Author’s Note: I find the character introduced in “Acceptance” intriguing, and with so little on the page about him, there is so much more waiting to be told.
He seems to have wandered and been rather curious, so I could not resist a bit of culture shock as he drifted around.
“I could eat a horse.”
He frowned, considering the human with new interest. For the most part, the man’s ramblings had been ones that passed without notice, the type spoken by those who required the sound of their own voice to be comfortable no matter their situation. “You eat horses?”
“Of course not,” the man said, lifting up his hat, wiping his brow before returning the article to his head and his hands to the wheel. “Well, some people do, and some of them say that there is horse meat ground up and put in food, but I don’t eat it. I’m just hungry, that’s all.”
“Then… you aspire to eating horses?”
The man’s eyes went to the mirror. “Where are you from, anyway? I didn’t notice any kind of accent, but you can’t be from around here if you’ve never heard that expression before. It’s just a thing we say when we’re very, very hungry. We say we could eat a horse.”
That explained a great deal. The human spoke of hyperbole and cliché. Their language perplexed him with its refusal to be direct more often than not. “Intriguing. I could eat a galaxy.”
The cab driver laughed. “I think they already have enough exaggeration in the one with the horse, but you’ve got a sense of humor, don’t ya?”
“Not that I’ve been aware of. I often miss those nuances. My statement was factual. I could consume a galaxy.”
“Is that so? You look rather scrawny to me.”
“If all light disappears within a black hole, if it distorts the very nature of the world around it, then why would you expect something capable of eating galaxies to retain a certain sort of shape?”
The laughter that came from the front seat rather erupted from him, a noise so loud it should have had a physical consequence—pain or spittle at the least—that would disrupt his environment. “I like you. You’re funny.”
“I think you miss the nuances of humor as well.”