Disclaimer: I didn't write and don't own the characters of Jeeves and Bertie, and I'm making no money out of this.

Can't Quite Put My Finger On It

A rummy thing occurred to me once before dinner. You know how one sort of gets these epiphanies, or notices strange coincidences, all of a sudden while having a snifter before dinner and thinking of this and that.

So I put it to Jeeves, as it rather concerned him. "Jeeves," I said, "heaven bless you, Jeeves, we all know you've got me out of twenty tight spots if you've got me out of one, so I was saying to myself, how did I ever live before Jeeves came along? And it occurred to me that I haven't been in spots half as tight as the ones you've helped me out of before you were there to help me out of them, if you follow."

"Yes, sir," he said in that smooth, calming voice of his. "It is fortuitous that I have been able to assist you in, as you say, your tightest spots."

"Yes. Quite," I said, feeling the matter was not quite settled, but not knowing how to specify just what seemed so off about the whole thing. But then Jeeves handed me a telegram that put the whole thing out of my mind, being a telegram that, as telegrams so often recently have, initiated a concatenation of events that led up to one of those t.s.'s.

Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder sometimes if there's some connection I'm missing. The thought came to me again the other day when I asked Jeeves if he'd like a game of chess. Chess isn't a game I'm particularly fond of, but I thought it would be just the sort of thing that would titillate a great mind like Jeeves's. To my surprise, he declined. "Thank you, sir," he said, "but I have just finished a few rounds at the Junior Ganymede."

"Yes, well, one must keep the grey cells busy, I expect, train the brain like a muscle, eh, Jeeves?"

"Indeed, sir. One likes to keep a game or three going at all times. Although I must confess, I find a game more interesting when the movements of the pieces are less easily predicted, as in the case of human lives, where actions are the result of several, often unseen influences."

A perfectly understandable sentiment, not a word out of place or any of that sort of thing, not that there ever is with Jeeves, but I felt that rummy feeling again, like a prenomiker. Was it prenomiker? No, premonition. That's the bunny. Or intuition. It reminded me of that previously discussed notion, of what a rummy thing it is that the thing you need is there no sooner than when you need it, the thing in this particular case being Jeeves.

Perhaps one of these days I'll figure it all out.