[originaltext]W: Hey, Henry, how’s everything going, and what’s with the flower

W: Hey, Henry, how’s everything going, and what’s with the flowers?
M: They’re for my wife.
W: Oh, a wedding anniversary or something?
M: To tell the truth, it couldn’t be worse. You see, I have to pick up my wife from the airport this evening, but while she was gone, there were a few minor mishaps.
W: Oh really? What happened?
M: Well, [19]I had some of the guys over Friday night to watch a basketball game on TV, but one of them got all excited, and started going around, waving his arms, and he accidentally knocked over my wife’s 250-year old porcelain vase given to her by her grandmother, and broke it beyond repair.
W: Man, have you tried...
M: [20]Super glue? Yup, but she would be able to tell in a second.
W: Oh, wow. You’re in hot water now.
M: If it had been only that.
W: Oh, there’s more?
M: Yeah, you see, the water from the vase spilled all over the manuscript of a book my wife has been writing for the past two years. It blurred the ink over many of the pages. And so one of the guys had the bright idea of drying the pages by the fire while we watched, uh, the rest game, [21]but a spark from the fire must have blown out and burned the manuscript to a crisp.
W: But what about an electronic file copy? She had one, didn’t she?
M: Well, actually, her computer crashed the day before while I was playing some computer games, and I haven’t been able to get it to work since.
W: Man, you are in trouble now. You’re going to have a hard time digging yourself out of this one. Ah, so I get it now. You’re buying the flowers for her as a part of some kind of peace offering, right?
M: No, not at all. [22]They’re for my funeral.