‘How wonderful for you all to be joined,’ she said. ‘I’ve been alone all my life, I suppose. Humans are always alone. We reach out to each other but inside we are separate. Love calls out to other humans but it can’t join us together. Our children come from inside us but they are always moving away. They must separate. So we believe.’

‘Yes, to be human you must pull apart. We know this.’

‘Sometimes it’s what I want. Increasingly as I got older. To be me myself alone, uninterrupted. Not always. I also let my mind go out to other lives.’

‘What lives?’ I asked.

‘Those of animals, for instance. Life itself in all its forms, everywhere, all around us. We are in a sea of life, and alone.’

‘It’s the human paradox, perhaps?’

She nodded. I thought she was feeling sad. Phyllis linked the nanobot feed to me. They confirmed an emotional surge in her brain and across her body.

‘Margaret, I told you we are confused. The source of our confusion is what happened with Cecilia Winter.’

There was another surge. It had a different shape. Perhaps because this time it was connected to a specific event, and person.

‘Oh, Winifred, it was heart-breaking. Literally, for her. She told me all about how her daughter died, many years ago now, and… I don’t think there’s anything worse in all the world than the death of one of your children. You can never, ever get over it.’

Her emotions were now in turmoil, and I didn’t need the nanobots to tell me. It was evident in her face, and tears were forming in her eyes.

‘Are you thinking of your own children?’

‘Yes, and of their children in turn, and of dear Cecilia… I do hope she was right, and she’s with her little girl now. Though I don’t see how it’s possible.’

‘It certainly seems illogical,’ I said. ‘But we are discovering that logic has little to do with human behaviour. In fact, as a way to predict what humans will or won’t do, it’s nearly useless.’

Margaret laughed at this, though she still looked sad, and now the nanobots reported that an additional area of her brain had engaged.

‘Yes, dear, it isn’t much use. In a funny way, children are more logical than adults.’

‘The opposite of what one would expect.’