"What about the entertainment?" Sigger asked.
"Soon!" replied the Lab Coat Man, misunderstanding, his eyes twinkling with an annoying but enigmatic flare.
"So," Neoldner began after the Lab Coat Man had left, "what size jacket do you wear?"
11. An Unintended Mishap
"It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking
ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them."
— Agatha Christie
Tom walked into his parents' trailer home to find Alona crying on the couch. He barely knew her, saw her only twice before, and with Kurt, so he figured she had to be a loser.
"Why are you here?" he grumbled.
"Kurt's missing!" she shouted, and let loose with a protracted wail. Tom's mother came in and hugged Tom tightly, then slapped him across the cheek. "Your cousin's gone missing, and you don't care!"
Tom rubbed his cheek and said, "He's probably just sleeping off a date with Rhonda in her backseat!"
Alona wailed again. Tom couldn't help thinking that if that wail had been sung, it would have raised the hackles of even the greatest opera devotee, a majestic solo of anguish and a thousand angry paper-cuts.
"Sorry," muttered Tom.