Nancy placed the flowers on the table and smiled at Shandy. He stood as she approached him. Nancy laughed and put her arms around the young man.
With her head against Shandy's chest Nancy said, "Poor Shandy. Poor Shandy." She made him sit down again. Then she patted him fondly on the head. "Stay right there, Shandy." Nancy hurried from the room.
Holman followed her. "Listen, are you sure he isn't intelligent? Because, my God, the scientists down at the settlement—"
Nancy said, "Oh, no, Ken. He just copies things he's heard people say. Wait a minute." She disappeared into the storeroom. When she returned she was holding a dusty album in her hand. Holman followed her back into the kitchen.
Shandy looked at the album for a moment and then smiled. "I meant well," he said.
"I knew I recognized you," Nancy said, turning a third through the book. "My Uncle Maxwell when he graduated from Mars-Yale." She slid the picture out and held it toward Holman, but he didn't take it.
Shandy said, "Hated to see you go."
Come to think of it, Holman thought, he does just repeat things people are always saying.
Setting the book beside the flowers, Nancy said, "What are you really, Shandy? I've never had a chance to talk to you before, except in a one-sided sort of way."
Shandy folded his hands and uncrossed his legs. "I don't remember just now, Miss Nancy. I used to know. I don't think there are many of us left now." He touched his mustache again, smoothing it. "Maybe in the mountains there are some more. I don't remember."