“They say they want to talk,” said the first man, “but I wanted to wait until you got here. We, ah, we don’t know anything yet.”
The man in the Stetson just looked at us, his hands on his hips. Then he took a few steps toward Gargantua and paused, his great, broad back facing us.
His silence seemed to make the first man uncomfortable. “What do you think? You, ah, ever seen anything like it?”
The towering figure didn’t move, didn’t budge, only continued staring at the stainless steel vehicle, which gleamed beneath the sun.
At length he said: “Devin tells me you want to talk.” He paused to clear his throat. “That you—that you got something to say.” He reached up slowly and stroked his beard—thoughtfully, meditatively—before turning to face us. “So say it. Talk. You can start with your na
