"Perhaps we've all gotten on your grandfather's bad side," he says, laughing sarcastically, but it dawns on him that the lad is possibly a bit simple, so maybe he ought to play things straighter. So to speak. Who would think their grandfather has the power to send them through time and space?

"Anyway." He is no longer interested in the brake drum, fleeting as his attention span is, and he sets it back down where he found it. "I'm prepared to play along with all this nonsense for now. I suggest you do the same, lest you run afoul of the mastermind behind it all."