Yeah. [he could just explain that it was an irrational reaction, but then that would make things too easy... or invite more questions than he really wanted to answer.] Sorry about that.

I'm not that fond of snails, and they just make the whole thing worse. [that didn't explain the first snail, but it wasn't a lie for the others.] They were one of the things I tended to notice a lot back then-- when I had it.