James patted Aaron's shoulder - well, something between a pat and a squeeze, really. "I am so sorry, man. That sucks." He was silent for a minute, just resting his hand on Aaron's arm.

Mort and Joy were still talking; that is, Mort was talking at the moment. "So Noah says to the snakes, 'I thought I told all you animals to go forth and multiply.' And the snakes say, 'We can't, we're adders.'"

"Wait for it," James muttered under his breath. Mort must really be having fun if he was breaking out the math jokes.

"So Noah built them a log table."