| The Quantity of Evil It was an abandoned warehouse, and I was pogo-sticking after bugs under a carpet. I had three so far, but it wasn�t enough to feed my goldfish. Then the green faces of the soldiers interrupted me, aiming fresh packs of blackjack bubblegum munitions. One forgot to put camouflage paint on one ear � a pink swirl of skin among the earth colors. It looked sweet, so I didn�t tell him. Two of them pointed their gum at me. I gladly accepted. I like licorice. They all looked a bit baffled. I invited my guests to sit down and offered tea. The pink-eared fellow had two cups. We chatted about their hometowns and the cars they wanted. They told me about their favorite baseball teams. One of them kept staring at a yo-yo I had lying around, so we got him shooting the moon and making cat�s cradles. Two others played with bouncy balls. One of them grabbed a can of silly string so the rest of us grabbed cans too and ducked for cover. Ten minutes later we were all laughing and my yo-yo was broken. It�ll be easy to replace. |