It's clear that Ned doesn't think it's a ridiculous or outdated question. "It's a machine that slices or shreds or mixes or grinds things. Essentially it's a covered container with blades at the bottom that are powered by electricity. Makes things go a lot quicker."

Ned puts the pot of water over the heat and swings around Meyer again, taking the jars and starting to wash them thoroughly in the sink. He is thinking back, now, to his first conversation with Meyer, when he couldn't imagine there would be people from different times in the same place. It was going to be a steep learning curve, after that. Steeper than either of them had realized.

"So how are you holding up with the whole... magic and monsters are real thing, if you don't mind my asking?" He'd had difficulty believing it himself, and he was arguably a kind of monster himself.