(An unenclosed space.)

VOICE: Would you mind coming in here for a moment?

INDEFINITE SUBJECT: Umm?

PLEADING (WITHOUT WANTING TO SEEM SO): Please, really, no harm can come to you.

WITH SLIGHT QUAVER: Harm?

CALMING ADDRESS, PALMS UPTURNED: A figure, my friend, of speech. As if I could harm you. It’s not in my charter. Please, please me with your presence.

UNABLE TO PULL THE PIECES TOGETHER: Please?

GENTLE URGE OF AN ELBOW: Come along. Thanks. Right in here, within this enclosure. Here’s the opening.

(An enclosed space.)

That wasn’t so hard was it?

SHALLOW REFLECTIVENESS: Uhrmm, no?

FEELING THAT NOW WE’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE: Exactly, no. Now that we’re here, I’d like to ask you a few questions. What do you think?

PARTLY HALFWAY UNSURE: Think?

MENTAL SHEPHERD OF WAYWARD SHEEP: You’ll have to, I believe, to respond to the queries. You see, I’m interested in you. In fact, the very you of you attracts me to you. Your youness.

BASHFUL ABOUT EXPOSED ITNESS: Really?

SEIZING OF A SLIGHT AND SLIPPERY ADVANTAGE: Of course, of course. I’m saying it, you’re believing it, then it must be true. Couldn’t you tell?

GORDIAN KNOT OF CONFUSION: Yes?

DELICATE MOVEMENT TO NEXT POINT: Refreshments? They’re free. They come with the enclosure and are included with all questioning.

HUNGRY, BUT BARELY: Sure, if it’s free then. You said it was free right?

HAVING NOT INTENDED TO MISLEAD ANYONE: Well, it’s free with the questioning. Basically free you could say. Or practically. Practically free would not be an overstatement. It’s included.

CAREFUL WEIGHING OF DESIRES: One carbohydrate and one lukewarm liquid please.

EXPRESSING UNFELT SURPRISE: An excellent selection. One of the most popular combinations. Here you go.

RESIGNEDNESS: Thanks.

FANFARE OF DIRECTNESS: Now, the following questions will require you to make a distinction. Please endeavor to do so. Please.

SIX SYLLABLES OF SERIOUSNESS: What’s a distinction?

KEEPING AN EYE ON THE CURVEBALL, WILL IT HANG?: In what way do you mean?

NOW UNSURE OF OWN QUESTION: In the way you were planning on using it.

RELIEVED AS UNDER A SNOWMELT WATERFALL: Oh that way. Yes. But that’s the way I’m using the word. So I’m afraid, to be fair to you, I can’t say. It’s all part of the questioning. Distinctions are your responsibility, not mine. Shall we continue?

WHATEVER: Oh. Yeah. Sure.

POINTEDLY GETTING DOWN TO IT: In the following situation which is more comely? The shank of a pinto or the actual, not metaphorical, eye of a peacock?

NOT WANTING TO FLUB ONE THIS EARLY: What was the situation?

VIEWING IDIOCY WITH VEILED SORROW: They’re standing there, side by side, the two of them.

POSITIVE: The shank.

SOFT INTAKE OF BREATH: When looking to the sky, where are your hands? Mind you, it’s partly cloudy.

GRASPING A STRAW: Over my ears.

BORROWED ENCOURAGEMENT: Good. Good. Now… if a machine can be perplexed, sexy, and scared, why are shoes preferred and sometimes required?

CONFIDENT, THEN LESS SO: Condensation. Wait no. Can I take that back? They call it sweat now I think, the concealment of sweat. That’s right, right?

THOUGHT SO: We have to move on. Which is a better conversation ice-breaker while waiting for a receipt at a toll booth, a landscape painting you saw once featuring a dilapidated stone wall or the notion that an idea is not known a priori but made up when events or stimuli occasion its need, that in fact knowledge is the memory of circumstances in which previously useful ideas arose?

DAMP FROM A SWIM IN THE PUBLIC POOL OF LOGIC: The extreme warmness of the weather. Always. That’s easy.

TENSED JAW OF FINAL RESOLVE: Okay, last one. Which pair do you most resemble: a sphere and a cylinder, a quail and a jack rabbit, a back hoe and a golf cart, the concept of a cosmic Good and the notion of intentional self-healing, a legal mandate and a political one, the slow walk to nowhere in particular and the jog?

WARMING BENEATH THE DAWN OF SENSE: The spoken and the unspoken. I think I’ve got this!

THE CHECKING OF A FINAL BOX: This is the final box I’m checking. Do you accept this?

DEFINITE SUBJECT: Yes.

PERFECTLY, CIRCUMSPECTLY HONEST: Okay, your scores will be mailed to you in six weeks. Thanks you. I mean, thank you. Here’s a coupon for future savings. Good day.

UNWILLING TO DRAW THE LINE: Good day?

DISINTEGRATING IMPETUS: Yes. Stop it. This is the end.

FULLY REALIZED SMILE: Bye.