Today started with an odd question from a small boy. “Is she a cyborg?” he said, pointing at my colleague as she hobbled away to the break room with her broken leg in a plastic boot. I suspect he had been watching too many robot cartoons, her crutches aren’t that high-tech. “Yes,” I whispered. “But she’s pretty friendly.”

I told Linda when she came back from the bathroom and she laughed so hard I thought she would burst her leg again. “I hope he comes back next week. I can pretend to have a glitch in my programming.”

“Linda, you can’t do that. The poor thing will be terrified.”

“Good, more of them should fear us. There would be no late returns then.”

Linda is still annoyed about the amnesty last year on l...

Please subscribe to keep reading.