Читать книгу Topics About Which I Know Nothing - Patrick Ness - Страница 12

‘So what exactly is at the end of the hall?’ says Tammy.

We’re eating our lunches. The company doesn’t have a canteen, so we have to eat at our desks. I have a cheddar and ham sandwich that I make five of on a Sunday. By the smell of it, Maryam from Africa has a cold curry. Percy seems to have just pickles. His wife sometimes forgets to go shopping, he says. Tammy has gone outside to the sandwich shop down on the corner and got herself some kind of leafy salad and a fruit drink. We spend all our mornings talking on the phone, so lunch is usually a quiet affair. Not for Tammy, apparently.

‘It is what the boss says it is,’ I say.

‘All he said is that only people who don’t meet quota know what it is,’ says Tammy.

‘Exactly,’ I say.

‘That doesn’t make sense,’ she says.

‘It is what it is,’ says Percy, who has to steady himself with one hand when he looks up to say this.

‘Is it metaphorical, like?’ asks Tammy.

‘No, it’s just down that way,’ says Percy. He jerks his thumb in the right direction.

‘I mean,’ says Tammy, openly laughing at Percy, ‘that it’s just words the boss uses to motivate us. Implied violence. Like in our sales pitch.’

‘No,’ I say, ‘it really is just down that way.’

‘But that doesn’t—’

‘You meet your quota, then you never find out,’ interrupts Maryam from Africa. Her accent is a hell of a thing, foreign and stern, like being shouted at by a vampire maid. ‘Can we eat in silence, please? I hear enough chitter chatter all day long without having my digestion interrupted by nonsense of this sort.’