My Library

(Who they were. They forgot who they were.) BB blanked and closed. No way anything like that could happen. It was vital to very existence. No one could be and do if you—how did Ed put it?—forgot who you were. Yet the percept from Ed was clear. (Now, this outer ring,) Ed was continuing. (They are made of three types. One is the First-Timer, such as your friend. He just started to forget. Then there’s the Old-Timers, who mostly remember after going the route, uh, repeating being human a number of times. These hang around and do what they can to help. They don’t remember quite enough to go home.) BB lighted with a great percept. (You’re an Old-Timer, Ed.) (Yeh. Anyway, you keep a scan for your friend. I’ll run the rest of the rote for you, piece by piece.) BB opened wide, sweeping focus on the stream of living forms. So many of them. Still, should be no problem finding AA. Wonder how Ed happened to get assigned to his job. Why him? (Wasn’t assigned to it. There was a hole where the ED used to be on my time around, so I just jumped into it.) Ed was smooth and warming. (Then there’s this third type, the Last-Timers. They make one more recycle, uh, one more physical life as a human, and then they’re gone.) BB turned. (Where do they go?) Ed rolled. (I dunno. Home, I guess. They never show up back here. And, oh yeh. There’s this other type we call the Seekers. Don’t get many of them, slippery as eels. Unstable, flick in and out.) BB blanked. (As what? Slippery?) (Never mind. Human stuff again.) (Give me a rote and I’ll run it.) (Not worth it. Now, these Seekers, they’re different. Near as I get it, they come poking around here and they still got a physical human body over there, alive and kicking.) (I didn’t have a percept you can do that. I thought everybody came back only after the physical body fell apart, wasn’t operational.) (That’s what I had until I got here as ED. Then I began to spot them.) BB was lighting strongly, (There he is!) Ed was gentle, warm. (Go get him, tiger!) BB blanked. (Tiger?)