Joseph thought a moment then asked, "Why am I here?"

Karol grinned broadly. "Now we are getting somewhere."

An uncomfortable silence, seeming to last about six weeks, fell between them. Joseph realized it was his turn to speak. "So… why am I here?"

Karol gave him a strange look. "How should I know?"

"But… I thought you would know."

"What gave you that impression?"

"Well, you did, Karol. Through all of this you've implied that you know everything. You've made it seem like you're just toying with me, making me suffer for the answers."

Karol grinned. Cake crumbs fell from the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, I did do that, didn't I? I was just fucking with you. Sorry about that."

Joseph was stunned. He sat slackjawed for several minutes. How could his mentor do this to him?

The silence again became uncomfortable. Not knowing what else to do, he reached for a handful of candies.

"Mmm. You'll like those, Joseph. They're the best krowki I've ever had."

Joseph said nothing.

Most unexpectedly, a pig then began to hover at the edge of the table. Its ponderous bulk was impossibly supported by tiny wings beating slowly in the stillness.

The pig looked at Joseph and spoke with a nearly-human voice. "This story sucks. Don't you know that all the best allegories have talking animals? You don't even have any rabbits."

Joseph said nothing. The pig made a movement that looked suspiciously like a shrug, then took a poppy seed cake in its mouth and fluttered away.

"Karol, what was that?"

"Why do you keep looking to me for the answers? Ask that putz behind the keyboard."

"What keyboard? What are you talking about?"

Karol sighed heavily. "You just don't get any of this, do you? We are part of an unfinished story."

"I don't understand."

"You don't understand shit, do you, Joseph? There's this guy, right? And he's writing this story, right? The story is about you and me. You with me so far?"

Joseph nodded apprehensively.

"The story is unfinished. There's no conclusion yet. You and I must sit here and wait."

"Ok, I follow you so far," Joseph said, thought he wasn't sure he followed at all.

"We have the kind of freedom right now that we have never known. We're between chapters. We're not bound by morality, ethics, physics, history, or even time. For us, reality itself ceases to exist when we're between chapters."

"I see. I think." Joseph thought a moment then asked, "Why am I here?"

"Dammit! Haven't you been listening to anything I've said? The guy behind the keyboard doesn't have an answer to that question yet. We're between chapters! We're not bound to the narrow confines of one guy's story. We can do anything!"

"Anything? Really?"

"Yes, Joseph, anything."

Joseph's brow furrowed. He was obviously thinking very hard.

"Karol?"

"Yes, Joseph?"

"Can we get some hookers?"

Karol grinned broadly. "Now we are getting somewhere."