“Can’t wait until we get him in school,” Sheena had confided. “Wait till he has to learn alphabet and Mama can’t come say it for him.”

That wouldn’t be for another year.

“Bad meeting,” Breez noted as she climbed up on the cushions and swung her legs. “Mom said it was a Rubicon. What’s that?”

“Rubbercon?” Tomaya asked, her disapproving gaze on Toni as he giggled happily, jumped up and down, and pounded one of the cushion tops with a knotted fist.

Felix pulled out his pad, spelling, “R, U, B, I. . . . You think it’s a K or a C?”

“Try C,” Sheena told him. “More words are spelled with C.”

“C.” Felix frowned. “A or O?”

“Try O,” Felicity came over to stare at Felix’s pad. “I like O better. It’s easier to draw.”

“O, N.” Felix frowned as the information filled his pad. “Rubicon. It’s river in Italy. Says Ca . . . e . . . sar. . . . How do you pronounce that?” His pad dutifully said, “Caesar, Julius. Pretender seeking to become the first emperor of Rome, murdered 44 B.C.E.. Crossed the Rubicon in defiance of the Roman Senate.”

“Zambo.” Sheena muttered. “Never heard of it. Michaela called a meeting about this? Why?”

“Don’t know,” Felicity told her. “But Mom was really worried. Said it might take all afternoon.”

“No telling.” Felix agreed, watching the pictures of Rome, Caesar, and people in armor and dresses flash across his screen. He muted the sound so he didn’t have to listen to a lecture about all the stuff the pad would tell him about Rome. What wasn’t even a country anymore, but a city. He had trouble with the notion of cities, didn’t seem possible after Ashanti and now the Pod.

“All afternoon?” Tomaya cried. “What are we supposed to do? Sit here? There’s not even a holovid. We just supposed to look at the stupid waves?”

Sheena, who’d been acting canny the entire time, took the center of the room, shooting a wary eye at Toni, who had dropped to his butt and was trying to pull the cushion off the bench. His fingers kept slipping off the fabric as he cried, “No! No! No!” over and over.

“Sometimes he acts like he’s still two,” Tomaya muttered in disgust.

“Just think. He’s going to grow up someday and one of us is going to have to marry him.” Felicity had a stricken look on her face.

“Uuck!” Breez cried and made a “get-away-from-me” gesture with her hands in Toni’s direction. The little boy reacted with a goofy smile that let drool run down the side of his chin.

Felicity, her disapproving eyes on Toni, sang,

“London bridge is broken down, broken down, broken down.

“Gonna toss Toni down, toss him down, toss him down.

“Gonna watch little Toni drown, Toni drown.

“My fair lady!”

In response, Toni just gave them his “idiot” look.