Lex: Back again at Martha's house, at around lunchtime. She looked out of the window, and put a big grin on her face as she saw Lex walk up the front path. She hurried to the front door and let him in. She tried to give him her usual big hug, but for some reason he shrugged this off. He walked into the kitchen and sat down on a chair. "Ah, is something wrong?" said Martha. "Nyah, nothing's wrong. But I've decided it's time for me to move on." "Err, move on from what?" "Move on from this dead end relationship, of course. I've got what I wanted. Well, it wasn't really all that much, I thought you would have more money. And, as for the bit in bed, well, really, you're not all that hot. So I'm here to say goodbye. And I have no intention of returning that money, either." Martha stood there, in total shock, barely managing to take this in. Lex, enjoying himself, was reading her face and body language. Right, she is beginning to take in what I have said. Now to repeat it and really drive it home. "You know, you were a real push over. I decided to see how hard it would be to conquer an older woman, fleece her of her money, get her in bed. Ha! It's not all that hard at all. I just had to flatter you a bit, say I love you, and bingo! Pity it was barely worth it. I was hoping to get ten times the money. And really, a forty year old woman in bed? Compared to that sixteen year old girl I had last year, you're nothing." Here he added some specific although vulgar descriptions on how the teenage girl was better. Martha was still standing there, in shock, looking at him, sputtering as she tried to say something, anything. "But, but, don't you love me?" Lex laughed. "Of course I don't. It was all an act. I shall now use that money to impress another teenager girl. They're suckers for a slick line and a bit of money splashed about! And their bodies are so much better!" He had been keeping close track of her feelings. Yep, now was the time to deliver the final parting line. "You're worthless! I don't see how anybody could possibly ever want you again!" And with that, he left. Martha: Unable to handle it She sank to her knees, her hand clutching her blouse above her heart. Was she going to die right here from heart attack? The moments stretched on. Probably not She remembered his words. Replayed then over and over in her head. They seared her consciousness, they felt like razor blades whipping through the air and slicing her, her heart was bleeding so much she was surprised there was no blood on the floor. She curled up in a ball and stayed there on the floor for an hour. She did not get to feel any better; she merely got a body that ached all over from the cramped position. She got up and staggered to her bedroom, and looked at a picture on the wall. Her husband, married when they were both sixteen, together for two decades before his premature death. They had met by chance at a lookout over the river, inland where it cut through some hills. She grabbed her purse, tipped the contents out on her bed and fished out her bus ticket. "I won't be needing the rest any more." she said, as she walked out of her house, closed the door, and started walking towards the bus station. Blue: After school that day, Blue and Pink split up. Blue had finished moving his stuff out of his old residence, and now had to go to the real estate agent to finalise the termination of his leasing agreement. The real estate agent had already explained to him- "Well, because of the recent down turn in the economy, unfortunately the owners are not able to be generous; you still have to pay up to the end of your agreement." This had grated on Blue's sensibilities a little. But, as Horatio had explained [You are no longer constrained by your meagre income. You are now backed by my resources. And in the few years I have been here, I have amassed a respectable financial foothold in your world.] [Hmm, thanks. This is going to take some getting used to, also. Ah, how did you start making money, considering you don't actually have any physical presence down here. Apart from Pink, that is.] [Oh, bit by bit. I linked myself into the World Wide Web, set up accounts, established several fake personas, made a bit of money by playing the stock market, then I pretended to be several working from home programmers and hired myself out, and so on and so on. Now I own some property, and have shares in several small software companies which employ me, unknowingly of course. Needless to say, I am an extremely good programmer! I am now branching out and will soon own some small biotechnology companies. I have a lot to contribute there, also!] [Right. So I don't need to worry anymore about money.] So Blue was reasonably content with the real estate arrangements. He went to the agency's office, and sat in the queue waiting for his turn to process his papers. Pink: Has an assignment Pink made her way home. Actually, almost to her home. She was walking down the last street to her gate when time in her locality froze. "Hello Pink." said Esmeralda, who had appeared in front of her. "I have an assignment for you. It's not a judgement case. All you have to do is go to this location and prevent a woman from doing something drastic by reading her soul and allowing her to read yours. Then you can take it from there." "Ah, certainly." Esmeralda disappeared, time started up again, and Pink turned and started running. In her memory were the direction of how to get to her destination, and what time she should arrive. [Prime, can you look down and guide me away from as many people as possible? Especially cars.] [Sure.] Pink did not want anyone to notice that she was running at forty kilometres per hour continuously. But if any human happened to see her zip past as they went about their daily routines, it did not matter all that much, she would just appear to be another young person going for a fast run. [Hey Blue! Esmeralda has given me a non-judgement assignment!] she said to Blue over their link. [No judgement involved? Shucks, you get a nice one and I'm stuck in a queue waiting to shuffle papers!] [Life is so tough, my dear! I shall keep you informed.] Martha: Martha sat in her bus