The wait staff came to take our dessert orders. Cindy Lou ordered the tira misu, as she always did. I passed on dessert. I guess being a “tummy buddy” means you don’t have to worry about your weight.

As she started in, I asked something I’d been wondering about for a while. “I’ve got to know—is Dr. Voor serious with the whole ‘half the world turning into “tummy buddies” for the other half’ thing?”

“He seems to be pretty fixated on the idea, doesn’t he?” she admitted between forkfuls.

I shook my head. “As much fuss as there’s been over genetically-modified crops, cloning, stem cell research, and so on, I kinda doubt the whole ‘genetically modifying humans to turn into yogurt’ thing is going to go over too well.”

Cindy Lou nodded. “Yeah, I know. But you just can’t argue with a dream. And I don’t know that I really care what the world thinks. I know it’s right for me.”

“I can’t argue with that.” I shrugged. “Well, I guess I can’t be too hard on him. Everybody’s got to have a hobby.”