Both of those tasks belonged to the Other Voice. Although it looked and acted like a seven-year-old, it was the Reg in charge of the vocabulary. And it made all of the vocabulary-related decisions. The primary Reg (at least he thought of himself as primary) had enough responsibility implementing those decisions.

Can we group the words according to what they're for, instead of what letter they start with? the Other Voice suggested. It was skipping in circles in Reg's consciousness as it thought. Reg watched its small red sneakers bob up and down and around.

The program Reg had stolen his code from, a spellcheck/thesaurus program written over a decade ago, had grouped words together. Reg had left most of the grouping codes out and only included a few.

Nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs and interjections, the Other Voice sang to itself.

Reg did a little experimenting. The Boss-man was working near him so he decided to speak to the Boss-man. Boss-man's name was Marsh, which was also a word, and choosing that word on the speech board would be like choosing Marsh's name. He took the stylus and touched the menu, touched the M, and scrolled down to the word 'Marsh'. Then he returned to the menu, touched the list of pre-programmed phrases, chose one, and touched the black square on the lower right corner of the screen.

"Marsh how are you?" the speech board said. Reg was pleased.

Marsh moved a little bit closer. His heartbeat increased a bit, Reg noticed. Marsh said, "Reg? I'm fine, Reg. How are you?"

Reg touched the screen several times until he brought up a list of adjectives. He perused the first few and found a couple that appealed to him and to the Other Voice. Then he touched the black square. The speech board said, "Accepting active adaptable agreeable."

Marsh looked at him quietly, but Reg was pleased.

Marsh spoke. "Are you choosing those at random?"

Reg didn't think he was choosing words at random. He had read the words first and then chosen a few on purpose. Admittedly, he hadn't even read below the A's, but he hadn't wanted to take too much time answering. "Random," he wondered to Marsh.

Marsh pulled a chair closer until it was directly next to Reg. Then he sat in it. He touched Reg's arm lightly with his fingertips, and Reg was grateful for that, because it made it so much easier for Reg to be aware of Marsh.

Marsh spoke. "You have the right idea, but you're still not quite making sense. May I help?"

Reg let Marsh help.

****

Connor was already having a really bad day. It wasn't that work was difficult or that Zephyr was grouchier than usual or even that anyone was annoyed at him. The only thing wrong was that he couldn't stop thinking about Lauralynn. But that was bad enough.

He hadn't transcribed his notes yet because he'd been dwelling on the nasty things Lauralynn said to him two nights ago. He hadn't revised the set of CADD files because he'd been worrying over whether Lauralynn was really going to start trying to hurt herself. He did gas up the van, but he was so busy dreading the phone call he promised Lauralynn tonight that he'd forgotten the receipt.

This was all bad. He had to get Lauralynn out of his mind and do some work before Zephyr caught him being a useless lump. So when Zephyr asked him to bring a folder and a glass of water downstairs to give to Reg, he figured it was a start. Maybe doing gofer-level tasks would help get him on track.

He stepped out of the elevator and saw Reg and Mr. Dykstra sitting together. Reg had something in his lap and the two men appeared to be deep in concentration over it. Curious, Connor approached.

"Hey, What's--"

Mr. Dykstra shushed him. "Watch this," he whispered.

Connor waited and watched. Looking over Reg's shoulder, he saw now that the object was the speech board he had helped work on. It was for a 17-year-old client who had lost use of his voice and most of his body in some accident. Reg seemed to be testing it, which in itself wasn't odd. He wondered what he was supposed to be watching for.

Reg touched the screen repeatedly with the stylus. When he was done, the speech board said in a thin, metallic voice, "Treacherous snobby unscrupulous underhanded rotten selfish."

Mr. Dykstra grinned and said, "Wow, very good."

"What was that?" Connor asked.

Mr. Dykstra threw Connor a slightly embarrassed glance. "Reg is expressing the way he feels about things."

"That one wasn't about me, was it?"

"Of course not! Those were his thoughts on my... ex-wife."

Connor's jaw dropped open. "You're teaching him to insult your ex-wife?!" He immediately regretted saying it. The boss could insult anyone he liked. Zephyr wasn't at all shy about dissing people behind their backs... mostly insurance reps and his mother, as well as just about any large group or category of people.

Mr. Dykstra blushed. "I... he did it on his own. I didn't tell him how to feel, just how to say it. Come around here and ask him a question. Ask him how he feels about anything."

Connor put the glass of water on the edge of the band saw counter and walked around it so he was in front of Reg and Mr. Dykstra. "Hmm. Okay. Reg, how do you feel about Zephyr?"

Mr. Dykstra gave him a suspicious look and he shrugged. He knew why he had asked that question, but it was difficult to explain. However, Reg ignored him.

Mr. Dykstra touched Reg's arm. "Do you remember him? Connor. Do you remember Connor?"

Reg seemed confused for a moment. Then he reached his right hand out in Connor's direction. Connor extended his own right hand and let Reg take it. Reg held it for two seconds, and then let go and sat back in his chair. He touched the screen with the stylus. "Yes," the speech board said.

Connor waited for Reg to say more, but he didn't. "Should I ask my question again?" Connor wondered to Mr. Dykstra.

"Maybe you phrased it badly," Mr. Dykstra suggested. "It probably isn't a good idea to ask about Zeph anyway without him knowing. If he finds out, he won't be happy."

"No," Connor agreed. He tried to think of somebody else to ask about. He settled on himself, but before he could speak, Reg went back to work on the speech board. Connor watched as his left hand moved across the screen, touching and scrolling with the stylus. It took a long time, and Connor couldn't help fidgeting while he waited.

When Reg finished, the board said, "Unpredictable thoughtful sympathetic stormy smart selfless scared."

Connor and Marsh looked at each other in amazement. Was Reg describing Zephyr? It seemed to be the obvious conclusion. Connor wondered what Mr. Dykstra was thinking. The part that puzzled him the most was the last one... scared. He could see why Reg would choose the rest of the adjectives to describe Zephyr, as unlikely as some of them sounded. He figured Reg would have a unique perspective. He wondered what else that perspective had to say.

"We ought to get back to work," Mr. Dykstra said uncomfortably. He turned to Reg and told him, "You did good. I'll help you practice later if you want."

"Give him the glass of water," Connor suggested.

Mr. Dykstra stood up, grabbed the glass, and gave it to Reg. When Reg finished it, Mr. Dykstra put the empty glass aside and sat down again. He looked at Connor, and Connor shrugged at him. He hoped he'd be invited to witness the next session, but was afraid to say so.

"Reg," Mr. Dykstra said, flashing a conspiratorial grin at Connor, "What do you think of Connor?"

Connor grinned back and waited to see what Reg would come up with.

****

Reg was getting annoyed. He had just gotten the speech board to say, "Five sixteen inch low screw supply," when what he had intended to say was, "The 5/16 inch screw supply is low." The word lists were convenient, but he had thus far found it impossible to get correct grammar out of the machine.

You have to go to the I list and choose 'is' when you want to use it, the Other Voice pointed out.

But that meant he had to plot the entire sentence out in his mind before he even started.

That's how the program works, the Other Voice said. We programmed it like that. We should probably just learn how to do it right.

Subject is adjective... if Reg could keep that in mind, it would make a good starting point. He wondered if learning verbal communication had taken this much effort.

The Other Voice seemed to remember that it did.