THE BARGE

A man in a sailor cap is seated across Enigma Consultants’ desk.
“Let’s see if I’ve understood…” Michael is saying, “You were sailing in a barge up the Hudson River when you suddenly disappeared from there and appeared on a vinegar pickle packaging company in Arkansas.”
“That’s it! And now Derny Pickled Gherkins is taking me to court for damages caused.”
“Because more than one thousand pickled gherkins jars have been brought to market completely empty.”
“Put yourself in my shoes! You are hungry and suddenly piles of succulent gherkins begin to pass through your hands. What would you do?!”
Here Jacob intervenes: “That makes sense. He couldn’t know that he had to put the gherkins in the jars.”
“But it took him a week to realize it!” Michael replies.
The man in the sailor cap is getting nervous:
“Listen, when you’re hungry, you don’t realize anything. You see a jar and a lot of gherkins and you only wonder what the jar is doing there!”
“Okay, let’s cut to the chase. Did you notice something special at the moment of disappearing here and appearing there?”
“I felt like someone pulled my nose with superhuman force. Have your nose ever been pulled with superman force? Then I’ll look for another example. It’s like someone is sucking you through a straw. Have you experienced that?” Maybe I should give a more relatable example. Have you ever been unscrewed like you were a screw cap? Okay, I’ll try again. Have you ever…?”
“Yes, yes, I have!” Michael is quick to say. “And didn’t the other workers in the factory notice your coming outta nowhere?”
“I guess they thought I was a new employee, I couldn’t tell.”
“Can you think of someone who would like to play a trick on you?”
“Once my barge partner hid my hat. But I don’t think he’s capable of making bigger jokes. He couldn’t even hide my hat anywhere other than my own head. Still, it took me several days to find it.” (TO BE CONTINUED)