I Hastened To Smooth Things Over
When I was in high school, the term was “Triangle of Death”- also played the clarinet
- “You don’t understand – I love Ursula.”
- Hadn’t I told Arlo that?
- wonderfully weird Japanese game show
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I hastened to smooth things over. “What the Warlord-Apparent means to say is, you’ve really brought the very notion of a summit facility to new heights here.” The ambassador’s smile relaxed only a fraction.
Next came my oh-shit moment as I realized where I actually stood. Not on the Colloquillian mountaintop, but at one corner of a diabolical shape. When I was in high school, the term was “Triangle of Death” although the official jargon in the syllabus was “Diplomatic Fulcrum,” not that I was ever, technically, in high school. At the Academy I took a few esoteric poli-sci classes, and I recognized what I was caught in. It was a classic construct involving two dignitaries and the hapless interpreter (me) stuck in the middle. Those esoteric classes might have given me the insights I would need in this scenario, but I had also played the clarinet in the school’s jazz band but could no longer remember how to even hold the instrument. So my prospects felt bleak.
Unfortunately, I’d been lost in reminiscence so long that I’d missed several beats as the conversation had progressed. The ambassador shook his head vehemently, saying, “You don’t understand — I love Ursula.”
Fleur glanced my way, and I tried to look confident. When in doubt, always act like you know who Ursula is. Hadn’t I told Arlo that? But wouldn’t any advice I’d given to him be of questionable merit? I hate that dick.
They were both staring at me now, the other two points on the Triangle of Death. So I blurted the first Colloquialism that popped into my head.
“Some days we all feel like we’re winning a wonderfully weird Japanese game show.”
Fleur and the ambassador’s icy stares went on for another five terrifying seconds. Then they both erupted in laughter.
bonus points for using them in order