“I,” Lenga-chan said after some consideration, “have spontaneously, indepentently decided to learn to skate.”

“Atta-girl!” Jake said. “Now—”

“The key word, Jake, is indepently.” She awkwardly stepped over to a nearby handrail and started to half-roll, half-walk with it as a guide. It was protecting a garden in the park and ended about two hundred feet ahead.

“Well,” the boy muttered, still where the girl had left him, “at least she remembers my name.”