“True enough,” Kalvin conceded. “But the waiter’s not usually Pervish. It’s still braver than I’d feel comfortable with, personally.”
The Djin had a positive talent for making me feel uneasy about decisions that had already been made. Fortunately, the wine arrived just then. I fidgeted through the tasting ritual, then started in drinking with a vengeance. A combination of nerves and thirst moved me rapidly through the first three glasses with barely a pause for breath.
“You might go a little easy on that stuff until you get some food in you,” Kalvin advised pointedly.
“Not to worry,” I waved. “One thing Aahz always told me: If you aren’t sure of the food on a dimension, you can always drink your meals.”
“He told you that, huh? What a buddy. Tell me, did it ever work?”
“Howzat?”
“Drinking your meals. Did it ever do you any good, or just land you in a lot of trouble?”
“Oh, we’ve had lots of trouble. Sometime lemme tell you about the time we decided to steal the trophy from the Big Game.
“You and Aahz?”
“No. Me and . . . um . . . it was . . .”
For some reason, I was having trouble remembering exactly who had been with me on that particular caper. I decided it might be wisest to get the subject of conversation off me until my meal arrived.
“Whoever. Speaking of bottles, though, how long had you been waiting before I pulled the cork on that one of yours?”
“Oh, not long for a Djin. In fact, I’d say it hadn’t been more than . . .”
“Tananda!”
“Excuse me?”
“It was Tananda who was with me when we tried for the trophy . . . the first time, anyway.”