All week long people have been walking up to Kurt and congratulating him on being the winner this week at Dotty’s Café. A photo of him aboard his boat “One Lucky Dog” only adds to the irony. Kurt’s wife, Eileen relayed her intention of filing for divorce on a yellow lined post it attached to the toaster where he’d be sure to find it. Kurt did not see it coming. Each person who shoots him a cheery thumbs up, claps him on the back with envy, only adds to Kurt’s misery.  Kurt tells himself that the weather is still too raw, too windy to put his boat in for lobster season. But last year at this time, after admittedly a relatively mild winter, Kurt was hauling in a bumper crop of lobsters. The truth is Kurt’s stomach is one big knot which is why the fine apple tatin owed him by Dotty by virtue of having won the weekly contest chills in his refrigerator forgotten. And while he longs for the distraction of hard work, he also wants to think things through and formulate a plan. Back in college, he majored in math, researching the calculations that eventually were codified into Knot Theory. Examining his life from a mathematical perspective, he could say with confidence that his martial problems suggest a future of unknown complexity.  If he were Alexander conquering the new world, he’d simply take out his sword and slice through the obstacles. But where to slice and who bears the brunt of his aggression are not easy questions to answer. So he picks at the tatin until its taste and buttery goodness calms him down.