couldn't tell if Sprenger did or not. We never got loosened up with each other. He'd grunt. He always seemed bored, like I was taking too long. Okay. I'll say the sort of thing I said to Sprenger. It won't be exact, but it will be close."
I watched intently. I had them do a repeat of Mary Alice looking back through the book to see if there was room on a prior page to put the new Barbados stamps with the previous Barbados stamps. I had Hirsh take the book and leaf through it and give it back to Mary Alice. She put it in the fiber slip case and handed it to Hirsh. He opened the box and put the stock book in and closed the lid.
"Then I picked up the box and started to stand up, but he said he had some money. I thought he had it with him so I sat down, but he said he would be in touch and get it to me soon. I haven't seen it yet. We left the room. When I came out of the vault, he was gone. Mary Alice was waiting for me. We walked back to the store. Like always, I would have been kind of depressed. He never said, 'Very nice. Very pretty.' Nothing. You like people to take an interest. But I was too scared to be depressed. I was terrified. My head was spinning. I almost told this girl."
"You should have told me, Hirsh. Really."
"I should worry your pretty head with total disaster?"
She looked at me. "Did you see anything?"
"Nothing at all. Did you always do it that way?"
"Always," she said. "With him and the other clients too. Just like that. Except it's more fun with the others."
Meyer said, "Do either of you remember a distraction? Did anybody yell fire, drop anything, fall off a chair?"
They remembered nothing like that. They had been buoyed by a fragile hope. It seeped away. Hirsh went from looking sixty-two to looking ninety-two. Meyer was somber. The girl bit her thumb knuckle and blinked rapidly. So we all got out of there. We went back to the shop. Jane Lawson looked at us with anxious query when we all walked in. Hirsh and Mary Alice shook their heads no. Jane looked bitterly depressed. An old man with hair like Brillo sat erect on a stool, using gold tongs with great deftness as, one by one, he examined stamps and replaced them in the stock book in front of him. "Fedderman," he said, "everything here is perfectly ordinary, quite tiresome, exceedingly unremarkable."
"Colonel, if I had looked through them, I would have known that, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"And then if I told you I had not looked through them, I would be lying. Right? Believe me, that book is exactly the way I found it, in one of the cartons. If it's tiresome, I'm sorry."
"Huh!" said the Colonel.
"What?" asked Fedderman.
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Wait. You put this one back crooked. Let me help you. What do you know? Look, Mary Alice. A nice double surcharge on Canada C3. Doesn't that go pretty good?"
"Like about seventy dollars in Scott, Mr. Fedderman.''
"See, Colonel? In the middle of all this junk, a nice little error. Let me see. Original gum. Never hinged. Nice centering. To you, Colonel, only forty dollars."
"Forty!"
"I know," said Mary Alice. "That surprises me too, sir. It ought to be fifty-five at least."
"Well… put it aside, dear girl," said the colonel.
They meshed smoothly and well, did Fedderman and Mary Alice. She went behind the counter. Meyer and I went back to Fedderman's office with him and closed the door.
"Now what?" Fedderman asked out of the depths of his despair.
"One thing I know," Meyer said. "The impossible doesn't ever happen. Only possible things happen."
"To me the impossible happens," said Fedderman.
"If it isn't you and it isn't Sprenger," Meyer said, "then it has to be Mary Alice."
"Impossible!"
"So we are comparing two impossible things, and it being Mary Alice is not quite as impossible as what happened."
"Maybe I follow you," Hirsh said. "My head hurts. I hurt all over. I'm coming down. I should be in bed with a pill."
"Did she bring that same purse," I asked Fedderman.
"Purse?"
"The one she had
I watched intently. I had them do a repeat of Mary Alice looking back through the book to see if there was room on a prior page to put the new Barbados stamps with the previous Barbados stamps. I had Hirsh take the book and leaf through it and give it back to Mary Alice. She put it in the fiber slip case and handed it to Hirsh. He opened the box and put the stock book in and closed the lid.
"Then I picked up the box and started to stand up, but he said he had some money. I thought he had it with him so I sat down, but he said he would be in touch and get it to me soon. I haven't seen it yet. We left the room. When I came out of the vault, he was gone. Mary Alice was waiting for me. We walked back to the store. Like always, I would have been kind of depressed. He never said, 'Very nice. Very pretty.' Nothing. You like people to take an interest. But I was too scared to be depressed. I was terrified. My head was spinning. I almost told this girl."
"You should have told me, Hirsh. Really."
"I should worry your pretty head with total disaster?"
She looked at me. "Did you see anything?"
"Nothing at all. Did you always do it that way?"
"Always," she said. "With him and the other clients too. Just like that. Except it's more fun with the others."
Meyer said, "Do either of you remember a distraction? Did anybody yell fire, drop anything, fall off a chair?"
They remembered nothing like that. They had been buoyed by a fragile hope. It seeped away. Hirsh went from looking sixty-two to looking ninety-two. Meyer was somber. The girl bit her thumb knuckle and blinked rapidly. So we all got out of there. We went back to the shop. Jane Lawson looked at us with anxious query when we all walked in. Hirsh and Mary Alice shook their heads no. Jane looked bitterly depressed. An old man with hair like Brillo sat erect on a stool, using gold tongs with great deftness as, one by one, he examined stamps and replaced them in the stock book in front of him. "Fedderman," he said, "everything here is perfectly ordinary, quite tiresome, exceedingly unremarkable."
"Colonel, if I had looked through them, I would have known that, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"And then if I told you I had not looked through them, I would be lying. Right? Believe me, that book is exactly the way I found it, in one of the cartons. If it's tiresome, I'm sorry."
"Huh!" said the Colonel.
"What?" asked Fedderman.
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Wait. You put this one back crooked. Let me help you. What do you know? Look, Mary Alice. A nice double surcharge on Canada C3. Doesn't that go pretty good?"
"Like about seventy dollars in Scott, Mr. Fedderman.''
"See, Colonel? In the middle of all this junk, a nice little error. Let me see. Original gum. Never hinged. Nice centering. To you, Colonel, only forty dollars."
"Forty!"
"I know," said Mary Alice. "That surprises me too, sir. It ought to be fifty-five at least."
"Well… put it aside, dear girl," said the colonel.
They meshed smoothly and well, did Fedderman and Mary Alice. She went behind the counter. Meyer and I went back to Fedderman's office with him and closed the door.
"Now what?" Fedderman asked out of the depths of his despair.
"One thing I know," Meyer said. "The impossible doesn't ever happen. Only possible things happen."
"To me the impossible happens," said Fedderman.
"If it isn't you and it isn't Sprenger," Meyer said, "then it has to be Mary Alice."
"Impossible!"
"So we are comparing two impossible things, and it being Mary Alice is not quite as impossible as what happened."
"Maybe I follow you," Hirsh said. "My head hurts. I hurt all over. I'm coming down. I should be in bed with a pill."
"Did she bring that same purse," I asked Fedderman.
"Purse?"
"The one she had
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