We don't know if we're ever coming back here. We should make a rough preliminary map tonight, and if we return then we can make a better map.

Reginald agreed with the Other Voice. This was good, too, because he'd need the Other Voice's assistance in this new and unexpected strange place with the noise and the people and the noise. If the Other Voice gave all its attention to mapping, Reg would have to navigate this unexpected noisy place by himself.

So many people created a great deal of noise. Reginald needed to turn his people sense off to block them out because there were so many, so many, but then he'd have a more difficult time tracking Zephyr. Zephyr's heart raced nervous with that distinctive hesitate and push, hesitate and push but if Reg turned off his people sense, he'd be less sensitive to Zephyr's distinctive heartbeat. He tried to touch Zephyr but Zephyr refused to maintain constant touch. That was not helpful. Reginald began to worry that he might get lost.

Sense of sight, the Other Voice suggested.

Reginald turned off his people sense and his rhythmic hearing sense (the combined roars of so many people and so much electricity ended sharply) and diverted his attentions to visual input. First he saw the back of Zephyr. Zephyr turned around and he saw the front of Zephyr and Zephyr spoke. He saw... he saw... him. That man. The man in the workroom.

Marsh. That man's name was Marsh.

He saw a hallway of dark brown paneling and drywall painted white. He saw spots that required spackling and three open doors that opened into rooms. He looked ahead into the rooms. One room was large and had so many people in it. One room was closed so he could not see into it. One room was narrow and had no people in it but it had furniture in it. It had a tall shelving unit with one shelf attached improperly and it had a chair that tilted lopsided broken. Broken.

Reg chose that room.

He was touched by people on his way there, bumped and pushed and spoken to, and when he reached the room away from the people, he was touched again by a hand on his arm. The hand felt like Zephyr's, and when the person spoke, the voice sounded like Zephyr's.

Reg was glad of that. Zephyr would be helpful. "I will fix this," Reg informed Zephyr.

Zephyr's hand looped around Reg's arm and pulled, and Zephyr's heartbeat increased. Zephyr's hand pulled. Reg looked with his eyes at the shelving unit and the lopsided chair and thought perhaps Zephyr had failed to understand.

"I will fix this," he repeated.

Zephyr spoke again and Reg remembered to listen. Zephyr said, "...know you can fix it, but you're not going to. This stuff isn't ours. We need to go sit down now. Come on." Zephyr's hand pulled his arm again.

"I will fix this," Reg repeated. He thought Zephyr was having difficulty understanding, but Zephyr had that difficulty sometimes. Reg didn't mind; he had patience.

Zephyr said, "No! Reg, you can't fix it. It belongs to someone else, and they have to fix it themselves. We have to go sit in the other room. Come on, before somebody catches us in here."

Zephyr's hand pulled at Reg's arm again, and Zephyr's heart beat so nervously rapidly that Reg finally acquiesced. Reg didn't mind; he was patient.

Zephyr led Reg out into the hall and into the large room where some people stood and some people sat, led him well around those people so none could bump and push them, and for that Reg was grateful. The people were noisy so Reg turned off his arrhythmic hearing. Zephyr led him to a table and showed him a chair to sit in and he sat in it. Zephyr sat in another chair very close to him but not quite touching. Reg remedied that by shifting the remaining two inches closer to Zephyr so he and Zephyr were touching. Zephyr spoke and Reg became aware of other people near the table. He looked at them with his eyes. He thought one looked like the man in the workroom... Marsh... and there were other people too. One was a large young man. One was a woman. One other was a woman.

Zephyr moved around in his chair and spoke a great deal and touched and untouched Reg as he moved. A styrofoam cup full of coffee was placed on the table in front of Reg. He looked at it with his eyes and turned on his sense of smell so he could smell it too. Then he adjusted its plastic cover and drank several sips. The noise level increased so he shut off both senses of hearing completely and most of his sense of sight as well and maintained smell and taste so he would enjoy his coffee.

The maps he had made of the broken chair and the broken shelving unit were rudimentary, but the Other Voice pulled them up and he examined them. The problems, he determined even with such incomplete information, would be simple to fix. Reg went over his repair plan fourteen times, alternating between it and sipping his coffee. When his coffee was gone, he stood up and looked around him with his eyes. The Other Voice used its rough map to navigate him into the narrow room with the shelving unit and the chair.

With the second look and the plan already in place, Reg quickly determined the solutions. He decided to start with the shelving unit - it only needed a new bracket. He became aware that Zephyr was with him and was grateful. Zephyr would be helpful. First he needed the tools.

"I need the tools," Reg conveyed to Zephyr. The toolbox was in the Buick, so Reg told this to Zephyr. "The tools are in the Buick. I need the tools."

Zephyr spoke. There was a great deal of noise, but Reginald determined that much of it was rhythmic. So he turned on arrhythmic hearing and turned off rhythmic hearing, although it was more difficult than doing the opposite, so he could hear Zephyr's words.

Zephyr said, "...catch us back here! Reg, we need to go back in the other room. Please."

Reginald decided that this was a problem. Zephyr was being uncooperative. But that was all right, because he could get the tools and fix the shelving unit and the chair by himself. He located the keys to the Buick in his pocket and located the Buick in the parking lot outside. He located the toolbox, took it and closed the trunk. Then he returned to the narrow room with the shelving unit and the chair. Zephyr tagged along the whole way, speaking frequently, but Reginald didn't mind. Zephyr's heart beat nervously rapidly. Reginald wasn't sure what to do about that. Maybe the solution would come to him after he repaired the shelving unit and the chair.

He knelt down on his knees to get a good glimpse of the underside of the shelf missing its bracket, and to examine the remaining brackets. The missing bracket might still be nearby, but he'd have trouble finding it without thorough maps. Zephyr would help. Zephyr excelled at finding missing items.

