Who Is That On The Telephono?

   No.6 "I know your voice."
   No.2 "I've been here before."
   "During the chimes of Big Ben."
   "Did you hear the chimes?"
   "Yes, but they played me false!"
   "How so?"
   "I was slow!"
   "That's not like you Number Six!"
   "Big Ben struck eight, my watch said eight."
   "So what was the problem?"
   "I was slow!"
   "Yes you've already said that."
   "I mean the watch was slow."
   "Oh I see."
   "I'm on yellow."
   "What do you mean by that?"
   "Oh come along Number Six and play the game! I'm on yellow."
   {Number 6 thinks for a moment}
   "I'm on black!"
   "You see it's not difficult is it.........why did you resign?"
   "What?"
   "Well tell me why do you care?"
   "I don't."
   "Don't give me that! Why do you care?"
   "Why do you ask? Why do you need to know?"
   "I don't, it's, it's Number One!"
   "Well ask him, he knows!"
   "Who?"
   "Number One."
   "Why him?"
   "Because he's Number One. And don't we all look after Number One?"
   "You mean to tell me that you are Number One?!"
   "Yes."
   "That's your over weaning sense of self-importance kicking in again! You're an egomania!"
   "So you came back?"
   "They brought me back here, and it's as though I've never been away!"
   "Yes, the Village can be like that."
   "Like what?"
  " Home from home."
   "For you perhaps. There you are in your comfortable home from home, an almost exact replica of your home......"
   "Apart for the kitchen."
  "Yes."
  "The bedroom."
   "Yes."
   "The bathroom."
   "But the door does slide to the left, and the taps are on the wrong way round!"
   "Yes."
   "And your study is identical to the one in your home."
   "Yes."
   "So?"
  "It's still a cell when all is said and done."
  "A very comfortable cell."
  "Well what have you got to complain about?"
  "At the end of the day it's still a cell."
  "A very comfortable cell. Do you know where I live?"
   "In the Green Dome."
   "As if! All I have is a small room along one of the tunnels beneath the Village. That's where I live!"
   "Tell me why do you care?"
  "You'll never know."
  "Look don't you hang up on me. Damn it, he hung up!"

BCNU