Debate

“That’s a nice bus,” the man with an orange top hat said.

“What?”

“The bus. It is nice.”

McSchlobber followed Hoffercroft’s sight. After observing the vehicle in the distance for a while, he fiercely pointed his pointer finger at him.

“That is no bus, you muppet! It’s a truck!”

“You are both wrong,” Sir Wright intervened, stroking his long, pointy beard. “It is, without doubt, a train!”

They both glared at him.

“It cannot be a train,” Hoffercroft claimed.

“How so?”

“There is no railroad.”

Sir Wright looked towards the pink ice cream van, just before it drove away from sight.

“You are right. Yet there is no need for a railroad.”

“Nonsense! A train needs a railroad to travel!”

“Perhaps. This train, however, was autonomous.”

The other two pondered those words for a moment, and then nodded at each other.

“Yes, I see now,” Hoffercroft responded.

“But, tell us,” McSchlobber said, raising his fez to scratch his head, “how do you know this?”

“Why, it was singing. A train could not sing were it not autonomous.”

“Ah, yes. You are right.”

“Indeed, I am.”

McSchlobber wiggled his nose.

“Come,” Sir Wright urged them on. “Let us go. I currently crave squids.”

While they followed the path downwards, they encountered a green sports car slowly driving by, as the driver held the leash of his dog through the window. It briefly stopped for the dog to urinate on the front wheel, and then proceeded on its journey.