A DROP BEAR ATE MY SANGA

Kell Weathers dangled helplessly at the end of my arm. He’d made the mistake of trying his old hand-crushing handshake routine for the last time, and now he would regret it.

What Weathers didn’t realize was that I’d signed up as a NASA test subject for experimental android technology, and I was about to get my revenge.

“Would you like a sausage sandwich or some barbecued ribs?” Kell said.

Considering the situation, it seemed like a funny thing for him to say.

“Rafe?” Kell said again. “Sausage sanga? Drink?”

I suddenly blinked and saw Mom looking at me strangely. I had fallen asleep on a lounge chair on the Coogans’ pool deck, right in the middle of the party.

“What?” I said.

“You were miles away,” Mom said. She put her hand across my forehead in the way that moms do.

“I wish I were miles away,” I mumbled.

“Play nice,” Mom said. “For me?”

I sighed and nodded.

Mom was right. She was enjoying her trip to Australia, and I didn’t want to spoil things for her, even if she did have a blind spot when it came to tan Australian geologists. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and I was about to dig into a plate of ribs. What did I have to complain about?

Especially since I was meeting Ellie and the rest of the Outsiders at the movies later. With that to look forward to, I could manage the next few hours.

Although, as Mom wandered over to Kell Weathers at the grill, I felt the fingers of my right hand twitch. A robotic steel claw could definitely come in handy.