The phone rang several times before being answered, somewhat sleepily. ‘Hi, is that Elaine?’ Stan asked. ‘No, it’s not. Do you have a wrong nu...mber?’ ‘Oh. Wait, you’re Susan, aren’t you? This is Stan, from last night, I need a quick word with Elaine.’ ‘Oh, OK, Stan, but you seriously want to wait until later. We didn’t get to bed until three, and well, we didn’t sleep right away…’ He heard a giggle. Stan apologised again, rang off, and waited. He put on some music – a little light classical. ” He said. “That reminds me.”He stepped over to me, and pulled a small device from his pocket.“Use this when you get near a gateway.” He said handing it to me.It was about the size and shape of a pair of nail clippers, with a single red button on it.“It’ll permanently shut down the gateway and transmit a computer virus to anything attached to it, to wipe all the data on the gateway.” He explained. “Your timeline is far from using them, especially since you can’t make them without tearing the. I quickly scampered around and jumped in, pulling the door shut just as the first fat drops landed on Sally."Boy, that was close," I said, wondering if she could hear me — or I her — now that I was inside. Turns out that's not a problem at all."Only if you're not expecting it," she replied, shivering not from the cold, but from the pleasure of this mini-cloudburst."What do you mean?" I asked."Oh," she replied. "I guess you wouldn't know. Here the rain arrives when we most need it to wash. I looked at the clock. I had time to get a first batch done and in the freezer for the requisite 4 hours if I was willing to stay up a little late.Step one was pitting the cherries. Somebody somewhere has probably invented a cherry pitting tool, and since I had the laptop in the kitchen with me so I could consult the online recipe without running back and forth to the living room, I was tempted to search for it, jut for grins, but managed to resist the temptation. I fell back on old reliable,.