The Red Light DISTRICT was uncharacteristically slow for a Friday night. Usually Cherry could start with a little seed money, just a little "toe hold," as Johnny Taylor called it, and watch it MUSHROOM. He knew how to make more in a night than most folks could make in a month when he put his mind to it. He seemed to have the formula for being in just the right place, at just the right time. He'd always been a "HUSTLER SUPREME!"

He had what many called "animal magnetism." He just called it "IT!" His mother told him about "IT" when he was a child. She told him that "IT" would often light him up in a BEACON of light, whether he wanted it to or not. She also told him there'd be times when he'd want to be outstanding, but "IT" would cover him like the darkness of the wings of a MAGPIE! Either way, it behooved him to be prepared for the outcome because it was his legacy. As a small child, he was sometimes confused by the many, many uncles he seemed to have, but not to forget the occasional aunts too. But then it really didn't matter because he seldom saw any of "those" kinfolk again. Mama Marmalade did get around and like her, so did he.

As he sat there at the bar slowly stirrin and sippin his drink, the plume from his CORONA EL GRANDE seemed to envelop his visage and he almost glowed in the dimly lit bar room of the New Orleans hotel lounge. "CHERRY?" They call you CHERRY? He gave the source of the voice a quick, evaluative, and penetrating glance. Potential, yes, potential. "Some do," he replied as cold as the ice that refused to melt in his BOURBON on the rocks. I met a woman in Memphis named Marmaduke, or Marmalade, or something like that and she told me to bring you this and give you a message. She said you'd have "IT" for me." He placed his hand on a knee and her legs slightly parted as she genteely perched on the bar stool next to him. Only Cherry heard the sigh escape her lips and she leaned over and whispered in his ear............

Anyone seen Mr Silas? ;) *****************************

This piece was created for the Serendipitous Nouns Game from the TimBookTu Discussion Board utilizing the following words: corona, bourbon, magpie, beacon, district, mushroom.