One simple, two-word incursion into his mind and Jane chose to shush herself.  As she hung on his words of advice, Oskar noted she was a good listener.  He was glad about this revelation about her, as he thought it wise on her part to adopt this sort of attitude.  A random thought caused him to cringe.  He pictured her out in this unforgiving world, casually infringing into strangers’ minds with statements and questions.  With behavior like that, he believed it would only be a matter of time before authorities seized her for interrogations of their own.  Worse was a vision of scientific experimentation performed on her.  And he barely knew this woman!<br/><br/>Concern for her father was evident, as all one needed to do was gaze upon her face.  What now puzzled him the most was why would she choose a sleepy little town like Florence to search for him?  Which, oddly enough, happened to be just over a hundred miles away from a metropolis like Denver.  Had her father passed through here before?  Through the big city itself?  Where would she be headed to next?<br/><br/>Asking these questions of her could wait.  For she had just posed a doozy to him.  “Well, it doesn’t bother me,” he started, “because in my travels, I have stumbled upon others with this same gift that you possess.”  Since his orange juice was empty, he drank from his water instead.  Quite suddenly, his lips and throat seemed dry.  “The majority of people cannot do what you do so easily.  As an example, everyone in this humble town speaks with this, not this,” he stated, as he first motioned to his lips then his head with an index finger.  Oskar then concluded for her, “Someone with your ability is clearly in the minority, and people don’t understand your manner of communication without words.  And what they do not understand, they have a tendency to fear it.”  He then emptied his water glass, too.