Free Mastodonia by Clifford D. Simak Page B

now?”
    â€œYes, Mr. Steele. He said that he would wait while I came to get you. He says he hopes you can make some sense.”
    â€œDo you think he could wait until I got on some clothes?”
    â€œI think so, Mr. Steele. He said that he would wait.”
    â€œYou stay right here,” I said. “Don’t leave the house until we can go with you.”
    Back in the bedroom, I fumbled for my clothes and found them. Rila was sitting on the edge of the bed.
    â€œIt’s Catface,” I said. “He wants to talk with us.”
    â€œIt’ll take me just a minute,” she said.
    Hiram was waiting at the kitchen table when we came out.
    â€œWhere’s Bowser?” Rila asked.
    â€œOut there with Catface,” Hiram told her. “Them two are good friends. I figure maybe they’ve been good friends all the time without us knowing it.”
    â€œTell me,” I said. “How did it happen? Was it hard to talk with Catface?”
    â€œAbout the same as Bowser,” Hiram said. “Easier than that robin. That robin sometimes is hard to talk with. Sometimes, he doesn’t want to talk. Catface wants to talk.”
    â€œAll right, then,” said Rila. “Let us go and talk with him.”
    â€œHow are we going to do that?” I asked.
    â€œIt’s easy,” Hiram said. “You tell me exactly what to say and I will say it to him. Then I’ll tell you what he says. Maybe I won’t understand everything he says.”
    â€œWe’ll do the best we can,” said Rila.
    â€œHe’s in that apple tree right around the corner. Bowser’s watching him.”
    I opened the back door and waited for the others to go out.
    Once around the corner, there was no trouble spotting Catface, staring out at us from the middle of the apple tree. In the light of the Moon, his face was clear. You could even see the whiskers. Bowser, sitting lopsided to favor his wounded ham, stared up into the tree at Catface.
    â€œTell him we are here,” I said to Hiram, “and are ready to begin.”
    â€œHe says he is, too,” said Hiram.
    â€œNow, wait a minute. You didn’t have time to tell him what I said.”
    â€œI don’t need to,” Hiram said. “He knows what you say, but he can’t answer back because you can’t hear what he says.”
    â€œAll right, then,” I said. “That makes it simpler.” I said to Catface, “Hiram says that you are willing to talk with us about time travel.”
    â€œHe’s anxious to talk about time travel,” Hiram said. “He said a whole lot more I don’t understand.”
    â€œLook,” I said to Catface, “let us keep this simple. One thought at a time. As simple as you can.”
    â€œHe says all right,” said Hiram. “He says he has missed putting time travel to work. He says he is a time engineer. Could that be right?”
    â€œI suppose it could be.”
    â€œHe says he is tired of making time roads for no one but Bowser.”
    â€œHe made one for me.”
    â€œThat is right, he says. But you couldn’t see the road; you stumbled into it.”
    â€œCan he make roads to any place or time on this planet?”
    â€œHe says he can.”
    â€œTo ancient Greece? To Troy?”
    â€œIf you tell him where these places are, he can. He says it is easy. On this world, anywhere.”
    â€œBut how can we tell him?”
    â€œHe says to mark a map. He talks about lines on a map. Mr. Steele, what kind of lines are there on a map?”
    â€œLongitude and latitude, perhaps.”
    â€œHe says that is right.”
    â€œHe knows how we measure time? He knows about years? He can understand a million years, a hundred years?”
    â€œHe says he does.”
    â€œThere is one thing I want to ask him,” Rila said. “He is an alien, someone from some other world?”
    â€œYes, from very far away.”
    â€œHow