88 DATE WITH THE GODS
some of my own investigations. I have a lot of ques
tions."
"That's terrific. It pleases me that you're here. I must
be doing something right. You win yourself a cookie. I'll
let you drive my police bike. About five minutes from
here is another place we can bathe. It's close to the river
bank and to get in we have to go into a subterraneal
passage."
"Great!" I said, both pleased and apprehensive; as I had
never driven a Harley Davidson before.
I sat on the bike, fidgeting with its parap hernalia until
I got the feel of it. Then we took off; Rama rode behind
me, hugging my back.
We drove for a while before I became confident
enough with the bike to let my mind wa nder. I thought
about all the questions I wanted to ask Rama about the
Von Daniken books. I'd marked passages I wa nted to ask
her about. I had even made indexes. I couldn't wait to
talk to her about these books.
Suddenly, while I was deep in thought, I heard Rama's
voice inside my head. It was very clear, yet her voice was
in my mind without using sound. In fact, it would have
been impossible for us to even try to talk to each other as
at that moment our ear drums were being assaulted with
the sound of a powerful precision made machine echoing
against the mountains and canyons at full speed.
I accepted it, without trying to understand what was
happening. I returned my thoughts to her the same way.
I recall the dialog ue we had in direct mind-to-mind
conversation. It started with Rama saying,"I can see you
were a good boy and did a lot of reading."
"Yes, I did," I answered.
"What we are doing now," she explained, "is an old
way of getting the point across without speech. We are
now at such a proximity with each other that it makes
this telepathic conversation a lot easier. I know you're