2004-04-19 - 3:04 p.m.

He punched the mad button furiously, sending shocks through the industrial-strength control panel. A blaring klaxon beep sprang from the overheads and red light pulsed and flashed across the room.

An alert went out on the public network to all signed-in parties of the home awareness service. His ID went out with the alert, basically routing it straight to people who would care about his circumstances.

Abruptly shattering his attention with her appearance, Samantha's holo appeared across the kitchen from him.

"Davon.. hi, what's going on?" She flickered for a moment then stepped forward as she caught his return signal. "Are you feeling ok?" She said, her eyes searching his tired face, tracing the dark spots under his eyes. He was pretty red about the ears, too.

"Sam.. jesus it's good to see you. I.. I'm. just.. you know.. *phew* it's one of those days. I can just see where it's going, you know..?"

Samantha smiled, placing her hand on his forearm, "don't worry, Dev.. just take a breath. It's ok." She paused, watching the pressure drain from his face. The moment of silence stretched, accepted by both as they felt themselves orient together in a harmonious greeting.

He spoke more easily now, "yeah, I was starting to see red there" he began, still focusing on his immediate feelings, then realizing this, switched to "it started when I woke up, really. The cat jumped on my crotch again and really got me this time." he grimaced. "Of course I jumped and threw the thing away but then felt bad about it right away. He hasn't forgiven me all day."

Davon, realizing the sensation of building anger had passed, decided he wanted to sit down. "Do you want to sit?" he asked, offering a chair across the table with a gesture.

"Sure, I don't have anywhere to be, let's catch up for a bit."

He sat, pondered, looked her in the eye, "I'm really glad you decided to drop by."

"Only in holo."

"You got here right away, that was what snapped me out of it."

"I haven't seen you in a while and I was at my computer when the alert went out. Do you want me to drop by for a visit?"

His brow furrowed slightly before he replied "I still have a lot of things to get done. I'd love to visit, really. Can we try for later this week?"

"Sure, that'd be good", she ventured.

Now the situation had changed, gotten off track. Davon's gaze rested on the table as he mentally recalled the list of things he was responsible for since he had gotten afraid of forgetting something. She had been in the middle of a card game.

Samantha began, gently "So you're just having a rough day then? What happened, though, with the alert?"

"Oh, me and Hesp were having a fight, you know. He's been really whiny the last few days. I don't know, maybe he's coming down with something or he's got a tooth bothering him. Normally I'd be fine with it, but with all the stuff that's been hapenning, you know."

She pressed his hand with hers momentarily, "I hear you, I just keep reading the books and hoping for the best", she smiled.

"No, it's worse than that", he continued, lowering his voice. "Alex has been doing this thing lately, where he spits on his hand and smears it on my cheek when I'm not expecting it. We've had a really hard time agreeing about whether that's funny or not. I know he's doing it to get back at me for making him do chores and homework."

He pondered a moment, seeing her nod, searching, "I think what's wrong is that I'm not doing things in a way that shows him", he slowed, "that.. hmm.. the way I'm doing things leads him to think that he has to do these things because I tell him to, not because they need to be done anyway, and I'm just pointing it out, you know what I mean?", he finished in a rush.

Sam leaned closer and whispered secretively, "when you've figured out how to do that, let me know" she smiled, leaning back and chuckling.

"So.. yeah, thanks for dropping in. But yeah, I have to get back and you've probably got a dozen ims from whatsisname there."

"No, not today", she breathed dramatically. But I was in the middle of a hot game of cards.

"Not solitaire again", he groaned.

"Only the best", she smirked. Just like you and your grand theft nonesense driving around blowing stuff up and running from the cops. Solitaire, buddy." She stuck her tongue out at him, crossing her eyes.

"Yeah... yeah, you're right.", he conceded. Smiled some more, "Thanks for holoing in here"

"Any time", she smiled. "I'll see you, ok?" She asserted, standing up and beginning to waver.

"Take it easy", he offered, grinning.

The dishes miraculously appeared as her holo evaporated.

"Nice. Yeah, that's what I gotta do." Davon muttered to himself, heading for the voluminous, teetering pile.

A smiled touched his lips. Nothing like an unexpected visit from a friend.

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