“Yeah… They left around the time we got the new phones? She was explaining some stuff to me and then a few days later I couldn’t find her on the phone list thing anymore.” He responded with a little frown. He’d liked Arkady. She’d been fun and smart and really nice about some of the weird things he said. Almost like she could understand some of it… He had other friends here, but it felt really bad to lose people… There was always a nagging fear in the back of his mind that he could wind up alone again, and he didn’t like that at all.

But he tilted his head curiously. “I never got to play card games before? I saw cards and stuff, but never anyone playing. No one left to play, I guess… But what kinda games can you play with them?” He liked the pictures on cards a lot, but he certainly didn’t know what it all was for aside from obviously the numbers.