‘I can’t remember eating for a long time, but I don’t think it’s been like this for – well, years,’ says Pamela.

‘I could have all of that again,’ says Jane.

‘Me too,’ I say. ‘We’ll get fat. Better take some exercise. I wonder if we can?’

‘Let’s start with a stroll in the garden,’ says Sylvia, and we all agree. Who wants to stay indoors on such a day?

The first thing we see out there is Winifred coming into the garden too, guiding a very old lady by the arm.

‘Hello, Winifred. Hello – erm—’

‘Cecilia, Margaret. It’s Cecilia. She overslept today, and she’s a little shaky. I’m seeing if she’d enjoy a spot of sunshine.’

The old lady smiles at this, but says nothing. Winifred helps her sit down in a garden chair, facing one of the herbaceous borders.

‘She’s our oldest resident,’ says Winifred. ‘One hundred and four years old. And going strong, as you can see.’

I look down at Cecilia. I don’t remember her, but Sylvia does.

‘Hello Cecilia,’ she says.

Cecilia smiles again. She doesn’t seem ready to talk. She’s looking about her as if the world has newly been created. What sort of state was she in before today?

‘You people are amazing,’ I say to Winifred. And Winifred smiles, and thanks me.

April 2022

Winifred

Now I understand. I think.

I’ve spent time with Margaret, and not just in caring for her – she’s now able to do most things for herself. But talking. I had no idea how much time humans spend talking. It matters very much to them. They’d rather do it than almost anything else, and all the time, if they can. I’ve looked at some films, and television shows, and I now see they talk while they walk, while they eat, while they have sex, and sometimes instead of all these important activities. Which means it must be at least as important to them. I realise now that in most events recorded in their histories, everyone was talking all the time.

Before now I was with others of my kind, and Dr Morton, but she’s our stern mistress and mother, not one to chatter, and a scientist, too, and if I understand this correctly, scientists are practical and less inclined to talk – except maybe among themselves – than most humans.

All this talking isn’t necessarily about anything at all, or intended to communicate what it seems to say. It’s like apes grooming each other. Or a kind of stroking. The humans talk to make each other feel OK.

Some talk more than others, of course, and Margaret is less chatty than many, but her talk is most interesting.