GMT’s staring at the eco-bot. She’s wearing a long purple velvet gown, long black beads and has her hair parted in the middle and hanging loose. It’s quite hard to see her eyes and she keeps pushing the hair out of her face. I like the gown, though. I think she’s having trouble looking at the eco-bot because she has too much hair, but then she says:

‘Holy Joe, it’s them!’

‘Who?’ I say.

‘Mange-Tout. Why’re they here?

‘Who is THEY?’

‘Neither he nor she. Mange-Tout. Eco-bot 350. Lives off waste and recycles ideas.’

I frown like Grandma at the Eco-bot 350. ‘They shouldn’t be here. This is a robot-free zone.’

GMT’s still staring. ‘Used to be big on the Veggie scene but they switched.’

‘What’s that in English?’ says Ama.

Ama’s wearing a shiny orange bomber jacket the same colour as her hair and silver trousers that have a skirt on top in the same material. I blink. When I look again, the jacket has turned turquoise! Noon’s standing behind her, wearing a pale yellow dress almost down to her ankles covered in cream beads. It’s so sparkly, I can only look at it if I squint my eyes and look sideways. It’s beautiful, though. GMT lowers her voice.

‘Mange-Tout was eco-royalty for a decade. Vegetable veteran. A soundbite for animal rights. Most Veggies were eco-only but Mange-Tout was retro. Said animals had the same rights as people. Their slogan was MAN=BEAST. Bot was cool, man.’ She shakes her head and her hair goes into her eyes again. ‘Then they malfunctioned. Went mute. No one knows why.’

Ama nods. ‘Think I heard something,’ she says. ‘Didn’t they make a public—?’

‘Yeah. “I EAT MY WORDS. EAT EVERYTHING.” Then disappeared. There were rumours. And now they’re here.’

I stare over at the barbecue. Mange-Tout stares back and bares their teeth like a smile. But their teeth are metal. They don’t look happy, they look angry, like a mad metallic dog. They look like they don’t know what a vegetable is. They must have been totally reprogrammed. I turn my head but still watch them out of the corner of my eye as they slap more meat on the barbecue and say something to Le Temps. But GMT says they went mute. Obviously they are talking again now. I wonder if Mange-Tout sounds like a person or a machine. By now, most of the group are staring with eyes big as Mars. GMT takes one last look at Mange-Tout and the meat barbecue then walks over to the veggie one and we slowly follow.