The first time I helped a customer put together an outfit that looked just right I felt almost as good. That was a lot better than schlepping boxes ar...und or ringing registers. The harder and longer I worked, the better I got at it. It turns out that in the long run, the kinds of customers I was best with were women a little older than me who wanted to add just a little bit of spice to a classic look. I had trouble with younger customers because I wasn't always real good at figuring out where. ”“A golem?”Yes, a mechanical monstrosity. It operates on stored up spring power. It’s got a basic program to perform a specific task. My guess it was sent in here to kill me, but it wouldn’t be able to differentiate between people, so it would kill anyone who moved. Lovely Fiona was simply the first target. It would have killed you next if you took a further step.”Rakell looked shocked, then recovered partly. She was a doctor but rarely had to deal with such realities. “How did you kill it?”“A. As was our custom, I slipped my shoes off and drove barefoot. We pulled out of the garage and the breeze blew through our hair.Neither of us spoke as we drove to meet Travis. I had made up my mind that whatever Maureen decided to do, I was going to support her. If she backed out, that would be okay. If she wanted her father to be a part of her life, I was going to make that happen, too. I glanced over at her a time or two and saw her hands shaking.I had to keep mine on the steering wheel and. Jay sat at a large work desk that sloped down towards him, piles of papers and designs all around the floor, with different materials draped all over it. He jumped when he heard the door open. He looked tired and a little dishevelled, but hard at work and happy. He radiated a thrilled peacefulness, like the energy of a spring day. His dark hair sat in a gently curled mess around his face, and he had a shadow of dark beard across the lower part of his features. He turned to look up at the door.