by Henry Daniels

Created on: July 15, 2009   Last Updated: February 24, 2012

"All right, now you can open them."

After minutes of hearing Jake's constant "not yet, not yet" while being shepherded into the living room, Lenny finally, happily opened his eyes. Jake let go of his arm and then motioned with both of them towards the object in question.

Lenny took a moment to adjust his eyes to the new room - Jake had dragged him by the arm from the other end of the house - to look at a lovely cream-colored ceramic object in the shape of ... "what was it like?" Lenny tilted his head as he tried to figure out how to categorize it ... of a puffball hat. A sort of ceramic Santa's hat, with a round base leading up to shiny little knob. Elegant swirls flowed upwards towards the knob to create a very fluid, soft effect, as when pottery is being made. It truly was a precious, strange little thing.

Jake raised his eyebrows in succession at his brother, eagerly and intentionally, indicating that there was something special about this gizmo. Lenny took it with a grain of salt, though. Jake was always coming up with the oddest little tinkerings. Forty years old, living with mom, and the man still dreamed of being the next Edison. "It's, uh ... it's lovely to look at, but what is it?"

"This is it, Lenny! This is the one that's gonna be big! These are gonna be in every home across the country. Across the world!"

"All right," Lenny said warily, secretly wondering if he should have left a very important meeting at the firm to come here. "I just want to remind you that that's what you said about that hollow bagel of yours."

Jake grimaced at that comment. Indeed, his venture with the hollow bagel - completely hollow on the inside for those people who don't want to have to bother scooping it out for health-conscious reasons - hadn't been successful, and he was in no mood to be reminded of it. "No no, Lenny, this is different. This is ... this is it." Jake took a deep breath. Are you ready?

Lenny shook his from side to side, sort of noncommittally, trying to think of what to say, whether to be staid or enthusiastic ... finally he cast his hands up, rather intrigued, and said, cheerily resigned, "Sure!"

"O.k., here goes." Jake steadily picked up the object with his right hand, as though he were about to release Pandora's Box. Then, he cautiously placed his other hand on the knob atop this little cream-colored-ceramic-Santa-hat and twisted it to the left ...

Immediately, a little wooden plunger plopped down from it with a thud, upon which Jake looked at Lenny

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