n't help but feel the impact of _his_ emotion, I had to remember
that he was deaf-and-blind to mine. All I could get from him for that
matter, was a sort of generalized _noise_, loud but confused, without
any features or details.

He smiled, and I smiled, and he said, "I didn't know if you'd really
come ..." and I said, "Am I late?" and he said, "Not much. What do you
want to drink?"

I knew he meant something with alcohol in it, and I didn't dare, not
till I'd experimented all alone first.

"Could I get some orange juice?" I asked.

He smiled again. "You can get anything you want. You don't drink?" He
took my arm, and walked me over to a booth in the back corner, and
went on without giving me a chance to answer. "No, of course you
don't. Just orange juice and milk. Listen, Tina, I've been scared to
ask you, but we might as well get it over with. How old are you
anyhow?..." We sat down, but he still didn't give me a chance to
answer. "No, that's not the right question. Who are you? What are you?
What makes a girl like you exist at all? How come they let you run
around on your own like this? Does your mother.... Never mind me,
honey. I've got no business asking anything. Sufficient unto the
moment, and all that. I'm just talking so much because I'm so nervous.
I haven't felt like this since ... since I first went up for a solo in
a Piper Cub. I didn't think you'd come, and you did, and you're still
here in spite of me and my dumb yap. Orange juice for the lady,
please," he told the waiter, "and a beer for me. Draft."

I just sat there. As long as he kept talking, I didn't have to. He
looked just as beautiful as he had in the diner, only maybe more so.
His skin was smoother; I suppose he'd just shaved. And he was wearing
a tan suit just a shade darker than his skin, which was just a shade
darker than his hair, and there was absolutely nothing I could say out
loud in his language that would mean anything at all, so I waited to
see if he'd start talking again.

"You're not mad at me, Tina?"

I smiled and shook my head.

"Well, _say_ something then."

"It's more fun listening to you."

"You say that just like you mean it ... or do you mean _funny_?"

"No. I mean that it's hard for me to talk much. I don't know how to
say a lot of the things I want to say. And most people don't say
anything when they talk, and I don't like listening to their voices,
but I do like yours, and ... I can't help liking what you say .