He was older not like you know ancient or anything but he was probably about 15 years older than me so he was maybe the age I am now or somewhere around there I don't know
And he was a very interesting character
He was really nice
And I think he had been in sales for a long time
But I'm not entirely certain
Because he wasn't a very reliable narrator
I liked him
But I wasn't entirely certain he wasn't a pathological liar
Because you know he would tell these stories
He'd been married like seven or eight times
And all of these women had jobs like
FBI agent
Model
I can't remember
And he was like my height ish
Any looked a little like a leprechaun
Which I guess you know he was Irish
And I guess probably some percentage of Irish people look like leprechauns
And you know he'd been in the nam
But he wasn't really old enough to have been in the nam you know what I mean
And he would tell these stories about how they would give him a gun and he would throw it away because they were no good when you're you know going down the river they just get wet
And whatever right he was a colorful character
And I think I hired him on as a shift supervisor
Or maybe I hired him on as a barista because I couldn't hire people as shift supervisors and then got him promoted as quickly as possible I can't remember
And then I got him promoted to assistant manager
And then he was working for somebody else so I guess he got himself promoted to manager
But you know we worked his way up
And he had I'm going to guess this is true
He'd had cancer
And the woman who was his nurse
She was maybe 10 or 15 years older than him
And she was a widow I guess
Her husband had been a doctor I think and had left her a lot of money
But they fell in love while she was nursing him back to health and they got married
And her grown children thought he was kind of a shystery con man and was trying to take her money
And you know that might have been true
But they did seem to love each other
So anyway that was all just kind of background
But he gave me some fountain pens for Christmas I think
And when he gave me the first one
It was a montblanc they were all montblanc's
And I'm like Kevin this is too expensive of a gift for you to give me
And he was like no no he was trying to you know work some kind of relationship with the salesman at dromgoole's and you know something I don't know some kind of story about how it was a multi-platform thing and the pen was going to be bought regardless kind of
But he didn't really like fountain pens
And he knew I liked fountain pens
And so he gave me several of them
Over the course of I don't know a few years
And there was one I haven't found yet that I actually used a pretty fair amount
Including at work and stuff which wasn't a good idea
But that was just a fairly simple one
And I didn't really understand how expensive montblancs were because I hadn't really priced them I just knew they were kind of expensive
And so the simplest one I figured you know was 150 bucks something like that
But it probably actually was more
So I was going through and I'm like where are these fountain pens I know I've got them boxed up somewhere
Cuz I never really unpacked a lot of stuff
Somehow I just thought
You know I don't know any moment I would be going
Plus pretty shortly after I moved to this place
My father died
And then you got married
And I like winning to this horrible depression and I just didn't give a s*** so I just packed the stuff in the closet and I didn't unpack it
But I knew there were fountain pens
So I'm going through boxes and I'm going through boxes and I'm not seeing any fountain pens and I'm like where are the fountain pens
So I finally get to the box that has the fountain pens in it
And like I said that one that I know I used I can't find it's probably in my desk somewhere
But I'm looking at the other ones
I'm one of them's just kind of a plain one that's purple
And one of them is this really strange little pen that's got this retractable thing and whatever and it's really cute and I'm going to have to clean it cuz it looks like I used it but then packed it up and let them dry in it which is not good
But I'm reasonably certain that it was not blocked ink so it'll wash out
Their ink is really good about not being difficult to remove
But then I found this other box
It was like display case box you know with the satin inside leather case or leatherette
And this pin is totally pristine I'm confident I didn't use it
And I'm looking at it and I'm going well no wonder I didn't use it this pen looks really expensive
And there's nothing on the box saying you know what kind what the pin is called or anything about the pen
But it clearly seems like some kind of special edition pin because it's got all this design and stuff on it
And most of their pens are made out of precious resin which is what they call their plastic and maybe it's fancy plastic but it's plastic
But this is not
The barrel of this pin has this technique on it that I don't know what it's called when I was looking the pin up I think it's called like guilloche (I looked it up) but it's a technique that they do on fountain pens and various other things it's a time-consuming and like jewelry quality technique and then they put this really beautiful transparent lacquer over it so it makes a pattern and this is making kind of a wave pattern and it's this beautiful bright blue color
I don't know it's just I'm looking at it and I'm like this and most beautiful thing I've ever seen
So I mean it's some kind of special edition I'm looking it up and since it's so distinctly different looking I was able to find it reasonably quickly it's their writer series Jules Verne from 2003
But as I'm standing here looking at it now I'm like I don't know this like $1,000 pen
And I don't know how much it cost when it was new but it caused way more than that to buy it on the secondary market now
But those special limited edition writers series is they're expensive pens they're not like the regular expensive Mont Blanc pens they're you know super collectible
But they also come in fancy cases that say you know what they are and I don't exactly remember when he gave me this pen I don't exactly remember having this pen
It's possible that he gave it to me You know after he had become a manager and been like oh I want to thank you for everything you did for me blah blah blah
And maybe the store had it as a display of model and they didn't have the case anymore and he got it at a discount rate or something cuz he bought the floor model maybe or maybe they just sold it to him they said if you want to buy it you could buy it but we don't have the box that came in we'll give you a box I don't know
I would not like to speculate on other ways that he might have gotten it without having the box that it came with
And I don't really think he stole it
I just think it's possible that he stole it
Or that the salesman stole it and sold it to him at a cut rate or something I don't know
but my initial thought was oh you know when I find these Mont Blanc fountain pens I don't really need montblanc fountain pens I can sell them
But I don't think I'm going to be able to sell these pens
I mean either too amazing
And be in retrospect I'm very sentimental about them
Which is weird
And you know I kind of
Wish there was a way that I could thank him again for them because they kind of mean more to me somehow than they did when he gave them to me
I guess maybe my appreciation of fountain pens is a little more refined now I don't know
But I looked him up a few years ago and then I looked him up again today and he he died 10 years ago
Anyway I'm not going to post a picture
Because I don't think I could do it justice
But there are a couple of short videos that just show the pin rotating under good lights
YouTube wasn't around yet when it came out
And I guess nobody has done a review on it having bought it before YouTube or on the secondary market
I suspect the videos they're like a minute long each or something I suspect they were for someone to link to something where they were trying to sell theirs
And I found $45
