' That was my motto. I remember getting the crabs once, the clap twice and even had one bout with syphilis. I took shots and couldn't have sex for a c...uple of weeks; that was a bummer. After that, I began to use condoms more often.Matt and I stayed in touch after graduation. We weren't real close but we were friends. You see, my family had ties with the so-called mob. That's why I became a politician and eventually a state representative.When Matt's daughter was to be married, I got an. Not that I was scared of him—I was pretty sure he was more poser than killer—but I didn’t see an upside, even if I did manage to kick his ass and walk away, unscathed. What then? I’d be looking over my shoulder every time I came home alone, in the dark.Better just not to engage, I thought. Sooner or later, the couple next door, with no help from me, would either crash and burn, or get tired of looking at the same four walls, and leave our quiet little neighborhood for parts unknown. This last. Purse in hand, she glanced once more into the mirror as though to acknowledge the presence of a stranger. She knew she was forgetting something, because she was always forgetting something. But whatever it was, it wouldn’t matter. And she went on to the car. He had just closed the trunk. ‘Got everything you need? Got your keys, right?’ Her keys were in her purse. She thought she smiled as she nodded. He grasped the door handle and the sound the door made, opening for him, was crystalline and. There were probably other computer facilities inside those walls as well. I could more than maintain my level of operation. I could add charge to the capacitor pack which was my battery substitute.I lay quietly on my bed naked while I absorbed energy and light through my polymer skin. It was a very slow charging process but then I had no idea how long they planned to keep me waiting. I had discovered early on that time had a lot more significance to humans than it did to bots.The first to come.