MaddAddam (MaddAddam 3)

The Crakers have been standing respectfully at a distance, but now they move forward. "We must purr, Oh Toby," says Abraham Lincoln. "To make him strong. In his head there is something tangled."

"You are right," says Toby. "There is something tangled."

"It is because of the dreaming. And the walking here," says Abraham Lincoln. "We will purr now."

"After that he will tell us the words of Crake," says the ebony woman.

"And the words of Fuck," says the ivory woman.

"We will sing to this Fuck."

"And to Oryx."

"And to Crake. Good, kind ..."

"I'll get him some fresh water," says Toby. "And some honey."

"Got any booze?" says Jimmy. "Crap. I feel like shit."

Ren and Lotis Blue and Amanda are sitting on the low stone wall near the outdoor pump.

"How's Jimmy?" says Ren.

"He's awake," says Toby. "But he's not very lucid. That's normal when you've been out so long."

"What did he say?" says Ren. "Is he asking for me?"

"Do you think we could see him?" says Lotis Blue.

"He said the inside of his head feels like spaghetti," says Toby.

"It was always like spaghetti anyway," says Lotis Blue. She laughs.

"You knew him?" says Toby. She's aware that there was a connection between Jimmy and Ren in the early days, and then between Jimmy and Amanda. But Lotis Blue?

"Yeah," says Ren, "we figured it out. She did."

"I was his lab partner at HelthWyzer High," says Lotis Blue. "In Bio. Intro to Gene Splicing. Before I took the bullet train out west with my family, that time."

"Wakulla Price. He told me," says Ren, "that he had such a crush on you! He says you broke his heart. But you never came across for him, did you?"

"He was so full of bullshit," says Lotis Blue. Her tone is fond, as if Jimmy is a naughty but adorable child.

"And then he broke my heart," says Ren. "And God knows what he told Amanda, after he dumped me. Most likely he said that I broke his heart."

"I'd say he had a commitment problem," says Lotis Blue. "I knew guys like that."

"He used to like spaghetti," says Amanda: more words than Toby's heard her speak since the night of the Painballers.

"At high school it was fish fingers," says Ren.

"Twenty per cent real fish, remember?" says Lotis Blue. "Who knows what was really in them." They both laugh.

"They weren't all that bad, though," says Ren.

"Labmeat goo," says Lotis Blue. "But what did we know? Hey. We ate them."

"I wouldn't mind one of those right now," says Ren. "And a Twinkie." She sighs. "They were so retro-nouveau revival!"