She was well educated, had a craving to work outside, had good English and was now looking more beautiful with her dark circles having disappeared and...her curly hair hugging her face and shoulders. On one such day, my mom informed me that we have some of our relatives coming home the next day and she had to tidy up the rooms for them and prepare some additional dishes. She told me to go to Shobha auntie’s home and give her company. I went there and auntie prepared some fruit juice for me. We. Awaiting stretcher team.” The message is acknowledged, and all are happy to learn the good news.While kneeling beside the fire-fighter he looks about. Half of the load of the truck beside them is on the ground between them and the truck; it’s a load of odd pallets about one and a half metres wide and two and half metres long with very thick plywood as the top of it. He wonders what goods they’re used for shipping as they look like they’ll take a lot of weight. He also looks around at the fire.. He looked around. For me.I kept my head down, not knowing what else to do. I heard him move closer.“Janet?”I looked up, slowly, wanting to vanish in a puff of smoke. “Hi, James.”After a moment, he sat down. “Not even a kiss for your old friend?”“Am I?”He rocked back in his chair. “Are you what?” he said, sounding puzzled.I laughed bitterly. “Am I Janet, or am I your old friend?”He reached across the table, and took my hand, forcing it from its mate. “Janet, look at me. Please.”So I did. I let. “Artificial brains. They get in the way. I don’t need a machine to think for me. Besides, they’re always pointlessly rearranging stuff. I don’t have an infinite amount of time to keep up with it.”I smiled, reaching over her shoulder to operate the touch pad. She placed her hand on my arm briefly. It was warm to the touch.“Thank you,” she said. “I hope that wasn’t too weird, last night.”“I think we’ll survive,” I said. “Not a word to anyone.”She laughed. “Agreed!”Soon Crissy stirred, and we all.