For the rest of that first Friday afternoon at the Fenix house, I organized my new room and repeatedly said, ‘This is my room’ to myself, just feeling the words as they sounded. Admittedly, it wasn’t as fun as the twins’ snowball fight sounded outside, but this felt right to me. This room was mine, all mine! Up until today, all I had was my charging cable, my diagnostic tool, and my rock. But now… I’d think it was a dream if I weren’t conscious.

  Then I removed my jacket and took off my boots, and put them away in my closet. As I sat on my bed, I maneuvered myself so that my whole body was lying on it. “Everything in this room is mine. Mine.” The surreality and absurdity of it hit me, and I started giggling to myself. It wasn’t until six PM local time that I calmed down.

  “Dinner’s ready!” Richard called from downstairs while he played a dinner triangle.

  Then, after a few minutes, Erika came upstairs. “Nova, what are you doing?”

  “This bed… this room is great!”

  “And you can enjoy it later, dinners on the table, we’re waiting for you. You can eat, right?” Erika insisted.

  “Well, yes, I can process most organic matter.” I was confused as I sat up. “But it’s not my primary source of energy.”

  “Nova, come to dinner. Now.” I didn’t need to scan Erika to tell that she was adamant. So I obeyed instead of trying to debate with her further.

  “Gotta work on your reaction time,” Jeremiah said as he disengaged a stopwatch. It was almost ten minutes. I nervously gulped, a reflex that Dr. Samson programmed specifically to indicate I was nervous. Why was he timing me? “Okay, easy girl. It’s just a joke. But seriously, next time mom calls for dinner, you come running. Nobody likes waiting to eat.”

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  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that my presence was required.” I took an empty chair by the table. “What is for dinner?”

  “Winterhearth stew, a classic,” Richard said as he served the stew with a ladle into the large stone bowls in front of us. In the center of the table was a large plate covered with bread.

  “But before we eat, we say grace,” Erika said, the Fenix’s joined hands under the table, and she took my hand. “Lord, in the quiet of winter, we give thanks. May the fire stay bright, may the forest stay kind, and may we never forget that no one eats alone on Winterhearth. Bless this meal, and bless this home. Amen”

  “Now it’s pretty straightforward to eat Winterhearth stew,” Lily said as everyone else ate with the pieces of bread.

  “With all due respect, it doesn’t look that complicated.” The family burst out laughing. Why, I have no idea. I was stating the obvious.

  But I took a piece of bread, crusty along the edges yet soft within, and soaked it in my bowl. Then I bit into it. It was… overwhelmingly good. Earthy, sweet, and warm.

  “Yeah, I felt about the same the first time I had Dad’s stew. Best on the planet, I say.” Jeremiah said, staring, eyes wide as I savored the flavors, the texture. What he couldn’t have known is that my systems were flagging non-essential sensory data. I closed those notifications and got back to eating.

  The stew could blow the best food that money could buy on Crucible out of the water. “Richard… this is the best food I’ve ever had.” Admittedly, my bar was set low by flavorless protein paste. But the truth is the truth.

  Then, after dinner, we had a movie night. Apparently, it’s a family tradition to have these on Sunday nights. It’s Friday, but after a long week of waiting for me, they decided it’d be nice to unwind early. I think the movie was animated, but I was more focused on the popcorn. It was salty, buttery, and even a little sweet.

  I wish I had something like this for Christmas with Dr. Samson. But his company made up for the lack of good food.

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