Here’s a cut from my next book. It’s the opening, in fact. From Chapter One, “Cracker.”
“Hello there! Mr. Knox?”
“Yes,” I said.
My name is Calvin Luther Knox.
But everyone calls me Cracker.
“I’ve been searching all over for you!”
“And now your search is complete, sir.” I bowed.
“Are you the one they call—Cracker?”
See?
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh. Well then. Good.”
He mopped his forehead with a red kerchief. I looked at him until he started talking.
“There’s a problem, it seems.”
“Splendid. There could have been an actual problem.”
“No, sir.” He looked down and scratched. “I mean, it seems there’s a problem because there is a problem. Which is why it seems that way.”
I slapped the table. “That’s another matter entirely then!”