1.

The lone lamp post of the one-street town flickered, not

quite dead but definitely on its way out. Suitcase by her
side, she paid no heed to the light, the street or the town.
A car was coming down the street and with her arm
outstretched and thumb in the air, she had a plan.

2. Turning away from the ledge, he started slowly down the

mountain, deciding that he would, that very night, satisfy
his curiosity about the man-house. In the meantime, he
would go down into the canyon and get a cool drink, after
which he would visit some berry patches just over the
ridge, and explore among the foothills a bit before his nap-
time, which always came just after the sun had walked
past the middle of the sky. At that period of the day the
sun’s warm rays seemed to cast a sleepy spell over the
silent mountainside, so all of the animals, with one accord,
had decided it should be the hour for their mid-day sleep.

3. It was a rat's nest. Not a literal one, but that is what her
hair seemed to resemble every morning when she got up.
It was going to take at least an hour to get it under control
and she was sick and tired of it. She peered into the mirror
and wondered if it was worth it. It wasn't. She opened the
drawer and picked up the hair clippers.

4. She looked at her student wondering if she could ever get

through. "You need to learn to think for yourself," she
wanted to tell him. "Your friends are holding you back and
bringing you down." But she didn't because she knew his
friends were all that he had and even if that meant a life of
misery, he would never give them up.
5. The trees, therefore, must be such old and primitive
techniques that they thought nothing of them, deeming
them so inconsequential that even savages like us would
know of them and not be suspicious. At that, they probably
didn't have too much time after they detected us orbiting
and intending to land. And if that were true, there could be
only one place where their civilization was hidden.