Artifact

JOVE: The propitiation of lightning? Numa, my boy, this is very serious business. The thunderbolt is my direst weapon.

NUMA: That's why I've come.

JOVE: Have you consulted Pythagoras?

NUMA: Indeed. The symbols construe nothing pertinent.

JOVE: How about your wife? And, by the way, how is the little nymph getting on?

NUMA: Very well, thank you. It was Egeria who sent me to you.

JOVE: Ah. Well, as I said, Numa, it's a serious business. First I demand a head. Are you taking this down?

NUMA: Certainly, Sir. Just what sort of head?

JOVE: What do you mean, what sort of head? A head is a head is a head.

NUMA: So it is, Sir. One head of garlic it is.

JOVE: Garlic! Human, Numa, I meant human! A human head, my boy!

NUMA: Even the Father of the gods must be precise. A head of human hair, Sir, so it is.

JOVE: No! Damn it! A Life....

NUMA: A life? Of course, Sir, the life of a sprat. That's a small fish, Sir, rather a herring.

JOVE: A sprat! A HERRING! Numa I meant a human life!

NUMA: A life is a life is a life.

[copyright EAC, from Procuratio Fulminis, Or: The Thrid Resumed]



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