Saturday morning was almost over when someone knocked on Sadie’s door, prompting her to wake and get out of bed. She threw on sweat pants and a jersey and scanned the attic – neat as a pin. She flipped up her bed and took a step to her door.

“Show guest.”

A grainy 3D image of a guy holding a box displayed on her side of the door. Nice shoes, nice jeans, nice jacket. He looked uptown. Seeing the cameras activate, he dropped his privacy shield and the scanner pulled up a name: George J Zimmerman. He had a trust score of 2570. People could game their trust score but the name made sense. She opened the door.

George Zimmerman must have expected her to take longer checking out his profile. He jumped a little and then smiled and held out his package.

“My grandmother? I saw you brought her home last night. The security feed at the front door? We’ve had a family mix up about her care and er… well thank you. She said your cat likes puzzles?”

Puzzles! Couldn’t he have brought bagels and coffee?

“Thanks George. It was really no trouble.”

“Well I think there was some trouble – her apartment is much improved.” He looked down at the box, perhaps only now rethinking the thank you gift.

“I had no idea what she meant about the cat, you will have figured out she gets confused, but she was clear I should give you this.”

Sadie took a look at the box and looked at it. A 3D puzzle of Graz. Huh. Well, until last night she hadn’t realized the Things could do puzzles – but it made sense. There was the picture and to their programme the pieces were untidy until they were assembled like the picture. She wondered if Thing2 could manage this. George was still talking.

“…wondered if you might like some hours checking in on her?”

“Babysitting? Your grandmother?”

“Well,” he blushed, “it’s just everyone on the family is busy.”

“I have a job.”

“Miss Westurland I looked you up – you’re listed as a cleaner? And you didn’t finish your Masters. Maybe my family can help. My grandmother really wants to stay in this building.”

Sadie thought about more time working on the Things. Tempting. Tempting.

“How many hours are we talking about?”

“We can arrange some more carers – and she has a pretty good integrated assistance set up. Maybe 30 hours a week? And some on-call work?”

“I’ll think about it.”

George Zimmerman was sweating a bit. The heat did tend to rise in the building. Her attic was sweltering at this time of year even with the little windows open. But George wasn’t sweating because of the heat.

“Miss Westurland, could you think about it while you start working? I really have to get back to my project, my mother is out of town and it’s clear we need to take better care for Nana. If you’d care to share your account with me?”

Sometimes you get an offer you can’t refuse.