He was asking why the machine had stopped.

And the answer, which I did not yet say aloud, was simple: because I was the machine, and I had decided to walk out of the factory.\n\nA few minutes later Zachary burst into the bedroom with his dress shirt buttoned crooked all the way up.

“Why didn’t you wake us?”

Tristan crowded in behind him, scowling.

“I’m going to be so late because of you!”

Zachary took in the unmade room, the two of us still in bed.