"I was in Houston," I answer with a slight, bewildered shake of my head. "And I wish I knew what the hell that means." Or if it means anything at all.

I move to a table and pull out a chair so that I can sit and begin pulling the boots off my feet. With the way my feet are sloshing around in there, I think I might have brought half the pool with me when I climbed out of that fountain.

"What do you do?" I ask, frowning slightly at the rub of stiff leather through my sock. "If you're not a scientist, I mean."