Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

1891 Words4 Pages

There was dead silence in his office, the kind of silence that should never be disturbed. The look of determination on his face was uncanny. Every single move he made was precise and delicate. Colonel Cathcart slowly rolled a few inches away from his desk in his chair, just enough so he could stand up. At a snail's pace, he stood up never taking his eyes off his masterpiece. Cathcart's hand was shaking immensely as he lifted the playing card up to complete his beloved tower. ‘KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK' Cathcart's body jumped in surprise, causing his hand to jolt at the sound of the noise. The tower collapsed in seconds. All Cathcart had now was 51 cards scattered all over his desk, still gripping the final card in his hand.

"God damnit! Who the hell is it?!?" Cathcart roared while slamming his hands down on his desk.

"Oh don't get your panties in a bunch" Lieutenant Colonel Korn said as he opened the door and invited himself in. "Look, I got this letter, and it's bad news" Lieutenant Colonel Korn stated looking at Cathcart blankly.

"Bad news? Bad news! I'll tell you what bad news is you ungrateful son of a bitch, bad news is when you spend all day, all day! In your office trying to make a precious tower out of cards! And then when you finally accomplish it, it gets torn down all because you decided to bitch and moan about a little piece of paper that says we got problems?!" Cathcart takes a moment to catch his breath as Colonel Korn looks at him with a dumbfounded look on his face. Cathcart snatched the letter out of Korn's hand waving it back and forth.

"Say, how do you know its bad news anyway if you haven't opened it huh?"

Korn shook out of his trance "Well it does say urgent in big red letters on the front, and we only get those letters when there's trouble" .

Cathcart looked at the envelope and paused for a brief moment, and then flung it onto his desk without a care in the world. He then focused his attention back to the mess of cards on his desk, gathering the playing cards quickly so he can try again.

"Aren't you going to read the damn letter?" Korn said in impatience. Cathcart looked up at Colonel Korn with disgust on his face and replied "Aren't you going to help me with my damn cards?

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