I come out of the house to head off to work, and Ed and Diane from next door are outside, too, with Addison and Ruby. Ed's hustling Ruby towards the car and Addision is perched happily in his mother's arms, drooling.

"Hi!" Ruby says to me.

"Hi!" I say. "How are you?"

"Good!" she says. Ruby talks in excited exclamations a lot.

"You are looking at one very late little girl," Ed says and opens the car door for her.

"'Repent, Harlequin!' said the Tick-Tock Man!" I say, in one of those moments when my Free-Association Filter fails and lets an actual thought out of my mouth.

And all four of them stop for a moment and turn to stare at me.

I need to rememeber that "I have no mouth and I must scream" makes a lousy cheer for the high school's football games, too.