"You mean you've actually found a live humanoid?"
"There's got to be a first time for everything." Griffin opened the door and started climbing the hill toward Kung Su and Pruneface.
"Well, have you gotten beyond the 'me, Charlie' stage yet?" Griffin inquired at breakfast two days later.
Kung Su gave an inscrutable East Los Angeles smile. "As a matter of fact, I'm a little farther along. Joe is amazingly coöperative."
"Joe?"
"Spell it Chou if you want to be exotic. It's still pronounced Joe and that's his name. The language is monosyllabic and tonal. I happen to know a similar language."
"You mean this humanoid speaks Chinese?" Griffin was never sure whether Kung was ribbing him or not.
"Not Chinese. The vocabulary is different but the syntax and phonemes are nearly identical. I'll speak it perfectly in a week. It's just a question of memorizing two or three thousand new words. Incidentally, Joe wants to know why you're digging up his bottom land. He was all set to flood it today."
"Don't tell me he plants rice!" Griffin exclaimed.