seat, holding her bus ticket. In her mind, the words went around and around, stuck on auto-replay. Nobody would ever want her again. She was worthless. Sixteen year old girls... Her body flinched as if someone had struck her. The bus trip seemed to take ages. At last, she got off, and started walking up the track to the look out. As she did so, she passed a skinny teenage girl, with one of those ridiculous pink dyed hair dos and carrying a pink backpack. She ignored her and kept on going up. She was not going to get the money back, so she could not pay her mortgage. But the real pain came from his other statements. He's going to use my money to lure another teenage girl. She was once a teenage girl. At this lookout. And her future husband, a teenage boy, had appeared out of the blue. They had spent hours talking and by the time they had walked back to the bus station, she had already decided that he was the one. Teenage girls... She grasped the top rail of the safety barrier, put one foot on the bottom rail, and was getting ready to hoist her weight up when- The pink haired teenage girl stepped forward, wrapped her arms around her, looked her in the eyes, and said "Let's look into each other's souls!" "Huh?" Esmeralda decided that Martha needed a complete change of scenery. Mental scenery, that is. So she gave Martha a comprehensive run-down of Pink, her history, her encounters with Blue and with Esmeralda, her feelings and emotions, her relationships with Horatio and Blue, with plenty of emphasis on Pink's need for human contact, her need for mothering. Martha looked into Pink's eyes, glowing blue, framed by her pink hair. Her mind, bruised and shocked from Lex's betrayal, was happy do think about something much nicer for a chance. The reading took many minutes. Pink in turn received an account of Martha's life. Her meeting her husband. Her marriage. The miscarriages and failures to get pregnant. Her volunteer work with children. The death of her husband. The loneliness afterwards. And finally, her affair with Lex. Pink's reading finished first, so she stood there, hugging Martha and thinking about the images as she waited. Pink's eyes faded to their normal brown colour, and Martha was back in the real world. Feeling utterly bamboozled. "Wha-wha-what is all of that? Esmeralda, angels of death, robots, alien data species, judgement, a red haired boy called Blue, argh!" She had entirely forgotten about Lex. And Pink had already decided that Martha was going to be her adopted mum. Of course, she would have to guide Martha to this conclusion. Having just emerged from the soul reading, Martha might have had all of the necessary facts, but she was also extremely confused. She needed time to digest it all, and some guidance from Pink would be just the thing. "Here, Martha, let's sit on the bench over there, put our arms around each other, and have a long talk." Just like the first time she met a teenager here, she spent hours talking to this teenager. The sun was below the horizon by the time they got up and made their way down the path to the bus station. Arm in arm. Pink: [Prime, what's the time of the next bus?] Prime provided the answer. [And Blue, I'm bringing home someone for tea! Can you cook something?] Blue: Blue, who was now at Pink's home, replied, [Right, I can manage.] Blue directed his next statement to Prime. [Hmm, can you show me how to cook something suitable. And preferably edible with no burnt bits.] Horatio, always eager to do something new, appeared as an image in the kitchen. "Right, if you open the cupboards and look inside, I can do a stock take..." "Ok, this is what we are going to be doing. First, take those potatoes and..." Horatio was but a part of Earth Watch Prime's consciousness. And thus, he had deep connections to the biggest cookbook in mankind's history, the World Wide Web. He was not lacking in culinary ideas. The meal was a success. Martha was gratified to meet Blue in person, and to sort of meet Horatio in person, using Blue's mobile phone. Considering everything, she was willing to take Esmeralda's existence as a given. But what she desperately needed right now was a sleep. Her mind was saturated with new information; she badly needed some down time to process her memories. An hour after the meal, she was in one of Pink's spare bedrooms, under the blankets and gently snoring. After cleaning up, Pink and Blue also retired. They lay in bed, in those pink pyjamas with angels, on their sides, almost nose to nose. "So, you have a mother figure." "Yes, looks like it." "Esmeralda is looking after you. In fact, she is looking after both of us, very well indeed." "Yes. But, but, well, but, ah, as she said in her first meeting with you, it's not because of our sterling characters or our good deeds, is it?" "No. There is obviously something important looming ahead. Something that involves many people. Something that makes all of this intervention worthwhile." A silence for a while. "Well, perhaps we had better get to sleep, get well rested before it all happens?" said Pink. Martha: Adjusting to her new life It took several days for Martha to assimilate to her new circumstances. She stayed at Pink's. During the day, she drifted around the house and yard, incessantly going over and over everything in her mind. In the evenings, she talked with Pink and Blue, and retired early. Eventually, one day, at the evening meal- "I'm over the worst of it. Mainly due to Pink's help. In fact, the information you have given me was so crazily extreme, I actually forget to worry about my own miserable circumstances for hours on end. But it still keeps on coming back to haunt me. It's the trust factor. I completely trusted him, and I was so completely wrong and so comprehensively betrayed, I feel, like, I feel if it wasn't for Pink occasionally allowing me to read her soul, I would never be able to trust anyone ever again." "That's fine." said Pink. "You can read my soul, and Blue's too of course, any time." A little later. "Pink, if I may say so, you don't actually use makeup, do you?" said Martha. "Hmm, no, ah, do I need to?" "Nowhere near as much as me, of course. But just a touch would be beneficial, and