Ganado, Arizona knew all too well the dangers of a gracious man more earnest than diabolical.
Nick remained quiet. The softness in his voice belied an intensity which eluded the four women.
He struck them as modest, and at first, when he seemed to withdraw from their conversations, the four women took this as shyness.
They were not mistaken. But they didn’t see how his shyness accompanied a longstanding habit of slipping back inside himself when too many bells rang at once. Nick felt more comfortable with silence than cacophony and it didn’t take much to send him drifting off.
He was aware of this tendency and occasionally fought it. At times he felt conversation would blur his thinking. Perhaps it would somehow sap his ability to penetrate daunting network security others couldn’t.
Years ago, Ganado, Arizona had seen men like Nick driving through town.
More often than not they stretched out behind the wheel of a magenta Packard Custom Super Eight or a charcoal Lincoln Continental.
