< ( * )( * ) >

When I get to Brenke Fish Ladder parking lot, it is still unclear where or what Brenke Fish Ladder is. I use the passport parking app to select as close to a one-hour timeslot as I can with frozen fingers (it’s 17 degrees and snowing), and it amounts to $1.42.

What do I need? What is authentic? A reinvigorated sense of mischievousness and mystery? I don’t know what Brenke Fish Ladder is, and I don’t look it up, either, so anything could be it. There’s a metal sculpture of an oak…

… and there’s a Spanish style building with red bricks over the windows that make it fancy and diplomatic even though it faces a parking lot with graffiti and potholes. Two balconies jut out from the building, one with a small metal chair and another, below, with a Christmas tree peeking out the top. Is this part of Brenke Fish Ladder, I wonder? Is this Brenke’s house, or did it used to be? Who is Brenke?