if you are going out anywhere special, then you should know what to do to make the most of your appearance..." "I don't think Prime made any particular effort to give me any interest in such things." said Pink. "Well, he's a man. It shows! Any normal girl has some interest in makeup!" said Martha. Horatio felt he had to make his viewpoint known. He rang Martha's mobile "In my defence, I would like to point out that I'm not actually a man, I'm an alien. So everything I know about humans I had to get by observation. It looks like this is another little omission. And since my best model of humanity is Blue, then, well, let's just say that he is not all that typical. And he's a male." "Well..." said Pink, raising her eyebrows and obviously wondering if Martha would think of the next step. "Hmm, if, ah, I was willing to have a radio implant, just like Blue, would that speed up the process of, ah, tweaking Pink's subconscious, or whatever you call it, to give her a somewhat more girly outlook on things?" "That would certainly help. Is this something you wish to do?" said Horatio. Martha got up from the table and walked around the room a few times. "It's the trust thing. I was so betrayed. Even now, even knowing Pink's soul, the longer the gap since the time Pink allows me to read her soul, the more I can feel the horrible fear of being betrayed again. It's so corrosive, so, so," Here, Pink got a tissue, went up to Martha, and wiped away some tears. After a few minutes- "Anyway, I get the strong impression that Esmeralda's supernatural powers are granted very sparingly, and only to very special people indeed. But Earth Watch Prime's powers are a different matter entirely. And your radio link conveys emotions as well as words, doesn't it?" "That's right; you can never lie over the link. Nor can you ever betray someone. Provided they have a link implant too, of course." said Horatio. "And with the link, you can observe my mind and adjust Pink's slightly as need be?" "Yes, I can." So Martha acquired an implanted radio link. "It will take me a few days or more to work out what is needed to modify, just slightly, Pink's mind," said Horatio. "But, in the meanwhile, since you are now family, how about I fix up your mortgage woes?" "You are happy to do that?" "Of course. Anything to keep Pink's adopted mother happy." "Why don't you live here, at least for a while," said Pink. "It's a big house; it's got plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms. "I will be happy to. But eventually I am aiming to find some sort of work. I need to contribute something back to Pink for all of this hospitality." A week later, in Martha's bedroom. "Right, Pink, sit in front of the mirror, and let's do something about your hair. Not the colour, mind you, since I somehow get the impression that you are very happy being pink. But the styling. And take note, Horatio! The next time you send down a replacement body for her, copy the hair style!" [Yes, Martha] said Horatio, meekly, over the radio link direct to her mind. Pink and her new mum settled down to a makeover session. Two hours later, Blue wandered by, looking for some refreshments after having finished all of his assignments. Which was a task that was very easy, now a days. "Blue! What do you think of Pink's new styling?" said Martha. "Ah, well, err, I don't actually see anything different?" Both Pink and Martha rolled their eyes. "Bloody hopeless males. But never mind, wait until you can get the opinion of some of the girls at school." said Martha. Pink: The following day, Pink and Blue strolled into class, holding hands, and mostly ignored by everyone else. The commotion from Jeffrey's attempted bullying had mostly died down, and they were enjoying the feeling of not being the centre of attention. Except- Rebecca walked in, plonked her school bag onto her desk, idly looked around, saw Pink and "Oh my god! Pink has acquired some styling! She looks soooo much better!" Pink was rapidly surrounded by half a dozen girls, admiring her new looks, and making suggestions for improvements. "You know, I think you would look really good if you let your hair grow out a bit (it was currently cut short) and you used a hair ribbon." said Teresa. There was an intense discussion about this by every girl involved. Blue turned to James, who had also been watching this spectacle "Frankly, I don't see any difference. Do you?" "Sshhh! You idiot! Never admit to that! Just go with the flow and you will be allowed to keep on living!" said James. [Yes Blue!] said Pink over her radio link, while giving no indication to the surrounding girls that she was carrying on a second conversation, [Just watch yourself there!] [Ah, yes, I will] replied Blue. Unlike Pink, Blue wasn't able to carry on two conversations at the same time. So to James, it appeared that Blue was silent for a moment, probably thinking over what James had just said. Pink put in an order to Earth Watch Prime. For the next few months, Pink's replacement bodies would have progressively longer hair. Lex: Lex kept track of the social news, and eventually concluded that Martha was still alive and well. He frowned and thought That's strange, I'm sure I got everything correct. She should have gone over the deep end pretty much straight away. Hmm, she must have gotten help. Although how that is possible with such short notice, I can't think. What a disappointment! Just like what's-her-name, that sixteen year old girl. Although, in her case, it was probably her parents that managed to help her. Now that was a nuisance! Normally he had a pretty high success rate. Well, two failures out of all of my successes isn't too bad. Now that I'm flush with funds, should I go after another sixteen year old girl... Or should I concentrate on my latest project? Hmm, with my latest, things will proceed anyway to a satisfactory conclusion. Satisfactory to Lex, that is. Since the players are already in motion and doing it all by themselves. But, I could help things alone, in fact, I can probably speed things up considerably, maybe make them even worse. Yeah, let's do it! It'll be a new experience. He settled into his sofa in his apartment, and began to think.