"That reminds me of a time when I was a boy and—"
Robert fidgeted while Henry described watching his father build a spare television set as a hobby, with only a minimum of robot help. He pounced upon the first pause.
"A new station!" he repeated. "Came in very well, too. I can't imagine why I never picked it up before."
"Distant, perhaps?" asked Henry resignedly.
"No, not very far from me, as a matter of fact."
"You can't always tell, especially with the ocean so close. Now that there are so few people, you'd think there'd be land enough for all of them; but a good many spend all their lives aboard ship-robots."
"Not this one," said Robert. "She even showed me an outside view of her home."
Henry's eyebrows rose. "She? A woman?"
"Her name is Marcia-Joan."
"Well, well," said Henry. "Imagine that. Women, as I recall, usually do have funny names."