Kids Can Fly: A Real Mother

"So this young man comes up to our Barbara and sweeps her off her feet?"

"Yes, that's what happened, but please don't take it personally. It's all a matter of numbers. Computationally, Paul Montefort was more powerful, numerically, than Barbara. The result was inevitable. We could do more with him because we had more data."

"I don't want her going out with the likes of him,'" said Christine, "Its just not right. Our Barbara's middle class, and that Paul is upper. He's higher than upper. Why couldn't she have the sense to say no to him, at the door? If I could speak to her, I'd give her something to think about!"

"Its probably just as well she can't hear you!" said Travis.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, she's old enough to go making her own decisions, isn't she? You've got to let go of them some time. If she wants to go messing about with some toffee-nosed rich bloke, that's her took out."

But Christine wasn't listening. She had got up from her chair and gone marching out of the room. Travis went after but the door shut in his face.

"Now look dear," he called, "It won't do you any good getting yourself all upset!"

Christine went through another door, and then another, and she ignore the red words which told her NO ENTRY, and she set off, striding through Holo-City. She did not understand herself to be in reality crossing a wide expanse of flat asphalt. She was following the limousine through the pale, transparent streets. People passed her as she walked. She went through them. They went through her. She crossed one street, stepping through several cars. They didn't swerve or slow down. The City was living its own life. It was a light-display, a museum of ghostly memories, an extension of lives that never were.

The limousine was parked outside a large building. The chauffeur was standing on the footpath, waiting. Christine marched past him and went up the steps, though her feet were half in the stone, like a child in a paddling pool. She walked through the door and stopped beside her daughter.

Barbara was holding Paul close, kissing him long and hard.

"Now listen to me Barbs!" said Christine angrily, "This