"That was quite a shindig they threw today, wasn't it?" Ed remarked, as later Mary at last smuggled next to him in their bed.
"It has been wonderful to live here with our friends," Mary said. "I have no regrets."
"Ann was oddly quiet though, wasn't she?" Ed noted. "Withdrawn, even. And she kept looking at us funny. She hardly said anything at all after giving her unusually brief and vague UN report. Usually she is bubbling over with yummy UN news details. Something is troubling her for sure. Did she tell you what it might be when you spoke with her earlier?"
"Somewhat. She has some personal issues to work out that we talked about woman-to-woman. But she has a good head on her shoulders; she'll work them out. Let's get some sleep now, Chief Ed. Tomorrow will be a very long day. Twenty seven hours when you figure in the time shift between here and California."
Personal issues? Ann had personal issues that were troubling her? Ed would have talked with Mary about that topic some more but her low level of implant-detected activity indicated that she was already asleep. The entire day had been befuddling but he wasn't going to lose sleep over it. If he lost sleep whenever he was befuddled he'd never get any sleep at all.