A Fine Line

The midday air was too good to waste indoors, so I took a brisk walk down the commercial strip to check out the art shop's sidewalk clearance cart. Among the loose bins of charcoal and paint tubes, a shallow metal tray caught my eye. It was packed with assorted metallic gel pens. Resting my shopping bags securely against the wheeled cart frame, I picked up an industrial chrome silver marker and gave the tip a firm test stroke right across a scrap strip of cardboard clipped to the rim. It laid down a thick, liquid-mirror line that dried without smudging. Exactly the punch I need for labeling my blank cassette tapes. I paid at the outdoor register and slipped the marker right into my pocket.