Otto's Night Watch: 'Day of the Magnolia Blossom' ... Flashback Friday

Moppsie wiggled the stump for her tail as she looked up at us with her white blind eyes. She knew we were talking about her.

I offered Speedy Smith a drink from the flask of scotch I carried in my pocket. I knew he had a few things to say.

“Remember the magnolia blossom?” he began. “The girl told me I was crazy and I had the feeling she might be right. So I went to see a head shrinker. He told me I was losing my capacity to feel like a human being. When I insisted that I was quite happy as a bachelor, he shook his head and told me to get emotionally involved with something that had a heart and soul. That’s when Moppsie came into my life.”