Chapter 37

Settle down? I didn’t know what I was going to do in the next hour, much less had I thought about what would happen when Hilda discharged me. Seriously, what was I going to do with my life? I had no home, no job, no wife; I was literally dead to the rest of the world and almost all of my own species. Anyone else would have seen an opportunity in it, but it was not that simple. Nothing was so simple when you had a name like mine.

I shuddered. Rhiannon looked at me in silence; I sensed her discomfort just as she must have sensed mine.

“Do you want me to tell you a little about your sessions, Nikolai?”

“I? No, I… it’s for the kids. They worry me,” I blurted out immediately. “I don’t need it, I’m fine. Really.”

She looked at me for a moment longer, intrigued, and decided to capitulate.

“All right. Why don’t you give me a call when they are installed?”

Another white card appeared before my eyes. Lately I was receiving lots and lots of condolences, too.