Lines I liked in a book...

Fiction is kinda empty tonight. A couple of lines made me smile. Gentle humor:

The secretary from Hell who can't be fired said that someone called, couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, might have been Russian or German. She said this never taking her eyes off her computer screen or looking at her employer.

Thora asked if they said they'd call back and Bella from Hell says she doesn't know because she cut him off by accident.

Thora: "Bella, whoever calls--a woman from Russia or a man from Germany, even a dog from Greece that speaks in tongues,--please put them through to me. Okay?"


A couple of days later, Matthew, a partner forced on Thora by a new client, calls her home--there has been no effort made towards friendship on either side.

Matthews says "Sorry to call so late, but it occurred to me that you might be thinking about me," Matthew said calmly after they'd said hello. "I decided to let you hear my voice."

Thora was flabbergasted--she could not tell whether Matthew was mad, drunk or joking. " I can't say you caught me doing that." She stretched over for the remote to turn down the tv volume so that he would not hear the trash she was watching. "I was reading."

"What are you reading?" he asked.

"War and Peace, Dostoevcky," Thora lied.

"Really," said Matthew. "Is that anything like War and Peaceby Tolstoy?"

From Last Rituals