Hammerheads and Anvils

The interior of the Orbital Anvil Drop Station was surprisingly warm and off-putting, but the quiet was right. Just some low electronic hum, just Adver's slippered feet walking across the gloss gray floor, just Adver saying: So, what's this about?

Dorge picked up the coffee Adver had set in front of him and leaned back against the pads again, "I want to know how this place works."

Adver's eyebrows came up, then settled back down politely, "It's not complicated."

From the port window they could see the earth listing (below?) them.

The silence wasn't uncomfortable but preferred. Both men were happy to drink their coffee. Some time had passed and Dorge removed his shoes.

"I want to use two anvils," Dorge said, putting his coffee on the coffee table.

Adver's eyebrows politely resettled, "On people?"

"Yes. In Cincinnati."

Adver was quiet for a time. "Weren't you just there?"

Dorge nodded, "I'd like to ask how accurate this station is at delivering its payload," he sighed, "but I don't really care."

"It's a very sophisticated piece of machinery, if you can supply me with a...recipient?"

"I don't know their names. If we have to drop a lot of anvils that's fine with me. I just need to know how much it costs," Dorge said, smoothing his slacks.

Adver thought about this, looking back at the earth, and yawning, "It shouldn't take that many. If you can tell me more, I can probably just plug it all in and see what happens."

Dorge stood up and started walking around as if he were explaining something to a jury.

"My daughter and I were at the Newport Aquarium, which is a nice enough place. You know, fish, alligators, all that. Well, we're looking at the exhibits and stuff and it's all very exciting for her, the different fish and turtles and stuff. We're getting our picture taken like we're inside a fish bowl and just doing the whole thing.

"Then I see this section that's kind've blocked off with velvet ropes and signs that say "Stop....yadda yadda" and there's these curtains. Well, the curtains aren't all the way closed and so I can see this huge tank way back in there and theater seating, it's a tour group thing going on. Well in the tank are these sharks, like...I dunno, the size of hammerheads but I don't think that's what they were.
"So, I'm like hey honey, come check this out! And my daughter comes over and she's all wide-eyed, I mean all that turtles-in-glass-cages shit is ok but these were sharks! And we're not bothering anything just looking at these fucking sharks and then this woman comes out of nowhere-she was blonde and old- and says something like 'sorry, we have guests' and shuts the curtains in my daughters face like she was in The Wizard of Oz or something.
"God, I was so fucking angry, the look on my daughter's face. And I felt all powerless, like...this curtain defeated me. Like these signs that said STOP defeated me and what I should have done was just punched the curtain where I thought that woman's mandible was.
"It was like there was this newspaper story from the forties where they were giving this shark show and there was one more person than there should have been viewing the sharks so the sharks went into some blood frenzy and killed everyone there and ever since then the state of Ohio had to have a Shark Czar that was over all the Shark Marshalls who went around to public places and made sure there were only exactly forty-three people looking at these fucking sharks at any one given time."

"Ah...did you like, step over the velvet ropes?" Adver asked, turning from the viewport from which he'd been standing since "Wizard of Oz".

Dorge shook his head, "No, they were just there, around."

"But you felt like...you knew you weren't supposed to go back there, at least?"

Dorge shrugged, "Yeah. I can read."

Adver smiled, "And you still want to drop two anvils on this person?"

Dorge's brows bunched, "No, the other anvil is for someone else."

"Fair enough," Adver said and started walking to a bank of instruments. Dorge followed but kept a respectable distance, "Tell me who the second anvil is for while I start entering all this in."

"Right. The second was on a different day. Just the day after, I think. We were driving around, we were driving home, actually, and we were all hungry. My wife was driving and she just takes this random exit thinking there had to be food down there, somewhere. Right?
"And there was, we had to use Yelp! to find something but sure enough we found this little breakfast café place. We don't like to eat at places that we can eat anytime while we're on a trip, you know?
"So, I'm getting anxious because we're all hungry and even though I'm keeping my cool I know that there might be a meltdown in my Three's Company party at any given moment. Janet was going to stab Jack to death in 3-point-5 if I didn't produce some biscuits right now.
"My wife lets me and my daughter out to get a table while she parks and through the doors we go. And I'm all, 'Three, please' and the 13 year old is all, 'Is this lady with you?' suggesting that the dinosaur that was propped up next to the door had been patiently waiting for us for the last sixty years.
"'No, she's not with us.' 'Oh,' she said, 'I'm sorry but I'll have to ask you to wait, we only seat people when their entire party is here.' In my Tyler Durden mind I'm squeezing her head between my vice palms and gnashing my teeth into the sounds of 'IFYOUDONTFUCKINGPOURTHREEGODDAMGLASSESOFORANGEJUICERIGHTNOW'
"So on.
"But I just walked out, with my daughter wearing a What-The-Fuck-Is-Wrong-With-This-Place-? Halloween mask on her face.
"This place, Half Day Café, or whatever that means, even had a sign explaining their seating policy. I didn't notice it until I walked back outside to explain to my wife why we weren't yet seated in that boil of an establishment with three tables open.
"The biscuits and gravy were good, though."

Adver leaned back from the terminal, "Right, well...I can't narrow it down anymore than that, but we can drop anvils anytime you're ready. There's the button."

"Actually, and don't get mad, but I'm over it. It was a good trip all in all and sometimes I just get a little too imperious for my own good. Does that make sense?"

"I just plugged all that in! I mean, I know I said 'it's not complicated' but come on!" Adver exclaimed. "How long have you been 'over it'?"

Dorge considered, "I guess a while, but it still felt good to talk about."

Adver made his hands like he was going to catch a big beach ball, "Then why did you even come up here?"

Dorge shrugged, "Because I'd already put this post on the Bulletin, and sometimes you strike me as lonely."

Then Adver said something Dorge didn't quite catch.