hange and then I head towards the office with the operating rooms, letting Gilly know I'm in. Her face lights up when I tell her I

ood of you to show. I'm taking a short break, then we're in for a treat. I'm counting on you." And away he is. Gilly's face droops a bit as he leaves, I know she has a crush on him that would flatten a space orbiter. "I'll go and prepare then, " I tell her. After all, I wi

anaesthesiology assi

ng sure I don't

ong. I tell her not to squeeze but she hardly relaxes. I close my eyes and spread my consciousness towards hers. She is nervous, I can tell, but thanks to the pendant I can get through to her, embrace her mind and soothe her. I start singing to her, I tell stories and show her mental images, drawing from what she has told me before so I can keep her attention with me instead of with what's happening to her body. All awareness of time is gone for her and me. I know the doc is at work on her because sometimes Sheila's mind wants to escape. That is when the pain comes through. I can keep her with me though, by telling her dirty jokes. She likes them, I know them, and when she wants more I invent them. Only one more time she tries to

ke I've been turned inside out. "You must rest now. The procedure t

up and let Neyri support me. My legs are all wobbly, they seem to have a mind of thei

n is shining. It's so rare lately with all the weather experiments they're doing that this is a real surprise. I stand in front of the building, eyes closed, and let the warmth spread over my face until some jerk bonks me in the back and almost launches me head-first into the street. He doesn't even apologise, just mutters something and disappears in the crowd. Damn him. I find a nook along the building and enjoy some more sunshine before my stomach calls me to attention. Yeah, should see to that as I only had a rat's bite for lunch today. I chew on my lip while I t

tablet that hangs over the steaming pots and Moto nods. He grins as he cooks up my stuff, showing his lack of teeth. "You do whorepway 'gain soon?" he asks.

s when we go out to do a big roleplay g

ng to be a bad guy, " I tell him. "We wa

, tosses in the saints know what more, scoops up a load of noodles and dumps it in a container. He hands it to me as he stabs the stuff

p three fingers, a challenging grin on his face. I take the chopsticks and turn over the cont

atches the container from my fingers and scoops the noodles back into it. "Two cwedits. Moto have kids, have wife. Wife

of Chinese and Japanese and saints know what else over me, pretending suddenly he does not understand a word. I grin and eat while he turns back to help the next customer. When I am done I hand the container and the chopsticks to the kid who runs off to clean them. I get up, grab my bag and my umbrella, and walk off, yelling goodbye to Moto in Japanese. He yells something back at me but I can't make out what it is. Too bad, I'd probably have learnt a new Japanese curse-word. Once back on the main street I head for the monorail station in Bleekers Alley. It's only a few minutes walk as there are not many people going

ou were wonder

d, " I warn him. It would not be beyond him to actua

hen I see the strawberries. I am sure Marco got tho

myself th

es and savour it despite Moto's noodles. "Oh man

ies with him, it is better not to know. "Hey guys, " he says. "Oh, scones!" He digs in. One by one the others come in, Dolores first, Anthony next and Lois last. She comes in with Bashir, they are discussing something and are not

gs looks up for a

here was a robbery in a food-store. Apparently someone in the area sent out an alert about that and within minutes a person dressed as the Black Flyer appeared on the scene, as