<meta name="LineWrap" content="true"><TITLE>SR_Bk1 0066</TITLE><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0067.txt">Next (Page 67)</A><BR><P><P>One of the customers looked over at Pepperjinc and held up a cordless phone.<P><P>"Excuse me," the customer said, without a hint of humor in her face or voice, but rather a little bitchiness, "could you tell me the range of this phone?"<P><P>Pepperjinc strode forward and examined the phone the woman was holding.<P><P>"Well let's see," Pepperjinc said. "What model is this? The Joptortec? The 4115. Yes, that would have the 14 feet of, um, range."<P><P>The woman holding the phone frowned. She said, "14 feet? Is that it? That can't be right."<P><P>"No," the other customer said, "it says here that all the phones have at least a 40-foot range."<P><P>"Ah, but," Sake said, approaching the customers, "the correct way to define the range of a phone is to take the distance it can work under the worst conditions. So the 14 feet of this model translates to, in optimal conditions, roughly ten times that distance, or approximately 114 feet!"<P><P>"Don't you mean 140 feet?" the other customer said.<P><P>"Probably," Sake said, tapping her finger on the side of her head. "I used to be good at math, but I went through a period in my life when I did a lot of mind-altering drugs, and that kinda takes the edge off the math ability in your brain."<P><P>Pepperjinc burst out laughing.<P><P>The first customer was furious.<P><P>"I don't know what this is all about, but I want to talk to a manager."<P><P>"Well babe," Sake said, "why don't you manage to get the fuck out of our store? It's easy. Just take your fucking feet and move them any which way as long as they get you closer to the goodamn door!"<P><P>Pepperjinc went into hysterics, laughing so hard she had to grasp the edge of the cordless phone display to keep from falling over.<P><P>"I demand to see a manager!" the first customer said.<P><P>The other customer took her by the sleeve, looked at Sake and Pepperjinc with a worried expression, and said, "Look, let's just get out of here. We can call the manager from home. And we can hit the Joptortec outlet store when we go out to Kim this weekend."<P><P>The first customer acquiesced, but gave Sake and Pepperjinc a very nasty look as she departed.<P><P>Sake and Pepperjinc again exchanged glances, trying to hold back from laughing. But then Sake said, "We tried!" and Pepperjinc broke out into hysterics again.<P><P>Then The Carbonize Neighbor came back.<P><P>"What's the matter girls? What happened?"<P><P>"Oh," Sake said, "um, well the customers, um, they um, they told us a really funny joke... about this guy's penis, and..."<P><P>The two women broke out into total hysterics, and The Carbonize Neighbor shook his head with a little smile.<P><P>"What's not funny is," The Carbonize Neighbor said, "this country is going to have a war next week."<P><P>--------------------------<P>CHAPTER 17<P>--------------------------<P><P>Legend has it that the hero Toal Tarby set forth on a perilous journey up the stream Adanden after dreaming of a fantastical cave at the head of the stream, and the treasures beyond reckoning it contained. That the things he described eventually became known as a payphone and a stuffed animal is a matter of great controversy. That the cave is inaccessible now is clear. But Toal Tarby's last words were that he would return with the prize, no matter how long it might take, and it might take centuries. <P><P>Well over a thousand years later, the people of this fine Earth have taken the legend of Toal Tarby as a bedrock of their society. Over the centuries, the route Tarby took gradually became more and more developed, from the village Porbe all the way to the mountainous site of the no longer accessible cave, now known as Goal. <P><P>In fact, in this time, the little stream Adanden is dwarfed by the massive wall now following its every curve, for hundreds of miles.<BR><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0067.txt">Next (Page 67)</A>