A washing machine has lots of handkerchiefs. Professor Gupta is talking to GENERAL SINGH.
PROFESSOR GUPTA: Well, GENERAL SINGH, we've finally scientifically confirmed why handkerchief disappear in the wash. By putting some sensors inside this washing machine, we found that if you spin a stainless metal drum at a few hundred RPM, and then inject a flow of ions in the form of a stream of hot water, it's the ideal way to create a miniature wormhole. A wormhole which does indeed occasionally swallow up a hanky. One hanky every seven point four loads, to be exact.
GENERAL SINGH: This is fascinating work, Professor Gupta.
PROFESSOR GUPTA: I wouldn't start celebrating yet, sir. We've discovered something rather alarming. You see, on some of our test runs, our washing came back not with a missing hanky, but an extra one.
GENERAL SINGH: Are you sure you didn't just lose one?
PROFESSOR GUPTA: Yes, sir, we count extremely carefully.
GENERAL SINGH: Was it one of ours?
PROFESSOR GUPTA: No, sir. We ran tests. They look exactly like human handkerchief. And they're always disguised to look like whatever handkerchief are nearby, so until now nobody has ever counted carefully enough to notice that they've gained a hanky instead of losing one. We think this has been happening for years and all over the world. They've been infiltrating their way into our hanky drawers and onto our pockets. Maybe they are waiting for the moment to strike together. They're aliens. Dormant alien larvae. It's an invasion, GENERAL SINGH. And it could already be too late to stop them.
(During this, the GENERAL SINGH has turned away casually. Unseen by the Professor Gupta, he slips a large red hanky over his arm.)
GENERAL SINGH: That's a very interesting story, Professor Gupta. How many people have you told?
PROFESSOR GUPTA: Just you, sir.
GENERAL SINGH: Excellent.
He lunges for the Professor Gupta's throat and chokes him with his hanky-covered hand.
