Conversation On A Train [FICTOID]

“So what do you travel in?” asked the first salesman.

“Suspenders,” said the second.

“I can see that.”

“No, really.  Suspenders.  I sell high quality suspenders to the trade.”  He popped open his briefcase and, yes indeed, it was filled to the brim with suspenders of all sorts and colors.

He snapped the case closed.  “And you?” he asked.

“Steaks,” said the first salesman.  “Unicorn steaks, to be precise.”

The second salesman paused.  “I’m sorry, I thought you just said ‘unicorn steaks’.”

“I did.”

The second salesman blinked.  “How do you catch unicorns?”

“With virgins.  We recruit them worldwide -- well, we don’t recruit them, we get their families to sign guardianship to us in exchange for an ample fee.”

“You enslave them?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to actually say that, but, yeah.”

The second salesman recoiled in disgust.

“Don’t be like that,” the first said.  “The final product is quite worthy of all our efforts.  So worthy it absolves us of any ethical / legal / moral / philosophical / theological guilt.”

The train plunged into the maw of a tunnel, the darkness abruptly interrupting their conversation.

The second salesman hoped it would never come out.

© Buzz Dixon