"Keerk! It has a fonny sound, has it not?"
"I never noticed it. And yours?"
"Do you speak Spanish?" She regarded him curiously.
"Not a word."
"My name is Chiquita."
He repeated it after her. "It's pretty. What is your last name?"
"That is it. If I told you my first name, you could not use it; it would not be proper."
"It ought to be something like Ariel. That means 'spirit of the air and water,' I believe. Ariel Chiquita. No, they don't go together. What are you laughing at?"
"To see you scratch your neck."
Anthony became conscious of a growing sensation where the strange pod had dangled against his skin, and realized that he had been rubbing the spot for some time.