“Tell me Gorad, have
you ever heard of and/or tasted Alcohol in any of its guises?” I enquired.
Gorad glanced over at me,
“That depends,
describe some of its guises to me.”
So I did until Gorad
held up his hand to silence me,
“I have heard of wine,
rum and vodka. I would like a glass of the one with the lowest alcoholic
content if you please, as I am driving later.”
I made my way to the
kitchen and made a coffee for Nick and myself to go with the rum as I figured
he needed it and I knew damned well that I did! I poured a red wine for Gorad
and carried it all back to the table on a tray. As I entered the dining area I
saw that Gorad was being assaulted with and trying to fend off many questions
from the excited crew. I rescued him, sort of, by handing him his wine and with
a nod of thanks he took a large swallow from the glass, which was very
ill-advised. When sampling our alcoholic products for the first time it is
advisable to use utmost caution, we were getting better with practice but the
use of the word ‘rough’ when describing the bouquet, taste and character of our
red wines was still considered a very polite word to use.
Gorad was suffering
bouts of coughing caused by his reckless lack of caution but managed to croak
out these words between coughing spasms,
“Smooth! Very smooth!
I think I know ........what you do with any............ extra methanol
you......... find lying about the place.”
Gorad staggered over
to the table and sat in the seat at the head of it while I was hammered by a
fusillade of filthy looks from all of my fellow crew-members, except Nick of
course. He sat happily sipping his coffee and rum with a beatific smile (and no
sympathy whatsoever) on his face while he watched Gorad’s suffering.
“You really should sip
it slowly, Gorad,” I said belatedly, “You didn’t give me a chance to warn you.”
Gorad’s coughing
abated so he tentatively took a small sip slowly from his glass which only
caused a slight hiccup instead of a coughing fit.
“Yeah, I guess that
was my mistake. Sorry about that.”
He then stood up and leaned
forward to rest on his hands as he placed them on the table before him. Dick
interrupted Gorad as he was about to speak,
“Did you build this
City?”
“I didn’t, but my
ancestors did, and we want it back. So if you could pack up all your stuff and
clear out by the end of the month we would very much appreciate it!”