[pshrynk]

Vera was having a hard time understanding Dr Montsnmags. they seemed to be talking at cross purposes. She was convinced that he was even more loopy than she had at first suspected. He was trying to explain his tour of duty with the Army in the last war.

"I was with Patton's... Army in North Africa. We were not... actually up against the Germans in my particular sector, but had a division of... Italians facing us. Lousy... fighters, the lot of them! We spent most of our time trading cigarettes... for wines and pasta dishes."

"The Italians were our allies in the Great War."

"They... are? Slippery little... bastards! Not able to trust... the bunch of them, no matter what... direction you're going! Serves them... right, the drubbing we'll have given them!"

Vera was having suspicions about Montsnmags grip on reality. Or at least the temporal aspects of it. A figure from literature popped into her brain.

"You wouldn't happen to know a fellow named Merlin, would you?" She smiled, just to let Dr Montsnmags know she was kidding.

"Mer...lin? Incontinent little... bastich all hunched over, trying to save the world from... itself? Can't... stand him! Stealing all my... ideas all the time."

"Riiiight! You're know a mythical figure who doesn't exist?"

"Of course... not, my dear!"

"Sorry. I was getting the impression you were living backward in time, like him."

"Living in just... one direction in time is so... unoriginal."

Vera sat and blinked rapidly.