It's Another Good Cause

"I see. Thank you for your call," Tommy meekly said over the phone, wincing as the sharp voice ranted on the other end of the line.

"Another one?" Asked Joey from the table across, who was watching Tommy's struggle.

"Yeah," said Tommy, taking his headset off. "i don't knwo if I can take much more of this. I mean, I think we've only raised like twenty-five dollars so far."

Tommy and Joey were the only people left manning the phones for their telethon. The last of the other seven volunteers had left two hours ago, having gotten fed up with ten prank calls in a row. Most of the flourescent lights had been turned off in the grey-tiled cafeteria room that they were renting for the event, save for the two or three lights right aove Tommy and Joey's respective tables. The camera that was broadcasting the telethon over a paid access channel had been turned off and abandoned.

Tommy rose from his eat and walked in a sad-sack manner over towards the camera, which he fiddled with in boredom. Joey, meanwhile, leaned back in his fold-up chair and placed his feet upon his table, all the while stroking his greasy and unkempt goatee which poorly masked his two extra chins.

"I just don't get it," said Tommy, standing underneath the Support NAMBLA First Annual Telethon banner, "I mean, we've been at this for ten hours and all we've been getting are prank calls and death threats."

"Yeah," chimed in Joey. "You'd think people would know a good cause when they see it."