built that church back there,” said Dick Teig, who would like to have donned a seed-corn hat, but the only thing big enough to fit over his head was an airplane hangar.
I rolled my eyes. The Dicks had better hope we weren’t going to be tested either. As the newly appointed escort to the Windsor City group, I thought it my duty to intervene. “Our bus number is 222. We leave on our walking tour at nine-forty. We board the bus again at twelve-fifteen.”
“We only have a half hour until the walking tour begins,” fretted Helen Teig. Her eyebrows formed such perfect arches today, they almost looked real.
Lucille Rassmuson gnawed her bottom lip with worry. “We’d better wait in front of that store Wally talked about so we’ll be on time.”
“But you have a whole thirty minutes!” I reasoned. “You could get out of the rain. Browse. Buy a cup of coffee.”
“Too risky,” said Dick Rassmuson, who angled his umbrella over Lucille’s head, lit up his cigar, and herded the other two Dicks and their wives through the rain toward the meeting place.
“Well, I’m not gonna stand out here in the rain,” Nana informed me. “Bernice and me are gonna find us a chocolate shop. This is good weather for chocolate. You don’t have to worry about it meltin’. You wanna come with us?”
I shook my head. “I need to see a man about a watch.”
Bucherer dazzled. Opulence. Glitter. Crystal chandeliers. Gleaming display cases. Precious gems set in eighteen-karat gold and platinum. Mont Blanc pens. Reuge music boxes. After receiving directions from a clerk on the ground floor, I climbed the stairs to the watch department on the first floor. Clerks abounded behind a maze of glass counters—tall, slender, unsmiling clerks with no-nonsense faces. I inched my way toward one of the nearest counters and scanned the multitude of watches displayed on blue velvet trays.
“May I help you, Madame?” The woman looked anorexic. She was dressed in a body-hugging black dress, had a thin red slash of a mouth, and wore her hair pulled back so severely from her face, her eyes slanted halfway to her ears. Blinking was probably a major undertaking.
“I’d like to buy a watch,” I said.
“Of course.” With cool disdain and an elegance of movement, she unlocked the case in front of her and withdrew a tray of ladies’ watches. “This is a very nice timepiece. An eighteen-karat gold Piaget. You’ll note the diamonds encrusted in the bracelet and around the case frame. This sells for 36,110 Swiss francs.”
I didn’t have to do the conversion to American dollars to figure out I could buy a small house for the same price. I nodded. “There’s no second hand. I need a watch with a second hand.” A whopping lie, but it allowed me to maintain my dignity.
One of her eyebrows arched imperceptibly, no small feat considering the rest of her face hadn’t moved at all. “Very well.” Into the case went the Piaget tray. Out came another. “This is a popular model called the Lady Datejust. The bezel is diamond-set. The dial is mother-of-pearl with rubies. It’s an eighteen-karat gold Rolex and sells for 29,400 Swiss francs.”
I wrestled with the possibility that I could be in the wrong place. “Did you say gold? I can’t wear gold. It turns my skin green. Do you have something a little less fancy?”
“How much less fancy?”
“Say, something that straps to your wrist and tells time?”
She shoved the tray into the case and yanked out another. “This is called Paradiso and is made by Bucherer. It has a sapphire crystal, three interchangeable leather bracelets, and sells for 580 Swiss francs.”
We were getting closer. “How much is that in American dollars?”
She punched a few numbers on a nearby calculator. “Three hundred fifty-three dollars and eighty cents.”
Three months’ worth of groceries. Hmm. “Do you carry Timex?”
I caught up with Nana and Bernice just as the group was departing the area for
I rolled my eyes. The Dicks had better hope we weren’t going to be tested either. As the newly appointed escort to the Windsor City group, I thought it my duty to intervene. “Our bus number is 222. We leave on our walking tour at nine-forty. We board the bus again at twelve-fifteen.”
“We only have a half hour until the walking tour begins,” fretted Helen Teig. Her eyebrows formed such perfect arches today, they almost looked real.
Lucille Rassmuson gnawed her bottom lip with worry. “We’d better wait in front of that store Wally talked about so we’ll be on time.”
“But you have a whole thirty minutes!” I reasoned. “You could get out of the rain. Browse. Buy a cup of coffee.”
“Too risky,” said Dick Rassmuson, who angled his umbrella over Lucille’s head, lit up his cigar, and herded the other two Dicks and their wives through the rain toward the meeting place.
“Well, I’m not gonna stand out here in the rain,” Nana informed me. “Bernice and me are gonna find us a chocolate shop. This is good weather for chocolate. You don’t have to worry about it meltin’. You wanna come with us?”
I shook my head. “I need to see a man about a watch.”
Bucherer dazzled. Opulence. Glitter. Crystal chandeliers. Gleaming display cases. Precious gems set in eighteen-karat gold and platinum. Mont Blanc pens. Reuge music boxes. After receiving directions from a clerk on the ground floor, I climbed the stairs to the watch department on the first floor. Clerks abounded behind a maze of glass counters—tall, slender, unsmiling clerks with no-nonsense faces. I inched my way toward one of the nearest counters and scanned the multitude of watches displayed on blue velvet trays.
“May I help you, Madame?” The woman looked anorexic. She was dressed in a body-hugging black dress, had a thin red slash of a mouth, and wore her hair pulled back so severely from her face, her eyes slanted halfway to her ears. Blinking was probably a major undertaking.
“I’d like to buy a watch,” I said.
“Of course.” With cool disdain and an elegance of movement, she unlocked the case in front of her and withdrew a tray of ladies’ watches. “This is a very nice timepiece. An eighteen-karat gold Piaget. You’ll note the diamonds encrusted in the bracelet and around the case frame. This sells for 36,110 Swiss francs.”
I didn’t have to do the conversion to American dollars to figure out I could buy a small house for the same price. I nodded. “There’s no second hand. I need a watch with a second hand.” A whopping lie, but it allowed me to maintain my dignity.
One of her eyebrows arched imperceptibly, no small feat considering the rest of her face hadn’t moved at all. “Very well.” Into the case went the Piaget tray. Out came another. “This is a popular model called the Lady Datejust. The bezel is diamond-set. The dial is mother-of-pearl with rubies. It’s an eighteen-karat gold Rolex and sells for 29,400 Swiss francs.”
I wrestled with the possibility that I could be in the wrong place. “Did you say gold? I can’t wear gold. It turns my skin green. Do you have something a little less fancy?”
“How much less fancy?”
“Say, something that straps to your wrist and tells time?”
She shoved the tray into the case and yanked out another. “This is called Paradiso and is made by Bucherer. It has a sapphire crystal, three interchangeable leather bracelets, and sells for 580 Swiss francs.”
We were getting closer. “How much is that in American dollars?”
She punched a few numbers on a nearby calculator. “Three hundred fifty-three dollars and eighty cents.”
Three months’ worth of groceries. Hmm. “Do you carry Timex?”
I caught up with Nana and Bernice just as the group was departing the area for
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