It gave me a squirmy feeling to hear him talk that way.
"There is no war," I said soothingly, trying to reason with him. "It's all in your head. If the Martians were attacking Earth it's only logical they'd jump on us here and now. But you'll snap out of it when we get you back home."
"It isn't that kind of a war," he insisted irritably.
Finally he calmed down. But his eyes, crazy and wild, kept following me around the room. That made me so nervous I went down and tinkered with the engines.
"Hey, Swede!" Mike's voice reached me after a while. "I'm thirsty."
So I brought him a drink and fed him a sandwich bite by bite.
"I'm okay now," he said when he had finished. "I know I blew my top, but I'm all over that. How's about turning me loose?"
I shook my head unhappily. He didn't even argue.
"Then how's about reading to me?"