JIMMY:  How do you find time to do so much, Miss Kira Benson?  Home-grown produce, flowers, your dessert sensations…

KIRA:  Don’t forget knitting. My mufflers in winter are a top seller!

JIMMY:  Ah! You’re a whirlwind of entrepreneurial spirit. With so much talent, I never asked – how did you end up at the Pick Me Up?

KIRA:  Pretty simple, really. I was living with a boy friend at Crater Lake about three years ago, and we just wandered over here. I fell in love with him and with Normal. But, um, the feeling wasn’t mutual.  We broke up a few months later.

JIMMY:  He didn’t fall in love with you, or with Normal?

KIRA:  Totally indifferent across the board… I know, a sad sad sad story.

JIMMY:  It is very sad.  And I thought your life was the tops, you with the little bit of sunshine in your pocket.

KIRA:  It’s all about how you deal with things, not what life hands you.

JIMMY:  True true true. So, cutting to the chase:  His loss, Normal’s gain.

KIRA:  Thank you, Jimmy.

JIMMY:  Where is it exactly you came from?

KIRA:  Oregon, up near Portland. My mom still lives there. My dad, well that’s a long story.

JIMMY:  For another time.

KIRA:  Yes. Although growing up for me was pretty nice. The perfect all-American family – until my dad left. But anyhow, no worries. I love Normal.

JIMMY:  It suits you…  So I’m wondering, maybe we could catch a movie sometime. Commiserate on our lowly beginnings.

KIRA:  Sounds cool. As long as it’s not scary. I don’t do scary.

JIMMY:  Only sunshine, I know.

Kira Benson - she with the pocketful of sunshine

Jimmy Franklin - gaming app wiz kid

What a gorgeous day for the Farmer’s Market. Just bought a lovely flower bouquet and some fragrant basil from Kira Benson’s booth.  So many of my students are lounging here today. I’m sure Brodin Rushmore will fit right in. He’s a feather in our cap, for sure.

and Kira – you’re so connected to every Tom, Dick, and Harry here.. wondering if I could run some ideas by you?

Well, don’t mess it up, Tolstoy.  Here’s my card. Give me a call when it’s ready.

That reminds me, I’m working on a new catchphrase…

Whatever… Hey, listen, Calvin, when’s my bike going to be ready? Your sleep fest kind of messed up my sched.

Well, Kira, the answer to my whereabouts – deep deep slumber. Decided to give the brain a chance to recalibrate. And it worked!  All that down time led to a breakthrough idea.  Planning to write like the wind after work.

Geez, that Kira is another hottie.

Tesla, pot, and an anonymous donor

Trying to stay on the down-low here, but this chick Kira Benson, who works at the Pick Me Up, saw me – ooh’d and ah’d - and fed me some of her homemade carrot cake.  She’s a good one to know because everyone comes to the Pick Me Up and she hears it all.

Colby Stone, our esteemed Mayor, is hot for her – just don’t tell his wife.  He uses his Tesla to seduce young things the way Tiger uses his wood.

But enough about testosterone – or maybe because of it – the BIG NEWS in town is the spanking new, still under construction, Normal Historical Museum, funded by an anonymous VC.  There are a couple of new hires related to it:  Donatello Stefani, the whiz kid who’s designing state-of-the art holographic/CGI displays set to blow a few minds. He’s been here a while, straight from Pixar.  And now Hadley Reese is relocating from SF’s Museum of Modern Art, as head curator.  Question #1: who the heck hired her?

Call me psychic:  Hadley’ll be up in everyone’s grill trying to unearth relics for her museum, and the fur’s gonna fly, I guarantee. Question #2: who’ll be the first to call foul?

In the here and now, I suspect Kira’s carrot cake has her not-so-secret special ingredient, as I’m definitely feeling the love and moving into a state of altered consciousness.  A giddy guinea with the munchies coming on.  Not good.  Need grass – the regular kind.

So while I’m still sure-footed -  over and out, from the land of Nod.

Kira Benson, waitress at the Pick Me Up

Colby Stone, billionaire Mayor of Normal

Donatello Stefani, special effects wizard

Hadley Reese, curator, Historical Museum