{I told you that you should not interact so much with these humans.} Jym’s face showed a smug look. Adem didn’t notice. He refused to look at the screen. Instead, he kept his eyes ahead and made his way down the streets of Puerta Mibela. {They are emotionally fragile creatures who are unable to separate their emotions from their responsibilities. Wars have been started over land, women, and which side to butter toast. It’s true. I read it in a book.}
Different continued to walk on, realizing that his assimilation into this society was going to be harder than he thought. Several things was all so very similar, yet there were subtleties that could cause drastically different reactions. The nuances were everywhere and presenting horrible barriers that he had to overcome. He had been relegated to keeping his hands in his pockets when meeting people. The custom of his own race was to place your palm against the forehead of the other person. This was more than a gesture. When aggravation or other heightened states of negative emotions were present among his people, their foreheads would burn feverish. The greeting of the hand to the head not only meant ‘hello’, but it served as a tell tale sign of how the rest of the encounter may progress. Alas, here it did not mean such; so Adem kept his hands tucked away until he could break the habit of his customary greeting. And this was only one small thing that he had to contend with.
The Farris wheel of the carnival came into sight. Lights flashed. Sounds exploded. Scents rode on currents of air, colliding with each other, making a potpourri of corn dogs, funnel cakes, and cotton candy. Almost the entire population of the town had converged on this one spot. The fairgrounds began to glow with artificial luminescence as the sun slipped into the sea far to the west.
Adem stood at a distance, watching the festivities. In front of him was a large gathering of a species that he had yet learned to understand and interact with. They were a puzzle that he was, as of yet, unable to solve. It would have been simple for him to turn around and walk back to the headquarters. That would have been the easy way out. But Adem knew that there was no such thing as an easy way out. Walking away would not solve any of his problems. It might, in fact, heighten them. No, the best and most logical solution was to participate in total immersion. That was the best way to go. That was the way he went.
