Tracey turned his head to the side and looked out the window. Evening was falling faster than he had planned for. Lost in his own thoughts he had forgotten the time.

The bounce and glimmer of the green fluorescent lights in the tower block across the street cast uncertain shadows across the darkening pavement, and the sun, as it dipped, left an amorphous sense of the shape that been crisp under its earlier warmth.

Instinctively, he turned his collar up against the impending cold and sunk his hands into the warm folds of his overcoat pockets. His tongue found the comforting groove in the gap between his two front teeth and stayed there. He gave a low, almost inaudible, whistle. Beer bottles clinked and the familiar aroma of soaked cotton shirts and bitter sweet hops clung to him for a moment in a comforting embrace.

Moving faster now, he crossed the street towards the angular tower block that he now knew as ‘home’.

In the daytime, it fronted as an office but Tracey had known too many a solitary night on the short-end sofa lately to consider it just a place of work any more. Too many nights of sweating over cases but at least it was his and his alone. A place where he could move freely without criticism or the recriminations of the less informed.

Waiting on the table would be his knife. The only one he really needed. It didn’t whine like a pet and it sure didn’t need constant feeding.

Strong, angular, and smooth like his bourbon, there was nothing about this traditional kitchen santoku with its stacked wooden handle that mimicked blandness. Just like its maker had said, it defied sameness - and that, right at this point in his life, was all he needed.
 
Technical Specs:
Blade: N690 Stainless Steel
Handle: Collection of Stabilised Woods including Puriri, Walnut, Oak, Pohutukawa and Purple Heart with handmade aqua blue resin bolster
Spine: 2.5mm; Overall Length: 315mm; Blade Length: 155mm; Blade Width: 48mm; Handle Length: 145mm; Weight: 180 grams