"My fellow inhabitants of Earth. My name is Alexandra Frances Steinert.Earlier today you may have experienced severe nausea and/or extremeheadaches. I...am making this announcement tonight to explain." Alexpaused a moment."Today at 11:23:45AM Fleming City Time, Homeland Energy's CoreExcitation Project suffered a catastrophic failure of ninety percent ofits safety systems. This caused the planetary core to becomeoverexcited, cascading into a super-critical thermal condition. Asuper-critical. I wasn’t even aware that she had met them, let alone become fast friends.“Who even lives there?” I asked.“A girl named Alyssa and her dad,” Clara said.“How old’s the girl?” I asked, suddenly interested.“She’s only twelve, you fucking perv.”I shrugged and said she couldn’t blame me for hoping. I was soaked in sweat, so a quick dip sounded great. I had left my only swimsuit at my best friend Finney’s house, but I figured I could improvise. “Okay,” I said, “let’s go for a swim.” I kicked my board. How did i get roped into these things?!? Oh well, a few of our other friends were going to be there, and i hadn't seen some of them in months.When i eventually arrived at Cathy's place i was surprised to see so many cars parked in the driveway and on the street. "Well, the more the merrier," I thought. I walked quickly up the drive to the large imposing red front door. A hard rap on the brass knocker and the door was immediately swung open by Julie, Cathy's best friend. "Come on in she said,. ”“So?”“I was unfaithful, Ellen, in my mind,” Claire sat back in her chair. “In any case, John is so bound up in my guilt at the way I treated Peter, and how wrong I was to use John as I did, I think...”Ellen suddenly had fire in her eyes. “God! You and John! You want him but you feel guilty, he probably wants you but he’s in the rôle of the understanding relationship guru, the perfect gentleman who won’t intrude! You two are made for each other, you’ve both been widowed. What’s wrong with you.