But before he could finish the thought, a premonition came. He felt a sinking in his heart. The news would come while I'm out here, he thought. Out in this godforsaken patch where nothing is well and all luck is bad. It was time, wasn't it? Overtime.

"Andy," he said.

"Yes!" Andy said, smiling. "Andy, your friend! Back from a goodish wander and at your service. Would you like your horoscope, sai Tian? It is Full Earth. The moon is red, what is called the Huntress Moon in Mid-World that was. A friend will call! Business affairs prosper! You will have two ideas, one good and one bad-"

"The bad one was coming out here to turn this field," Tian said. "Never mind my goddam horoscope, Andy. Why are you here?"

Andy's smile probably could not become troubled-he was a robot, after all, the last one in Calla Bryn Sturgis or for miles and wheels around-but to Tian it seemed to grow troubled, just the same. The robot looked like a young child's stick-figure of an adult, impossibly tall and impossibly thin. His legs and arms were silvery. His head was a stainless-steel barrel with electric eyes. His body, no more than a cylinder, was gold. Stamped in the middle-what would have been a man's chest-was this legend:

NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS, LTD. IN ASSOCIATION WITH LaMERK INDUSTRIES PRESENTS ANDY Design: MESSENGER (Many Other Functions) Serial # DNF-44821-V-63

Why or how this silly thing had survived when all the rest of the robots were gone-gone for generations-Tian neither knew nor cared.