’ He went back to the car and retrieved a large duffle bag from the trunk. He took a cloth from the bag and hurriedly wiped down the interior wherev...r he thought he may have touched it including all of the obvious spots, the steering wheel, the door handles, the seats, etc. As he was finishing he heard a faint metallic ringing noise, followed by a wheezy howl. He leapt behind the wheel of the Vega, cranked it and gunned the gas, dashing forward onto the railroad tracks just before the crossbars. "Water."He brightened. "Wasser."Judy nodded, and pointed to her jeans. "Wet. No ride."Judy thought Tuck was talking to her. "Nass?" He was pointing at her jeans. The young soldier nodded."Nicht ritt nass." Tuck stood up in his saddle, rubbing his bottom.About half the man laughed aloud -- all of the men who were wet and those who were leading horses. Men riding mostly grinned. It was pretty clear they'd had no trouble understanding Tuck.They moved across the desert, towards the mountains ahead. She was still confused, but Valerie had shed some light on their behavior and she could look now with some understanding. Her friends wouldn't have even tried. They would have just pointed and laughed at everything that they didn't understand, or they would have left as soon as they saw something that bothered them, which would have probably taken about two minutes. For the first time since she arrived, she was happy her friends weren't here. "I could keep answering your questions all night,. ” I shrugged offering support. I gave her a hug. I didn’t realize I had reached around her until I squeezed her against me. This was not like us. She squeezed my guts back.“Don’t be a--” She cut herself off.“Oh! Cute!” And we both froze to hear our mother. Zoë had the thought “What if mom has her phone!” first and broke the hug before photographic evidence existed.“Morning mom,” I grumbled.“Dad’s making breakfast,” She told me, “Go help him. Zoë, do you want to talk?”“I talked to dad,” She.