“Push the big round button on the front of the tower,” Lily instructed as she landed on the desk in the living room.

“What tower?”

“The big boxy thing beside the desk.”

“Oh,” I replied seeing the item she was talking about. I pushed the button and jumped back as a load sound came from the box and the side of it lit up. Lily laughed.

“That was just the cooling fans inside the box,” Lily explained. Lily pointed to a flat thing in front of her. “This is a monitor. And this is a mouse.” Lily sat on and patted this oval shaped thing on the desk.

“What is this used for?” I asked pointing at the monitor and pushing the mouse with my finger.

“Hey! Watch it!” Lily exclaimed while trying to keep her balance on the mouse. The monitor flickered and I jerked back. Lily giggled. “Relax Jase. The computer can’t hurt you.”

“Ok. But what is it for?”

“Computers were used for a lot of things. Games, entertainment, business, research, and data storage are a few of the most common things,” Lily said. “The monitor is this whole flat thing. The screen is the front and what we will be using to see the information I’m after.”

“The storage inventory is what you’re after?” I asked.

“Uh huh,” Lily answered with a nod of her head. “Blast it!”

“What’s a username and password?” I asked ignoring Lily’s outburst.

“A username is someone that has permission to use the computer.”

“And the password?”

“Think of it as a key.”

“Ah. That makes sense,” I replied. “We don’t know those though.”

“No, we don’t. I’ll have to do this using my other talents,” Lily said standing up on the desk.

“What talents?”

“You’ll see,” Lily said flying up to me and kissing my forehead and flying back down to the desk. “Don’t tell anyone I showed you this. Especially other pixies!”

“Ah, sure,” I agreed. Lily smiled, nodded, turned, and faced the screen. A beam of green light left her face, no, two beams left her eyes and touched the screen. A few seconds later and the username and password boxes were filled, and the screen changed.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Lily said.

“Should we use the mouse?”

“No. I have things under control.”

“Ok,” I replied pulling the chair out and sitting down. As I did so the screen changed a few times. “What’s that box called?”

“Oh, that’s a browser,” Lily answered distractedly. “It lets you find information on a network.”

“Network?”

“In simple terms, a collection of connected computers,” Lily replied. I wanted to ask more but didn’t as the screen kept changing. “Aha! There are sheets and pillowcases in the closet beside the bathroom along with towels and wash clothes.”

“That’s good.”

“Very. We should probably take some with us.”

“See if there is anything else we can take.”

“Sure!” my familiar excitedly replied. She started giggling to herself.

“Uh, Lily?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s so funny?”

“Some of the things on this list. Somebody had put a few blowup dolls in storage.”

“What are those?”

Lily stopped what she was doing and turned to face me. The pixie looked serious. “After thinking about it, I don’t think I could accurately tell you. Nor would I want to.”

“Come on, Lily.”

“Dolls like that are sex toys. I won’t say anything else about them, so if you want to find out more, go to the closet in the bedroom and look under the bottom shelf,” Lily replied in a huff. She spun back to the screen and started checking the inventory again.

“Don’t be mad. I was just curious,” I told my familiar and patted her head. She looked back and smiled.

“Ok,” Lily replied and looked back at the screen. “There’s lots of good stuff here. Mostly food though.”

“Food? These are ruins. Just how old is this stuff?”

“You don’t have to worry about the age. The food will be safe to eat and might even be better than some of the stuff you’re used to eating.”

“I’m curious and I trust you.”

“I know. Come on,” Lily said turning to me and flying up to my face. “Let’s check the pantry and find something new for you to try.”

“Sounds good,” I replied standing up. I looked at Sara. “Do you want to eat again?”

“No,” Lily answered for the great cat. “She does want some water though. We can get her a bowl or water from the sink.”

*

“Will you show me how to use the computer?” I asked Lily. I really wanted to see what it could do.

“Sure,” Lily replied. She spent several minutes showing me how to use the keyboard and mouse. I had found the keyboard by accident under the desktop.

“Isn’t this sort of simple?” I asked gesturing to the keyboard and mouse. “You can control the computer with your eye beams.”

“It is. The good stuff is down in the labs.”

“Good stuff?”

“Yep! Holographic interfaces, direct synaptic communication, and the like are down there.”

“Oh. I see, I think,” I replied. I had no idea what any of that meant.

“Ok, have it.”

“Thank you, my sweet little one.”

“That’s just laying it on too thick!”

“Probably,” I agreed and laughed. I played around with the computer clicking on things. “Lily?”

“Yeah?” I turned to where she was sitting on Sara as she replied.

“What’s transhumanism?”

“Where did you see that term?”

“There is a how document here about it, genetically altered creatures, and constructed companions.”

I watched as Lily’s eyes widened in shock. She launched herself from the cat and landed on the desk in front of the screen. The eye beams shot into the screen, and it changed once more to a deck of cards that delt several out in a row.

“Why did you do that?”

“Transhumanism is a term that was used to describe a movement to make humans like you more than…well, human. But it’s nothing you need to be concerned with,” Lily hastily replied. “Genetically altered creatures are those like Sara. We talked a little about that before.”

“And constructed companions?”

“Jase, I’m not sure I should answer that.”

“It means familiars, doesn’t it?” I asked after a short silence. Lily hung her head.

“Yes,” she answered in a small voice. I thought about the legends of familiars I had told my former friends. Seems there was some truth to them after all.

“Lily?”

“What?” my familiar asked without looking up.

“I’m not going to press, but I think there is more to our legends of familiars than just being old stories.”

“Yeah…”

“Lily, look at me please,” I told her. The pixie looked up and had tears in her eyes. I reached out and gently wiped her cheeks with my finger. “I don’t care if pixies and the other familiars were created by humans at some point. Nor do I care if they altered all of us at some point.”

“You don’t?”

“No, sweet one. You’re as real as I am no matter where or how you came into being,” I said. The love I felt for my familiar surged forward. “Lily, you’re also the missing part of my soul.”

“Oh Jase!” Lily replied and flung herself at me and hugged my neck. Her emotions crashed into me like a rock. “That makes me so happy. I love you too!”

“I know,” I said cradling her in my hands. “I think I have an idea how you have the knowledge you do and how I can do magic now though.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this now.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Ok. I can wait to learn more.”

“Thank you! Now, let me show you this game. It’s called solitaire and I think you’ll like it a lot.”