Wading through shallow water at the beach, have you ever stepped on a rock lobster?

  Nah? What if I told you I can turn a rock into a lobster and vice versa. It's trivial. Unfortunately, right now, I am having dinner with Pablo. Pablo is my handler.

  "Jack, now listen, we need you to py less and work more.

  "You can't - and I mean can't - make another mess.

  "Are you listening to me? Jack!"

  I wonder what Pablo would be like as a lobster. He could be one, a giant one probably. The change seems interesting...

  "Now don't you forget - and I mean don't..."

  Pablo enjoys crifying himself. Curious fellow seems to believe that makes it more real.

  "... where your magic's coming from..."

  He continues his ramblings while trying to stab a tomato with his fork. I sigh. Mate's hopeless. I grab his fork. It's simply not made for stabbing tomatoes.

  He looks at me with that curious expression on his face. The kind people get when they really need to use the bathroom.

  "Chopsticks or tongs?"

  I ask him.

  "W-what?" he stutters.

  Tongs it is. I look at the fork and it really is meant to be tongs. I use my thumb to push two of the four tines together, then I do the same for the other two. A little pull, and the fork splits right down the middle.

  Now all it needs is a little flexibility...

  "W-what are you d-doing?"

  ... And finished! I hand Pablo the tongs.

  "Now eat your tomato."

  Thinking of it, his face is just as red. His head is simir to a tomato.

  "I am not here to eat tomatoes!"

  Is he angry?

  "Then why did you order them?"

  "That's not my point, you are!"

  A point, huh? I've been a line before, but never a point. And it was only for a moment. You cannot stay a line for too long, 2D is very restrictive.

  "Let me be frank here, Jack. If you do not start improving your attitude pronto - and I mean pronto - we will cut you off."

  Cut me off? That would be interesting. Maybe that's what's been limiting my imagination. Since I cannot remember ever being restricted, I do not know how to undo those restrictions.

  "For how long would I be cut off?"

  Pablo, who had just used his fingers to put a tomato in his mouth, choked and spat out the half-chewed tomato.

  I wonder why he didn't use the tongs. If he did not need them, why did he not use his fingers from the start?

  "For how long? From now till kingdom come, Jack."

  Kingdom come is another one of Pablo's favorite expressions. Unlike what it suggests, it refers to no time at all, never. It is not an order to found a kingdom.

  "I understand. What is your vision?"

  "The President of Brolun is coming here next week. We don't care how you do it, but his pne must never - and I mean never - touch the ground."

  "Where in the sky is it?"

  "The sky?"

  "Yes."

  "There are several pnes he might take."

  "So you do not know where they are?"

  "We do not need to. Now don't ask how we know, but we know he will be at Boge airport..."

  "How will he get to the pne?"

  "What the heck are you talking about Jack!"

  "Is there a dder or..."

  "Why the... Forget it, it does not matter. Simply make sure you blow him and his fucking pne to smithereens, and I mean..."

  "Smithereens, understood."

  And that's how we parted ways.