(xx) Deadman's Trick

Well sir, the new day meal is just over as we enter the small house halfway up in the next block now. We find Vic, Sage and young Russell in the kitchen lingering at the table and chatting discursively about this, that and the other thing.

The master of the monage is holding forth at the moment and we hear him saying, The mechanical principles back at the operation of your washing machine are as simple as ABC. In the first place, simply reflect that electricity is harnessed to the comparatively simple device of a system of reviving blades which more than...

Oh, ishvik, I don't care. Willie, why don't you finish up that little dab of tapioca pudding? Okay. You don't care how your washing machine works? No. I can't repress a feeling of astonishment. No, try.

You live with that washing machine. You manipulate as levers, buttons and controls. You watch the wonders it performs, and yet not the tiniest surge of curiosity rises in your breast. Just so it works is all that interests me.

But when you touch the electric button, when the sleeping monster comes to triumphant life, when an inanimate object will be... What, sleeping monsters? The wash machine. From a still inanimate piece of warden metal, it is instantaneously transformed into a living throbbing servant eager to do your work.

Oh, and talk about something else. I can't repress a feeling of astonishment. Fine. Anybody want to hear about Brutus Johnson sliding to home plate this morning on his stomach? No. I can draw you simple diagram showing the mechanical principles back at the operation of your washing machine that a child could understand.