Following an extremely restless night, Monica tried to buckle down to work. She was totally unnerved that Yuke had driven past her flat in the dead of night and even had the cheek to grin at her. As soon as she had showered and breakfasted she tried to call Professor Fossett, but his line was busy each time she tried, probably because end of term papers were coming up for assessment. To quiet her mind, she spent three hours mapping out an experiment she figured would either replicate the hypothesis the Princeton guys had been working on or refute it. She emailed it to Vishnu, her senior research student, and tried to put Yuke out of her mind. 

Watching some clips of early Jay holoshows on the Spirit Channel helped, while finishing off the previous night's pizza and Coke. The clips included a session where Jay talked about time. She found it amusing that Jay didn't have much time for time, other than the now. 

"The now is so rich," he told his audience. "Feel the bigness of it. It's the meeting place of all that we are and all that we have been - up to now." 

"Where else can we be but now?" he said to another audience. "It's all we have, when you think about it." 

She found herself nodding in agreement. 

"Now is not part of space and time," he went on. "Space and time are things we made up when we forgot we were God's Son. God our Father doesn't know them at all. He doesn't know it's seven-thirty pm on Tuesday, April 4th, He only knows it's now, always. He doesn't know we're in the Bung Karna Stadium in Jakarta. He only knows we're everywhere, because we are His Son." 

In another clip he told people not to bother about time at all, "except as a way to keep your personal appointments with each other. That's all it's good for - to stop you turning up at seven when you said you'd be there at four. To keep you on the clock, so you don't upset your friends and family." 

I should keep myself on the clock with Naz. I wonder if she's up for an afternoon out with me? 

She sent a text and Nazreen told her she had some time to kill between two and seven. 

'That's prfect,' she replied. 'I'll pick U up @ yr workplce @ 2 & we'll go sumwhere nice.' 

Nazreen was working a split shift. Her job involved caring for disturbed teens in a hostel in Southwark run by a charity. 

When Monica reached the place where Nazreen worked, she let the car glide up the driveway, lower itself to ground level and park. There were a few wheeled cars in the driveway. She got out and walked to the front door. The place where she parked was surrounded by trees that dappled light onto the forecourt. They nestled round the building protectively, although with a grim brick façade and cement wings on each side it didn't look in need of protecting. 

It had recently rained and looked like it would rain again. The smell of wet grass filled her nostrils as she waited for the doorbell to be answered. 

The door was opened by the Officer in Charge who was a chromer in a blue cardigan, blue dress and shoes, and had met Monica before. 

"You're Monica, Nazreen's friend, aren't you? Come in." 

Monica trailed along behind the woman as they turned down a long corridor to the staff room. Some of the residents were about, looking like thoroughly normal teens in tee shirts and flimsy cotton pants. They gave Monica a surly, wary look and were greeted by the Officer in Charge with perfunctory nods. She left Monica in the staff room with Nazreen, who was standing at a kitchenette counter rinsing out a plastic cup. 

"Hi, Mon. Fancy a cuppa tea?" 

"Sure, why not. Any idea where we're going?" 

She always let Nazreen decide where they were going on one of their jaunts. She invariably chose somewhere quirky, but often interesting. 

"In spite of the weather, let's go to Kew Gardens," she said. "It won't take us long at this time of day." 

Nazreen made two cups of tea with squashed tea bags out of a tin and they sat at the slightly battered coffee table, planning their afternoon. 

The Royal Botanical Gardens were awash with visitors tramping about in the rain. They hurried down tree-lined paths and took shelter in one or other of the glass houses. Nazreen and Monica began their tour at the Temperate House, which was made of glass in a steel frame and looked like an indoor arboretum. The trees were many and various, of all sizes and forms, and all came from temperate zones. Nazreen was more interested in exotic plants, like orchids, than lemon, lime and avocado trees, none of which were bearing fruit, so they strolled on to the Palm House.  

The Palm House was closed to visitors, owing to an insect spraying program, so the two girls decided to cut short their visit to Kew. The cold, ragged clouds were spilling out more rain and the ground under their feet was muddy. Monica was beginning to feel a heavy sense of foreboding. She was pleased that before driving to Nazreen's hostel, she had fired off an email to Fossett saying she'd like to see him tomorrow to discuss the problem of Yuke and had received a positive reply. 

They followed the crush of people heading for the Main Gate and the Orangery, where teas and snacks were to be had, and as the crowds surged toward the park exit, Monica suddenly felt panicky. What if, after telling Fossett about Yuke, he thought she was making a fuss about nothing - what would she do then? 

"There's a terrific amount of people here, isn't there?" Nazreen said. "Perhaps we should hold hands so that we don't get separated." 

Monica nodded, and held Nazreen's hand in the long, snakey line of people moving slowly along. About two hundred meters from the Main Gate she became aware of a figure darting between some trees, moving in synch with the crowd. She looked toward it and glimpsed a man in green rain gear. He was taking pictures with his holo in front of his face, so she couldn't see it. People were getting in the way and when she looked again, she saw it was Yuke. 

Catching sight of her looking at him, he smiled and took another picture. 

She turned to Nazreen. "It's him, he's taking pictures of us." 

Nazreen, surprised by her startled expression, turned to see who it was. For a few seconds, they both looked at Yuke, who didn't stop shooting holographs. 

"Is that the boy who's been stalking you?" Nazreen said. 

"Oh God, let's get out of here," Monica said. "We can have tea and cakes somewhere else." 

They ate at a little teashop where Nazreen asked Monica questions about Yuke. As for how he knew Monica was at Kew, she assumed he'd been following her since she left her flat. On the ride back to her friend's workplace, she said nothing. When they arrived at the hostel, Nazreen put her hand on Monica's and urged her to come in. 

"It won't do any harm to talk," she said. 

"I'm sorry, Naz, I'm too upset. I never want to see that bastard again."