And . . . and, well . . .’ ‘It’s OK, Honey,’ Nadine said and reached over and patted him on the knee. ‘We can talk up to the half hour if yo... like. I certainly don’t mind. It’d be sort of a Christmas present for me too.’ ‘It would?’ the man said, and he looked at her and smiled in a fatherly way that, for some reason, made Nadine feel warm and happier than she’d been in days. ‘That would be nice,’ he said. ‘I’d sure like that.’ And then he started talking with her. But he didn’t talk about. Tiff, are we still on for our movie date tomorrow?”Sammi looked at her with a tinge of green. “What are you going to see, you two?”“AVATAR 3,” she said.“At the Cineplex or at the Palace Drive In?”“I think Tiffany has tickets for the Cineplex, isn’t that right, Sis?”“Have you girls seen it yet?” I asked Sammi and Emma.They both nodded negatively.“Hey Tiff, give them the tickets you got. I haven’t been to the Palace yet, if that’s OK with you?”She was looking me, then reached in her back pocket. A robot was standing by the entrance. It was about a meter tall, and had the nice color of a half- baked toast, soaked with butter. Its eyes were blue, wide-set, and slightly bulged. Red light was flickering restlessly on its head. “Hi, I am Arthur. I am a domestic helper,” it said, turning to us. The robots are not supposed to accost strangers so we were fairly surprised. Nicole stopped and giggled childishly, then introduced herself. “You gait is unbalanced. There must be some problem,”. They were willing to have us stay until after the baby was born.The twins were a surprise to us and my mother-in-law doted on the babies. She was actually a better mother to them than Joan was. Our love life--that sucked. When an apartment opened across the street, I signed a lease. Joan found that not living with Mommy was a lot more work for her. Our first real serious fight came over her wanting to get her tubes tied. I didn't want her to because if something happened to the kids we wouldn't.