Manhattan bar

[onca]

Cabover Pete saunters into Manhattan Bar. "Sophie, my usual please!"

"You seem in good spirits," says Sophie as she pours out some kind of fuming liquid into a glass.

"Yes," says Pete. "It took me an hour to scrape the gunk off the windshield of my freighter, and another 2 to hose rotten luxury food out the of hold, but I'm back in business!"

"I heard you took a turn", says Sophie, "we'd feared the worst."

"Mmmm..." says Pete with some pain in his voice. "My... recuperation did take a little longer than expected."

"So you're alright then? Fully recovered? No ill effects, like memory lapses or brain damage perhaps?"

"No... I'm perfectly sane, and I have the piece of paper to prove it."

It was at this point Pete notices, for the first time, the other patrons in the bar sniggering. Pete turns around to regard them. "Whassa matter?" he says, holding a rolled-up piece of paper for everyone to see, "Never seen a sane man before?"

"Yeah!" shouts out a shady-looking Junker, "but we're seeing a little bit *too* much!"

Pete counters with a look of utter confusion. At this point two Ageira medical techs appear in the doorway; one is carrying a bundle over her arm.

"Mr. Cabover Pete?" she yells from the doorway.

"That'd be me!" yells Pete in return. "Whassa problem?"

"Nothing, just that we'd like our gown back please!" she says rather testily, and throws the bundle of Pete's clothes at him.

So it was with profound chagrin Pete looks down and saw he is indeed still wearing a thin hospital gown -- the type which one wears on the front, and is tied at the back. With one's bare buttocks clearly showing, as Pete's are now.

"Well I thought it was a bit breezy" says Pete, and the bar erupted into laughter.