"I need the bracket find the bracket," Reginald instructed Zephyr.

Zephyr's heartbeat changed and settled. Zephyr's feet shifted slowly in turn and then they moved slowly around the perimeter of the room. Reg could hear Zephyr's movings and mumblings with his arrhythmic hearing. He decreased his arrhythmic hearing so he could divert his attention to the task, but the Other Voice kept it open just enough to keep track of Zephyr.

Zephyr spoke. "I can't find it, man. I'm sorry. I found this, but it's not the correct one."

Reginald became aware that Zephyr had an object to give him. He extended his hand and Zephyr gave it to him. It was a bracket, but it was the wrong shape and the screwholes were located in inappropriate places.

Reg had a solution.

He removed his hammer from the toolbox. He needed concrete. Concrete was outside. He located the concrete outside (and his maps improved) and knelt on it and hammered the bracket with rapid precision. Zephyr waited nearby and leaned on a fence and spoke to him. Zephyr's words were mostly about worry and the possibility of people being annoyed. Reginald let Zephyr talk.

He returned inside and Zephyr followed him and he measured the reshaped bracket against the underside of the shelf. The existing brackets held the shelves' weight inefficiently, and this makeshift bracket was even less efficient. This disappointed him, but the only solution that satisfied him was to rebuilt the shelving unit from scratch, and that was impractical. Even this attempt would be a rush job and this disappointed him, but he continued. He located two screws of the appropriate size. He located the tube of epoxy and placed it inside the gun and applied the epoxy to the underside of the shelf with rapid precision. Zephyr sat slowly on the chair; Reginald heard the chair scrape against itself as Zephyr eased his weight onto it and balanced precariously on its surface. Reginald wished Zephyr would lean back four of five degrees; that would gain him more stability and place less stress on the chair.

Reginald lifted the shelf, applied more epoxy against the wooden side board, and placed the makeshift bracket in place with the only two usable screwholes aligned with the screwholes in the wood. Zephyr spoke to him as he worked.

Another person entered the room. Zephyr said to her, "He's fixing things. I asked him to stop, but he wouldn't. I know that! If you want to tell him that, be my guest. I'm not going to force him to stop."

Zephyr and the other person stopped talking to each other, but then they started again. Zephyr said, "Yeah, I like it. You were great. You kicked ass on that song about Van Gogh. Yeah, that one. Yeah, well. No, you sounded great on all of them. That was just the one that stood out in my mind. He's just not into this kind of thing. I warned you on Monday. Music isn't his thing. That's all right. No, I was waiting for the crowds to die down and then Reg came in here before I had a chance. Oh, no, that's okay, I'll eat later. No, I'm fine."

Zephyr shifted on the chair and it scraped against itself. Reginald propped the shelf up and when he was sure it would stay, he pushed the toolbox closer to the chair. Zephyr said, "Am I in your way? Sorry." Zephyr stood up off the chair and Reginald turned it on its side to examine the problem.

Zephyr said, "All right, see you later." The other person left and Zephyr was quiet again. Zephyr lowered slowly and sat on the floor against the wall.

Zephyr said, "Hey, Reg, do you think I'm too unreasonable? Okay, don't answer that. I know I'm unreasonable. I'm just not sure what to do about it. I thought I was doing really well. Maybe... maybe Marsh is the one who's unreasonable. I'm never good enough for him. I can't meet his standards, if I even knew what they were. I thought he wanted us all to be all discreet and professional, and then when I try, he chews me out! I never know what he expects out of me! Know what I mean? You probably do, don't you? Do you have any problems with me, too? Am I failing to meet your expectations? Sometimes I feel like I just can't win. Even when I put my own needs aside and try my damndest to do just like everyone else wants me to, I still can't win. Why don't they all give up on me? No, they keep pushing, keep getting pissed when I screw up, and keep expecting me to get it right when they know I can't. I wish they'd tell me to go to hell and get it over with... put me out of my misery."

Reginald thought about that. He didn't know what other people had done that made Zephyr so upset, but he never did. Zephyr often got upset about other people. But Reginald doubted that it was because Zephyr did anything wrong. Zephyr had difficulty doing certain things, but Reg didn't mind. Zephyr couldn't focus very well, but Reg thought that was because Zephyr's mind was wired inefficiently, and he couldn't fault Zephyr for that. Zephyr had trouble controlling the intensity of his emotions, but Reg thought that was because Zephyr had poorly built filters. Zephyr needed to build better filters, and that took time. Reg was willing to wait.

Zephyr had difficulty maintaining himself. His heartbeat changed so easily, and his body moved so slowly and inefficiently. Reginald didn't mind that. He didn't mind that Zephyr's emotions diverted valuable energy and caused him to move even less efficiently. He didn't mind that when Zephyr became too upset, he retreated into himself. Retreating into oneself wasn't the best defense mechanism, but in time Zephyr would build better filters.

Tell him so, the Other Voice suggested.

Reginald did. He said, "Retreating into one--" His thought-vocal connection was insufficient to express the thought, so he stopped and tried again. And failed again. No, he'd be unable to express the thought unless he focused more attention to the task, and he preferred not to give up on the chair just yet.

He asked the Other Voice to find some words that required less attention. The Other Voice found some. He spoke them to Zephyr.

"You do good, Zephyr."

Zephyr spoke. "I... do? You really think so?"

Reginald thought so.

Zephyr spoke again. "Thanks, man." Zephyr's heart beat calmer and he smiled. Reginald was glad.

He righted the chair and tested it by pushing on it. It held. Reginald was pleased. So was Zephyr.