[Okay that's...nine. What of the others? It's impossible to tell if Christopher over-estimated or if there's some other reason the total has turned out so small. But it's this Rail that Christopher wanted him to meet, so...]

Yeah, that makes sense. I guess it's not always easy to reach out and let in strangers, especially if something happened to make it uncomfortable to do so. [Asbel scratches the side of his head as he considers all this.]

But if Rail could be introduced to some good people who'll take his feelings into consideration, I think he'd be really happy, too. [He smiles a little.] I've seen it before. You know, how people just light up when they meet someone who wants nothing more from them than to be their friend? And it already sounds like he and Carol and Frank get along pretty well.