"You terrify me."
"I should."
"Are you evil?"
"There is no such thing."
"How do you know?"
"Because I've seen many things." A spread of the hands and of the lips, "and met many people."
Silence.
"Its taking you a long time to do this." He leans on the railing in front of me and it wobbles precariously. I watch him blow smoke rings from a ridiculously long wooden pipe. He sees me looking. "Another story." He taps the stem with his thumb.
"Another time?"
"Yes exactly. Precisely."
I raise an eyebrow and he back peddles. "Sometimes I want to use more than one word or phrase in a circumstance. I'm old, I've learned its ok to use as many as the situation calls for; or none at all."
I am quiet. I bite my lip. Then the end of my pen. I tug my hair and drag my hands across my face.
He huffs a laugh, "am I really that hard to figure out?"
"Yes."
He hums a ditty while I stare at my feet.