Painting a Chair

Nursing a hangover with a beer, a man sets up outside his garage to repaint a wooden chair, and Gavin pulls up on his bike to supervise. The boy keeps circling back to the same offer to do the painting himself, and each refusal sets off another breathless tall tale: an eight-year-old classmate living as a fugitive, a priceless coyote skeleton, a gang of teenagers who trained a dog to go door to door collecting cigarettes, and a metal-headed sewer beast that only expensive perfume can slow. The man answers with polite one-word replies and paints faster and faster, finally holding out the brush only to snatch it back when Gavin asks what the job pays. After a brief detour into English spoon customs, which the man embellishes himself, Gavin is refused an onion and pedals off to rejoin the big bike race he claims to be in the middle of.