"Am I going to Washington?" Yossarian was amazed.
"You'll be getting Milo's fax. M2 will phone to the airport to remind you. There, that's the fax coming in now, isn't it? I'm on target again."
"You have been listening, haven't you, you bastard?"
"To what?"
"And maybe watching too. And why would M2 be phoning me when he's right down the hall?"
"He's back at the PABT building with your son Michael, trying to decide if he's willing to be married there."
"To the Maxon girl?"
"He'll have to say yes. I have another good joke that might amuse you, John."
"I'll miss my plane."
"You've plenty of time. There'll be a delay in departure of almost one hour."
Yossarian burst out with a laugh. "Gaffney, you're finally mistaken," he crowed. "I had my secretary call. It's leaving on schedule."
Gaffney laughed too. "Yo-Yo, you have no secretary, and the airline was lying. It will be late taking off by fifty-five minutes. It was your nurse you had call."
"I have no nurse."
"That warms my heart. Please tell Miss MacIntosh the kidney is working again. She will be happy to hear that."
"What kidney?"
"Oh, Yossarian, shame. You don't always listen when she telephones. The kidney of the Belgian patient. And as long as you're going to Washington, why don't you invite Melissa--"
"Melissa, Mr. Gaffney?"
"Miss MacIntosh, Mr. Yossarian. But why don't you invite her to join you there? I bet she'll say she'd really love to go. She's probably never been. She can go to the National Gallery when you're busy with Milo and Noodles Cook, and to the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution."
Yossarian covered the telephone. "Melissa, I'm going to stop in Washington on the way back. How about taking time off to meet me there?"
&
nbsp; "I'd really love to go," Melissa replied. "I've never been. I can go to the National Gallery when you're busy, and to that aeronautical museum of the Smithsonian Institution."
"What did she say?" asked Jerry Gaffney.
Yossarian replied respectfully. "I think you know what she said. You really are a man of mystery, aren't you? I haven't figured you out yet."
"I've answered your questions."
"I must think of new ones. When can we meet?"
"Don't you remember? In Chicago, when your connecting flight is delayed."
"It will be delayed?"
"For more than an hour. By unpredictable blizzards in Iowa and Kansas."
"You predict them already?"
"I hear things and see things, John. It's how I earn my living. May I try out my joke now?"