Emily and Lona looked from the ball to each other, and back to the ball again.

“No, no, that can’t be right,” Lona said. “The ball’s broken. You didn’t ask it a number question.”

“But,” Emily said, staring blankly at the ball. “It might be a number question. I mean, yes might stand for one, and no for zero. My brother says that’s how computers work.”

Lona bit her lip, then said, “Well, the ball isn’t a computer, not really. And besides. You didn’t really ask it a question. You said ‘am I going to be in a coma or something’. It could be ‘yes’ for the ‘or something’.”

Emily bobbed her head. “Yeah, I suppose. Maybe we should ask it another question.” She handed the ball to Lona. “You go.”

Lona tried to think of something, but all she wanted to ask was whether Emily was going to really die. “Um, how about, how many kids am I going to have?”

The answer cube bobbed up and down in the red mass and revealed it’s answer.

“Irrelevant.”