I, uh..." I was making this up as I went along."Just when you've been away." Oh." Ellie looked very confused. "I don't know what to think aboutthis. T...is is... not what I expected. I'm not sure how I feel aboutthis. Maybe this explains some things."What the fuck did that mean? But I wasn't going to argue."Look, it won't happen again. We'll throw them away and..." Quiet, David." Ellie motioned that the conversation was at an end fortonight. "I'm going to think about this. This changes things."I. After she closes the door, I begin to not feel so well. That rock in my gut that seemed to turn into a small stone over the past month is making a comeback. It sits hard and heavy in my stomach. I open up my desk drawer and pull out a little hand mirror I keep there. My furrow has deepened. Damn, I think. Do I love Ben Sheppard? I’ve thought this out but doubts hit me. No. I don’t. I toss myself into my work and when I am not at the office I toss myself onto the treadmill with music blaring. The fact that white women are far more racist than white men. I’ve always known this. I’ve seen far too many fake-smiling white broads in my day. I see a lot of black men in relationships with white women. And I pity these men. Say whatever you want about the black woman in America but she’s the most refreshingly honest of all women. If she hates your guts, she’ll make sure you know. She won’t hide it from you. She’s loud. She’s opinionated. And she’s fearless. And that’s just the way I like. ‘Do my sisters have the same father?’He didn’t know, so she asked the Praetor.Béla found out that her own biological father had died of old age over a thousand years ago. He hadn’t wanted to continue his existence in a Martian Drone body, therefore, according to the law as determined by the Praetor, his soul was permitted to leave their society and find its own way.So as it turned out, Béla wasn’t going to be related by blood to any of her sisters or her brother, although they would all be.