He leaned away from her. "And who, may I ask, is Rocky?"
"Joe Nowhere, that's who he is. Rides around on his goofy motorcycle all the time. He's mean, and real square. Like a cube, you know?"
He stared at her incredulously. Holding the pipe in his left hand, he put his right hand over his face. "I didn't really expect you to be pretty, but Gad, did you have to be a thoroughgoing idiot?" Eventually he lowered his hand. "If he's that bad, why didn't you run away?"
"Where to? Out there it's all empty and scary. Here it's something like it used to be."
He said, "Nothing is like it used to be."
"That lousy jerk," she said to herself. "The things he did to me! He pushed me around all the time, too."
For this situation too, he had a speech ready. Dramatically, he stood up. "Let me take you away from all this! Come, I offer you the chance to mother the new race!"
She said, "Okay, I'll go," and bounced to her feet, arms spread wide. He managed to catch her wrists, and said, "First, take me to the town library."
"Library? You out of your mind? What for?"
"What for? For books to feed the soul of Phoenix! I tell you, our civilization will not repeat the mistakes of this one!"