Shannon’s Reviews > Fuzzy Nation > Status Update

"I'm not a good man, Mark," Holloway said. "But I was the right man. And for this, that was enough."

"Get off my planet, you son of a bitch."

Better to be a monkey and not be able to understand what's been taken from you, than be a man and be able to understand all too well—and be helpless to stop it.

"I know what theory of mind is," Holloway said. "You know who else has theory of mind? Monkeys. And some species of squid. Even Carl here tries to figure out what I'm thinking." From the floor, Carl, hearing his name, thumped his tail on the floor a couple of times. "Squids don't make sandwiches," Isabel said. "I doubt there's been a scientific study on that matter," Holloway said. "The bread gets soggy."

Isabel came up to the skimmer as soon as it landed. "We need to talk," she said. "Yeah, we do," Holloway said, exiting the vehicle. "You think you could stop telling people that I let Carl detonate explosives?" "What?" Isabel said. "Stop telling people I let Carl set off explosives," Holloway said. "You do let Carl set off explosives," Isabel said. "Yes, but you don't have to tell people about it."

Baby wrapped her tiny fuzzy arms around Holloway's arm and sighed, piteously and hungrily. Two minutes later the sandwich had been sliced into six equal pieces, and each of the Fuzzys was enjoying its first smoked turkey and Swiss on wheat, chittering in delight with each bite.

Pinto was standing in front of him, eyes imploring. "Nice try," Holloway said. "But you're not the cute one." He picked up the sandwich. Baby got up, walked over next to Pinto, and employed that same look. "Oh, come on," Holloway said. "That's completely not fair." Baby walked over to Holloway and lightly touched his arm, eyes wide and pleading. "Stop that. Your evil mystic cuteness has no effect on me.

Holloway couldn't decide whether he had adopted them or whether it was the other way around. Actually he suspected that the family had adopted Carl, and that he was just sort of a bonus: the best darn butler a little fuzzy ever had.

"You know, Jack, I'm not one for reading too much into things, but even I can see that when you name a hill for your girlfriend, and then you have that hill strip-mined down to rubble, it's not a good sign for the relationship."

"Well, life is like that sometimes," Isabel said. "We learn things too late, and then we don't get to use them."