It was about an Earth-ling man and woman who were
kidnapped by extraterrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212.
These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and
commodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected
to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for
them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when
they were returned to Earth.
The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to
make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo—to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat,
or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms.
The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it,
too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and
that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small
fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl. It worked. Olive oil went up.
kidnapped by extraterrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212.
These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and
commodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected
to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for
them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when
they were returned to Earth.
The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to
make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo—to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat,
or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms.
The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it,
too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and
that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small
fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl. It worked. Olive oil went up.
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