Overheard Starbuck

"The best people close their eyes and turn away from me. The worst people have me under surveillance."
---"What are you talking about?"
"Gospel truth."
---Ok then. So in this Manichean world you've found yourself in--you've been cast into?--how do the majority of ordinary, not the best nor the worst people treat you?"
"Everyone takes sides. To reserve judgement is a crime punishable by chemical assaults, banishment then death. And only a very few citizens are free from surveillance and banishment duties."
---(recites)"'If you can't afford to pay for your medication, use our 800 number and call to see if you qualify for help with your prescription.'"
"Don't you understand I'm lucky to be alive. I'm lucky to be here talking to you like this, to be able to talk at all. It's unheard of--it's incredible."
---"You've heard about 'going to the mountain top' or 'the view from on high'? What you're describing is a view from no place on earth, from the bottom of a well."
"...from 'Hollow Earth'. "
---"What possible value is that perspective for the millions of us who freely roam the earth and fly its skies---skies you can barely see and places you'll never know anything about?"
"What if there were more buried alive like me? More then you surface dwellers--duty-bound to keep us in our holes and kill us--can imagine? ... Ever see the movie 'Woman in the Dunes'? This is like that but without the woman."