Two Husbands'... Part 2, Chapter 30

Included In Two Numbers

 

Numbers in the window

 

(A joyous richness permeates the atmosphere of the Two Husbands’ offices as the new formal numbers continue to address the two men)

 

NARRATOR

This number Seven is very good!

Sharp but dangerous - but good.

Floating, flying, bouncing,

banging, ringing,

saying...

 

NUMBER SEVEN addressing the Two Husbands,

Lout! Louts!

Get your bags ready!

though you get none.

Get ready, for I am here!

We’re here!

All Sevens, all Sixes, Sevens, Fives,

Fours and the rest.

All Zeros, complete.

All the blank nothings you have

forlornly but justly imagined.

And, we’re here,

    we’re here!

And we’ll bank you over

    continents,

    Saharas,

    oceans

and so on, in space-less space

and timeless, formless,

    unchanging time,

to your brave and hardy wives two

    (busy elsewhere

    but not forgotten).

So, the sense seems in you

    to go there -

    where they are not forgotten.

 

I think we numbers can take you there.

But, you must take care

    to be included -

    fitted in to us,

    wrapped in.

 

NUMBER SIX

Yes, mantled over.

 

NUMBER FIVE

Speeded.

 

NUMBER SEVEN

Put to us - meaning, flown away

from here - as if bird-powered.

So, use your two hearts to get into

    this business.

It is highly different than economics,

or any chemical inventing.

 

SMALLY

This is unbelievable!

 

NUMBER FOUR

Yes, it’s more easily stabilized.

You will like it better for this sort of traveling,

if you fit in. So try it.

Seven will figure it out.

Seven won’t release you until

you are ready and waiting.

 

NUMBER SEVEN

So, compromise.

And become Dutch, double-dutch -

mixed up with us number-times all!

 

(The Husbands are quickly inserted into two of the numbers)

 

BIGGY

We’re bunched in like

a mummy’s coffin.

 

SMALLY

Yeah, it feels like

I’m spreading

like wheat in a mixer,

twisted and turned

by number Eight.

 

BIGGY

Or Seven.

 

SMALLY

Yeah, how do they do balancing?

 

BIGGY

How do they do spinning or traveling?

Isn’t it amazing?

 

SMALLY

Maybe... They are used to going somewhere, mixing in;

even though they say they want to be considered, always,

as being separate - as only being their own selves.

Yet, they extend indefinitely.

 

BIGGY

And that’s how we stand in them.

 

SMALLY

Or, lay down!

 

BIGGY

Will we reach our wives

using this numbers’ rebellion?

 

SMALLY

We’ll find out!

 

BIGGY

Or, will they reach us, traveling on numbers too?

How will our numbers combine with theirs accurately?

 

SMALLY taken aback,

Maybe in mid-air? Or in mid-space?

 

BIGGY

Maybe we’ll smash into them?

 

SMALLY perturbed,

This isn’t a scientific experiment

    used by us.

We are traveling on the numbers’ own power,

   not on ours.

So, let go of all conjecturing!

 

 

(End of Chapter 30)