Never Before Such Great Faith

The wheel spins.

Look! says Terence. It's working!

That's the snake's tail, says Ageless. The wheel has to go on a pencil.

Bumhole! says Terence. That's no good then.

He pulls off the wheel and tries again with a pencil.

No need to hurry, says Pinky. We're going with Brad after lunch, on the sauce bottle.

IN the sauce bottle, I was thinking, says Brad.

No, no, says Kobo. How will the wind blow our hair?

I wasn't factoring that in, says Brad. For obvious reasons.

You mean neither of us has hair, says Kobo. That is irrelevant.

Yes, says Ageless. Irrelevant. They are both flesh and blood beauties.

Not exactly, says Kobo.

Allow me my fantasies, says Ageless.

Allow us ours, says Kobo.

I get it, says Brad. Sure, you girls can ride on the sauce bottle.

Lunch is ready, says Humboldt, who has cooked it.

The eaters sit down to eat it.

This is excellent, says Gaius. Well done the Italians for inventing a pasta shape which holds so much sauce in.

Actually, says Brad, it was the Chinese.

In that case, well done the Chinese, says Gaius, wiping his chin with his hanky.

Makes you wonder, says Humboldt.

Wonder what? asks Brad.

What they did with the cut out bits, says Humboldt. They don't waste anything, the Chinese.

Gaius grabs the nearest pencil.

That's a pixel! cries Terence.

Gaius is sorry. There were other pencils available. He ought not to have .....and so on.

I'll just use it, then put it back. says Gaius.

He draws a pasta wheel on a sheet from his notebook. Then he draws the cut out bits.

Several miniscule truncated segments, and one tiny circle.

What might they be used for?

Additions to soup, perhaps, suggests Humboldt.

Or they roll it out again and make noodles, says Brad.

He gets up to rinse out the sauce bottle.

How will we actually arrange ourselves on it? asks Pinky.

Mm, how? says Kobo. I'm totally rigid, and round on the bottom.

And I'm the opposite, says Pinky.

Fish glue? asks Gaius.

NO! cry Pinky and Kobo together.

That would spoil the aesthetic.

Wonga vine, says Brad. Our mob use it for everything.

Can I come? asks Terence. I need a break from these pixels.

Yes, says Brad. You can figure out the logistics.

Wow-yippee!

Terence has never before had such great faith put in him.