's not collecting knives, putting them in display cases?"
"No, he's sharpening anything that can be sharpened. A rusted hoe, snow shovels, screw drivers, rakes. He's wrecked our serrated knives and I have to be careful buttering toast."
---"Otherwise, things are fine?"
"Great."