Tony thought about that a moment. He was beginning to realize such long pauses was likely to make him seem stupid. He just found it hard talking nicely to people, instead of just ignoring them. He thought he was a friendly person, but he was starting to realize that what he'd thought of as friendly was actually just someone who didn't start fights. He'd stuck to Tia. Other people were hard.

"I've heard of Russia," he finally said. "It's... across an ocean from America, right?" Well, not directly, if the picture in his head was right. He could almost see something. And that surprised him. He frowned suddenly, more serious than sad, and stared hard at the lady. "Keep talking about it please."