The startle is clear enough that Neil almost laughs. His skills with the language are, admittedly, limited--he speaks more Latin than he does anything else, and that's far less useful--but it's enough that there's a moment of genuineness passes between them.

Neil likes that, rather a lot. Even if all of this started as a silly story around a campfire.

"Vermont," he says, watching the words come on the screen again. He's exhausted most of his skills when it comes to non-verbal communication, and feels he ought to apologize for that. Maybe later. "It was 1959."