The Expert System's Brother (Expert System, #1)

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

That optimism that someone else will come and mend all ills, that your Ma or the Lawgiver or someone will just turn up, and everything will be well, that’s the essence of being a kid.

And yet, if I never asked, I could believe in some notional future cure that would come as soon as I did ask. It was fear of certainty that held me back.

The ghost wouldn’t let her. It hated me. No—worse even than that. Hate was a human thing, something you could at least spit in the face of.