"Well. The world has all sorts, I suppose," she says, a little brightly through not quite understand. "Lots of men end up takin' off into the bush, happy as a lark out there. But it's not for me."

Still, there are other directions to shift the conversation. Far, far more useful than philosophical comments about companionship.

"You've been the town looks all abandoned. Did they take their tools, supplies with them? When the previous residents left?"